The song that I chose for this week is “Work Song” by Pham duc Thanh. Duc Thanh was born in Vietnam, where he learned to play a wide variety of instruments as a child, including the Dan Bau-  a monochord zither . As a young adult the musician traveled around the country to compete in musical competitions and graduated top of his class from the Center for Musical Research of Vietnam. Pham duc Thanh has been widely regarded as one of the best Dan Bau players in both traditional and modern music. Today, the Dan Bau player lives in Montreal and tours Canada and America.

I chose to cover this song because while I was looking for Vietnamese music, I saw his works on nearly every single playlist. I found it really fascinating how much of an impact duc Thanh has had on Vietnamese music. He has won an incredible amount of awards and has studied under a variety of artists and brought music from Vietnam across Europe and North America. I was very drawn to this song because it sounds almost hypnotic due to Pham duc Thanh’s methods of note bending. This song felt like a call and response between the Dan Bau and the rest of the instruments. “Work Song” uses layering of the instruments and alterations of speed to create a very beautiful piece.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKDMo8Ety1k