Do you have an ear for music? Do you think you often share the same feeling as a composer? When they empathise with a stream babbling or perhaps the long grass of a steppe stretching in the wind, maybe you feel the very same pithy vibe.

Needless to say, not everyone, of course, is a musical connoisseur. So if you’re one of those people yet to find the melodic soul within you, try racing along Hue’s Perfume River and listen to the melancholy rhymes of Ca Hue spreading out across miles of smooth water.

May you sigh with bliss and, if you’ve never realised it before, enlighten yourself with the affirmation that music really can be an oasis from this jumbled life.

I love Hue. Hue’s cultural heritage with its mausoleums, palaces, tombs, pagodas, mounts and rivers is a great pride of the nation. But any studies on Hue’s values must also include its people. To me Ca Hue is a reflection of their very essence, their core spirit.

Ca Hue, a distinct form of classical chamber music, is found only in Hue. It possesses a set of melodic principles and thus only comes into full blossom when sung with the distinguished, amiable accent of Hue locals, sweet with its own timbre.

The four musical instruments used for accompaniment can include a 36-chord zither, a Chinese four-chord lute, a two-chord fiddle and a two-chord guitar (tranh, ti, nhi and nguyet respectively).

Ca Hue’s origins date to the 18^th century when it became regarded as a "learned" music performed at the imperial court for the entertainment of the mandarin elite.

In the concept of kings, mandarins and Confucians of the time, music was not simply an entertainment but an education, a patterning of morality and a doorway to the spirits. Among their four prime interests, music was listed first, followed by chess, poetry and painting.

Ca Hue saw its renaissance in the twentieth century when it again became one of the most refined and courteous arts. Imbued with a vague melancholy and humanity it is talked of as a reflection of the human soul. It is, many say, an expression of innermost feelings through melodies. Its rhymes and melodies are very heart-touching, slow, deep and intimate.

When its music and singing voices are raised, there appears to be a concerto of emotion, a harmony of feelings among musical players, singers and listeners. All witnesses sharing the experience may for fleeting or friends.

Ca Hue reminds me of an old tale in China. Long ago, there was a good musician called Ba Nha. He never played music for anyone except Trung Tu Ky, his bosom-friend. For both, music was and exchange of confidences. When Ky died, Nha broke his instrument and never played music again.

Those yearning to bring about a reciprocation of feelings, understanding, sympathy and love may turn to Ca Hue. Historical stories recount how some Ca Hue songstresses even became royal concubines of kings or mandarins.

Naturally this revered musical expression was performed at the imperial court. But its most redolent appearances in history perhaps stem from times when kings were swept along the Perfume River, borne in royal boats with a musical ensemble.

Nowadays, Ca Hue is appreciated by people of all walks of life. It is performed in theatres and at festivities.

However, people still say you can only fully appreciate Ca Hue when you hear it on the Perfume River, especially on a quiet night.

The elegant Perfume River, with its walls, palaces, temples, mausoleums, old houses and gardens half hidden in a wonderful natural landscape of river-banks imbued with tranquillity and romance, is said to blow spirit into the music.

The image of Hue girls in the ao dai (traditional long-dressed) and singing Ca Hue songs is a lovely stroke in the picture of Hue’s people.

The ancient capital’s denizens, in harmony with their dwelling place, customarily live meditative lives. They are elegant, gentle and hospitable with their language, customs and habits, many-hued with their blend of the nation’s cultural characteristics.

Today, even though modernity has put new previously unheard of rhythms into Hue and the rest of the country, and the spiritual life of Hue’s people still more or less bears clear characteristics of late feudalism and its religious rites.

The slow, gentle, deep and intimate melodies of Ca Hue are not only a lure for Hue lovers. They are also nurturing the inspiration of many famous contemporary music composers of the nation who were born in, and grew up in Hue such as Trinh Cong Son, Tran Hoan...