Recently, Vo Ha Tram's ability to memorize the lyrics of the song "Nhat ky cua me" once again made the audience pay attention to the special composition of musician Nguyen Van Chung.
In the video shared by the musician, the female singer said that she can sing the entire song without looking at the lyrics. Nguyen Van Chung revealed that he has never seen a singer who can memorize this song completely, including Hien Thuc - the female singer who performs the most famous version.
Nguyen Van Chung composed "Mother's Diary" in 2008, stemming from the desire to write a song dedicated to his mother. In 2011, the song was recorded and disseminated through Hien Thuc's voice.
The special feature of "Mother's Diary" lies in its structure as a long story. The song lasts about 8 minutes and 28 seconds, including 6 parts corresponding to 6 stages in a child's journey of maturity: from when he is still in his mother's womb, birth, learning to speak, learning to walk, going to school, growing up, having love and then leaving family.
Each part has its own content and words, instead of repeating a chorus many times like most pop songs. Therefore, the singer not only has to remember a very large amount of lyrics but also has to distinguish each part to maintain the correct order of the story.
Another case is "Foreign" by Phan Manh Quynh. The song was released in 2016 and was inspired by the author himself from stories about young people from his hometown going to work abroad. Phan Manh Quynh once said that this is the song that took the most time in his composing process, taking 4-5 years to complete.
Foreign" also clearly shows Phan Manh Quynh's writing style: telling everyday stories with a thick amount of words, many details and rhyming close to speech.
The male singer is commented on for his way of transforming the quick speaking style, many words and rhymes of his hometown of Nghe An into rhythm and lyrics. This type of writing leaning towards storytelling makes the song easily create the feeling of a story being sung, but also requires the performer to remember the words exactly.
In the program "Giao lộ thời gian - Love in the bay", female singer Phuong Thanh once admitted to having difficulty performing Phan Manh Quynh's compositions for the first time.
The female singer said that Phan Manh Quynh's music is "very difficult to memorize", because line 1 and line 2 often have different melodies, making it take her a whole week to memorize the lyrics.
However, Phuong Thanh believes that Phan Manh Quynh's music has its own quality, once you can memorize it, you yourself feel attracted by the transformation in the melody and lyrics.
Another difficulty that can be seen in Den Vau's compositions is the song "Bringing Money to Mother". The song was released by the male rapper at the end of 2021, after more than 4 years of incubation.
A characteristic in the male rapper's music is his quite approachable and easy-to-listen rap style, using everyday words and not too complicated rhythms. Thanks to that, many of his songs have wide access, even to audiences who do not often listen to rap.
However, being easy to listen to does not mean that it is easy to memorize all the lyrics. "Bringing Money to Mother" has a duration of 6 minutes and 45 seconds, combining Nguyen Thao's singing with Den's thick rap sections.
The lyrics continuously deploy many different ideas and images, from childhood memories, about mother, livelihood stories and the process of growing up. The way of writing many words, many rhymes allows listeners to quickly capture the melody and a few familiar lyrics, but remembering the entire rap part is a challenge.
