Classroom » Multimedia
Vietnamese water puppet show: Instrumental prelude
About this recording
- Creator
- Kristin Post
- Date created
- January 24, 2001
- Duration
- 1:51
- Location
- Hanoi, Vietnam
- File
- MP3
- License
- This recording copyright ©2001. Terms of use
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Learn more
- Search LEARN NC for art, Asia, culture, entertainment, folk, folk arts, Hanoi, heroes, history, instruments, legends, music, performance, puppets, rice, rice paddies, songs, Southeast Asia, theater, tourism, Vietnam, Vietnamese, water, and water puppets.
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Vietnamese water puppetry is a unique folk art that originated a thousand years ago during the the Ly dynasty. Villagers in the Red River delta and other rice-growing regions in Northern Vietnam staged water puppet performances to celebrate the end of the rice harvest, religious festivals, and other important occasions.
Rice, the main staple of the Vietnamese diet, grows in a water paddy. The original water puppet festivals were literally held inside a rice paddy, with a pagoda built on top to hide the puppeteers who stand in the waist-deep water. The water acts as the stage for the puppets, and as a symbolic link to the rice harvest. It also hides the puppet strings and puppeteer movements, improves the musical and vocal acoustics, and provides a shimmering lighting effect.
A water puppet show depicts the daily activities in Vietnamese rural life as well as important historical events and ancient legends. Each water puppet is hand-carved and given five layers of laquer paint to protect the puppets from the water and to add vital colors to the performance.
This instrumental prelude introduces you to the full orchestra of instruments that accompany the dramatic action of the water puppets.
