Pham Tuyen: "a chronicler with music", author of the immortal song "Like Uncle on the Day of Great Victory"

Musician Pham Tuyen is known as a talented musician. When mentioning him, people will inevitably remember the title "the chronicler of music", because most of his compositions were born at the time of the country's history.

His songs are also considered a sharp spiritual weapon - cheering and encouraging the fighting spirit of our troops and people. "Like Uncle on the Day of Great Victory" is the most representative song - often played during the country's historical anniversaries.

Musician Pham Tuyen was born on 12/1/1930 in Hanoi, originally from Binh Giang district, Hai Duong province. He came from a rather special family, whose father was scholar Pham Quynh who served as a senior secretary of the Nguyen Dynasty.

Because of this, musician Pham Tuyen has been enveloped in the atmosphere of "family fame" since birth. It was not until the nation's history took a turn that his life began to taste events and ups and downs.

Listening to Uncle Ho's advice when his father died: "Mr. Pham is a man of history, who will be reevaluated by history later. Children and grandchildren are determined to follow the revolution", he was a believer in the Party and soon became a member of the Communist Party of Vietnam in his early twenties.

In a special program of Vietnam Television entitled Homeland reunion season, musician Pham Tuyen shared his feelings about the song "Childhood swallow" as follows: " From the adage A small swallow does not make spring I developed into a song with the message: Life is an endless flow, where one cannot live if one isolates oneself from the arms of the community."

It can be said that Pham Tuyen's perspective on life and artistic activities are the same. He writes and composes any work to serve the country, to serve the people. His sensitivity to the times enabled him to compose songs that captured important events of the country – not dry but rich in musical emotion.

He has repeatedly shared that his work at the Voice of Vietnam, a journalistic environment filled with information every day, has motivated him to take up writing. If the journalist reports with articles, he "reportes" in his own way, easy to remember, easy to remember and easy to get into people's hearts, that is with music.

Musician and music critic Nguyen Thuy Kha once commented on this talented musician: "Musician Pham Tuyen is a person who always cherishes and loves life, a belief that helps him always have sincere and clear emotions to calmly live and practice art in the midst of daily difficulties. He was deeply patriotic, and at the same time very sensitive to the times. He was the people's musician."

" His life was a messy novel with many levels. It can be summarized by two verses of poet Pham Tien Dut: "The bitter daisy forgets its bitter heart / Blooms yellow flowers along the stream for bees to fly". The ability not everyone has of musician Pham Tuyen is to turn the bitterness in his heart into yellow flowers for people to see" - Those are the words of poet Tran Dang Khoa about Pham Tuyen.

During his songwriting life, Pham Tuyen has worked through many important positions such as: Head of Music Editorial Department, Head of Music Troupe of the Voice of Vietnam; Head of Arts Department of Vietnam Television; President of Hanoi Music Association from 1996 to 2015 and Honorary President from 2016 to present. In addition, he was a member of the Standing Committee of the Executive Committee of the Vietnam Musicians Association (from 1963 to 1983).

Experts once commented: "If Tien Quan Song of musician Van Cao is the milestone of the period of winning the revolutionary government (in 1945), the victory of Dien Bien of musician Do Nhuan is the "end" ending 9 years of long resistance against French colonialism (in 1954), the song "As there is Uncle on the day of great victory" of musician Pham Tuyen is a milestone in the war The Great Patriotic War for Independence and Unification (1975)".

It is known that the song was first heard in the early afternoon of April 30, 1975 through the radio system of the Voice of Vietnam. When the lyrics soared, it was also the time when Vietnam declared the official liberation of the South and reunification of the country before the whole world.

It can be said that the song marked a new stage in the nation's history, opening the door to peace, independence and unification of territorial integrity as the lyrics affirmed "firmly": "Thirty years of struggle for integrity / Thirty years of democratic republican resistance has succeeded".

The song "Like Uncle on the Day of Great Victory" not only has special meaning on every occasion when the country celebrates the reunification day (April 30); but in any event to welcome the joy of victory, even in the field of sports, the refrain "Vietnam - Ho Chi Minh" with the red flag with the yellow star and the image of the beloved President Ho Chi Minh appear all over the S-shaped land, becoming the "celebratory brand" of the Vietnamese people.

This song also won musician Pham Tuyen the Third Class Labor Medal - an "unprecedented" thing in the history of revolutionary music in Vietnam.

After 1975, he also has well-known songs such as: Send me sunshine, The canal we dig (poetry Bui Van Dung), The color of the flag I love (poetry Diep Minh Tuyen), City of ten seasons of flowers (poetry Le Binh) ...

He also composed many songs for young people, for the children's generation such as: Advance to the union, The lamp of Mr. Star, March of the Ho Chi Minh Young Pioneers, Sing under the flag of Hanoi, Meet under the sky of Hanoi, Fireworks night, Aunt and mother...

Besides composing music, he has written many articles for magazines, radio and television introducing musical aesthetics, authors and works. In addition, he is also the proponent and director of many national competitions such as the Red Phoenix Singing, the National Television Arts Festival,...

On the occasion of the 77th birth anniversary of musician Pham Tuyen, Hanoi Literature and Arts Union, Office of the Steering Committee to celebrate the 1,000th anniversary of Thang Long - Hanoi, Hanoi Music Association organized the music program "Levels of Time" to honor his musical works.

He was in turn awarded the 1st State Prize for Literature and Arts (in 2001) by the Party and State for 5 works: The Party gave us a spring, Clinging to the sea of the homeland, The Truong Son stick, Plucking the guitar on my American friend, Like Uncle on the day of great victory; The 4th Ho Chi Minh Prize (2012) for Literature and Arts for 5 works: Night Song Stars, From Lotus Village, Night on Cha Lo, Advance to Union Membership, Party gave me bright eyes.

Along with the above two noble awards, Pham Tuyen is also the first musician to be awarded the title of "Elite Capital Citizen" (in 2011) and after him, so far this title has only named 3 other musicians: Hoang Van (in 2012), Phu Quang (in 2014) and Le May (in 2019).

It can be said that with an energetic life and faith with dear Uncle Ho, musician Pham Tuyen has become one of the few most successful music chroniclers in our country.

With a huge "treasure" of valuable works, his name will surely remain forever, forever for generations to come. Pham Tuyen - a musician who has dedicated his life to composing immortal works, reminding and educating his children and grandchildren about the patriotic tradition and heroic history of our nation.