Chau Ky: The author writes music from his own broken love pieces

Although he loves Bolero music, but few people know, Chau Ky - a veteran gold musician takes the "material" composed from his past loves, from those "breakdowns" gives birth to non-existent love songs.

It is rare to find an artist whose artistic activities span as many fields as American musicians. He was born on November 5, 1923 in Hue. Coming from a family where siblings all live with Hue ancient songs.

His father is Chau Huy Ha - a Hue singer, his biological sister is Chau Thi Minh, considered the female star of Central Vietnam. Chau Qi inherited the musical foundations of the Middle Ages. While studying at the Lycée Khai Dinh, Chau Ky studied music with his brother Pière Thieu – a priest who was very good at music theory and composition. He taught Chau Ky the technique of singing, so sometimes we will encounter the ancient music of Central Vietnam through songs such as: Song of the Lyrics, Farewell to the City, Rain Falls (lyrics of Ying Lang), When the golden moon goes to sea, ...

Chau Ky used to teach music at Hue Music School, participated in many art troupes such as Ai Lien troupe, North Vietnamese Luong troupe, he became a singer of French Asia radio, then went to the South to become a playwright and acted in plays with themes such as love and religion that surprised many people about his ability, a man in the Central who wrote plays in the style of Southern literature.

At the age of 14, Chau Ky took to the professional stage as a singer. He went to sing in Chau Thi Minh's troupe - Hong Thu Opera troupe. But mainly Chau Ky follows the singing of artist Ai Lien performing everywhere.

The first song he composed was at the age of 18 when he accompanied Ai Lien delegation from Hanoi to Hue to visit his mother. But at the end of 1940, Hue suffered a huge flood. Unexpectedly, both Chau Ky's mother and relatives died with the rolling water.

Merciful and regretful, both loving her mother and herself, Chau Ky wrote her debut song Return at the age of 19. The song "Return" has resonated in the new music world and left listeners with many emotions.

Not only singing, Chau Ky also acted in plays and wrote plays. One of Chau Ky's popular plays written for the Hong Thu troupe is Love and Religion. However, Chau Ky's career flourished most in lyrical songs. As an ironic fate, every popular song by the musician Chau Ky is associated with the plight of a certain shade of pink.

The song "Tears of Taiwan" is an example. It is known that this song he wrote for the unfortunate girl Doan Thi Sum in Nha Trang who used to love him during his wandering days touring the coastal city.

While in Hue, musician Chau Ky fell in love with Sun Nu Kim Anh, the daughter of a high minister. In order to impress Sun Nu Jin-ying, the romantic Zhou Qi hugged the herd to stand under her window to show off his conquering craft. As soon as she hummed a few songs, Sun Nu Jinying stopped knitting her shirt, looked down and let out a sentence: "Singing without species."

Too disappointed and too humiliated, Chau Ky hugged her broken heart into Saigon to get away from the place. So the rhyme turned, Sun Nu Kim Anh married a French husband and after 1954 drifted alone in Saigon. Musician Chau Ky met the old man again in a torn shirt and only 5 dong in his pocket, barely enough to eat a bowl of porridge.

In the midst of adversity, Sun Nu Kim Ying put her head on the shoulder of musician Chau Qi with short tears in her eyes to ease her rosy cheeks. Thinking of his former ups and downs in the world, musician Chau Ky wrote the song "Tears of Taizang" full of mercy.

Although a little dreamy with the beauty of the lipstick floor melted into smoke, the days of singing in Saigon gave musician Chau Ky a love affair with the illustrious Haiphong-born beauty: singer Mulan. Famous at the same time as Tam Van, Kim Tuoc and Chau Ha, singer Mulan, whose real name is Pham Thi Ivory from the full moon, has been praised for her talent.

Having known each other for only half a year, musician Chau Ky and singer Mulan got married and became a popular duo. Musician Chau Ky brought his wife who is 8 years younger than him to Hue to sing regularly for the ancient capital radio station with a good salary.

Unfortunately, the small room behind Hue Information Ty located at the foot of Trang Tien Bridge could not nurture their happiness.

The conjugal grace only lasted 6 years with singer Mulan, leaving many sharp resonances in the heart of musician Chau Ky. No longer having a partner to duet on stage, musician Chau Ky devoted himself to composing a series of songs to ease bitter feelings such as: Farewell to the city, the lyrics, where is that song, he is gone tonight, looking for each other in memories, the guitar without singing, ...

After many difficulties in the romance, Chau Ky was lucky to find the real "half" of her life, which is Mrs. Kha Thi Dang. He has been with his life for nearly 60 years, since 1956, and travels everywhere with his husband.

Despite her family's opposition, 16-year-old Gia Long school girl Kha Thi Dang was determined to become the wife of musician Chau Ky in 1955. The song "The Old Way I Go" is the song that started the relationship of musician Chau Ky and Mrs. Kha Thi Dang.

Appearing in the program "The Love Storyteller", Ms. Kha Thi Dang is not afraid to talk about the birth of the controversial work for a long time: "The song was composed when we worked at Tan Mai paper factory, Bien Hoa, Dong Nai. Behind the factory is a trail connecting the workers' lunch break and the work area. It was these images that inspired Chau Ky to write the melodies for the song, sending them to me."

His music has been performed by generations of singers from before 1975 to now in Vietnam and overseas. In 2005, together with musicians Quoc Dung and Tung Giang, he was honored by 1 center.

In the same year, Chau Ky's health declined rapidly. He was no longer able to ride his bike to socialize with friends. Unable to resist fate, musician Chau Ky separated from the world at the age of 85, on January 6, 2008.