Keeping lithophone's echo alive

Four times a week, 15 students from Thien Hung Commune gather at the commune’s multi-purpose sports hall at the General Service Center to learn how to play the lithophone. They are the first students in the commune to study the instrument. Inside the spacious hall, the sound of the lithophone resonates, with some tones deep and majestic, like a gong, and others clear and bright, like a stream flowing through the mountains and forests.

Nguyen Duy Thao instructs students in playing the lithophone.

A passion for the lithophone has taken root and continues to spread among students in this border commune. Nguyen Duy Thao, from Loc Ninh Ward, has devoted himself to teaching the instrument to local children. His greatest wish is for more people to learn and play the lithophone, thereby helping preserve and promote the Loc Hoa lithophone's unique value as a national treasure.

Learning lithophone to preserve soul of heritage

The lithophone class in Thien Hung Commune was established one year ago. Its members are students who also study piano with Nguyen Duy Thao. Alongside his piano classes, Thao teaches the lithophone entirely free of charge.

Thanks to their previous piano lessons, the students already know musical notes and are familiar with rhythm and beat. However, switching to the lithophone remains a considerable challenge because its playing techniques are completely different from those of the piano. In addition, each lithophone set currently costs between VND 35 million and VND 40 million and is bulky and heavy, weighing approximately 150 kilograms. As a result, very few parents can afford to buy a separate set for their children. Even in Thien Hung Commune, the lithophone used for instruction has to be borrowed from the Bu Dop Boarding Secondary School for Ethnic Minorities.

Truong Thi Truc Chi, a sixth-grade student at Thanh Binh Secondary School, said, “I have been learning the lithophone for nearly a year and can already play many songs. I find it more difficult than the piano, but I chose it because I am attracted to its sound. Since I do not have a lithophone set at home to practice on, I usually use a lithophone mallet to strike any object that produces sound so I can become familiar with the beat and rhythm. I practice this way for 30 minutes every day, and I attend lessons at the commune’s multi-purpose sports hall four times a week.”

Like Truc Chi, Ngo Phuoc Dang Khoa, a fifth-grade student at Thanh Binh A Primary School, found the lithophone fascinating and decided to learn it. After one year of practice, Dang Khoa can perform many musical pieces and has appeared in several cultural performances and local political events.

Thao said that he previously knew only how to play the piano. In 2018, he attended a three-day training course on the lithophone as part of a series of events held in preparation for the ceremony recognizing the Loc Hoa lithophone as a national treasure. As a music teacher, he became deeply interested in the traditional instrument and independently explored additional methods and techniques so that he could not only play it but also teach it to students. Before opening the class in Thien Hung Commune, Thao had taught numerous lithophone classes in the former Loc Ninh District. He currently has nearly 50 students learning the instrument, all of whom he teaches entirely free of charge.

Along with the Dong Son bronze drums, the lithophone has been recognized by UNESCO as one of Vietnam's most ancient musical instruments. Dong Nai City is home to two national treasures related to lithophones: the Binh Da lithophone collection and the Loc Hoa lithophone set.

Promoting value of national treasure

In October 1996, Bui Huu Trieu, a resident of Hamlet 8, Loc Hoa Commune, Loc Ninh District, Binh Phuoc Province at the time (now Loc Thanh Commune, Dong Nai City), discovered two lithophone sets in his garden, one comprising 12 stone bars and the other 14. According to experts, the two sets are more than 3,000 years old. On December 25, 2017, the Government issued Decision No. 2089/TTg recognizing the Loc Hoa lithophone as a national treasure. In August 2018, the former People's Committee of Binh Phuoc Province held a ceremony to announce the recognition of the Loc Hoa lithophone as a national treasure. Since then, numerous activities have been carried out to promote and fully realize the value of the national treasure.

Notably, in 2023, Le Truong Son, then Member of the Binh Phuoc Provincial Party Committee's Standing Board and Secretary of the Loc Ninh District Party Committee, and now Member of the Dong Nai City Party Committee's Standing Board and Vice Chairman of the City People's Committee, mobilized sponsors to fund 30 replica sets of the Loc Hoa national treasure and donate them to primary, secondary, and high schools across Loc Ninh District. Music teachers from these schools attended professional training courses on teaching students how to play the lithophone. These efforts were accompanied by art exchanges and performances at festivals and other district- and provincial-level events in the former Binh Phuoc Province. In particular, lithophone instruction was incorporated into the music component of the local education curriculum. These initiatives laid an important foundation for the lithophone learning movement to spread throughout the former Loc Ninh District.

Nguyen Duy Thao is among those who have shown pioneering and outstanding dedication to the study and teaching of lithophone performance. He said, “When I first began teaching the lithophone, very few parents allowed their children to learn it, even though the classes were free. It was only after the district donated lithophone sets to schools and officially incorporated the instrument into the local education curriculum that parents became enthusiastic about encouraging their children to study it. Since then, the movement to learn and play the lithophone has continued to grow.”

According to Thao's estimate, there are currently about 100 lithophone sets in Loc Ninh Ward and neighboring communes. Most are kept at schools and at ward and commune People's Committees, while a small number are privately owned. In Thien Hung Commune, located in the former Bu Dop District, Le Van Dung, Director of the commune's General Service Center, said the center had advised the Commune People's Committee to purchase two lithophone sets to support local residents, particularly students, in learning and practicing the instrument. The lithophones will also be used for performances at local political, cultural and art events. Together with a set of gongs and a dan tinh (a handmade gourd lute), the two lithophone sets will be displayed as cultural products in the commune's community cultural space.

Thao said the lithophone set modeled on the Loc Hoa national treasure comprises 14 stone bars, covering all seven notes of the international heptatonic scale. During performances, musicians can adapt their playing to produce notes not directly represented by the lithophone's stone bars.

To further promote the value of the Loc Hoa lithophone national treasure, Thao regularly trains his students to perform ensembles of revolutionary songs and works praising the homeland and the country for local political, cultural and art events. Most notably, they performed at the Exhibition of Vietnam's Socio-Economic Achievements marking the 80th anniversary of National Day (September 2, 1945–2025), and at activities welcoming the First Congress of the Party Committee of Dong Nai Province, now Dong Nai City, for the 2025–2030 term. In addition to Vietnamese musical works, Thao also teaches his students international songs to perform for visitors. Furthermore, combining the lithophone with other musical instruments in performances helps introduce the instrument to international audiences more effectively.

Each stone bar bears the imprint of time, giving the lithophone a distinctive and solemn sound. This characteristic also influences the selection of works for instruction. The pieces chosen for lithophone performances are closely associated with culture, history, and love for the homeland and the country.

By Hai Yen – Translated by Minh Hong, Minho