An Italian man has spent around 6 years with passion visiting many villages in the Central Highlands to study Gongs, a typical musical instrument used in the festivals of ethnic people in the Central Highlands of Vietnam, for his PhD thesis.32-year-old musician Vincezo Della Ratta first came to Vietnam in 2007 after he was hypnotized by the performance of a group of artisans from Dak Lak’s Ko Sia village in Turin in 2006.The man, majoring in ethnic music, informed Tuoi Tre that he had earlier paid attention to the sound of gongs after watching several TV shows on the performances of Gia Lai province’s Jarai ethnic artisans. In 2009, he attended a seminar on Central Highlands gongs in Pleiku city.“I want to go to the villages to witness, feel and write about the cultural life of people there,” Ratta said.The man from Italy also called his trip to the highlands a great experience. “People in Central Highlands are very special. They invited me to drink their traditional can wine. I joined them in pounding rice and watched them playing gongs at funeral ceremonies.”To Vincezo Della Ratta, the Central Highlands gongs are a special, interesting and mysterious instrument to discover.“It’s hard to know all about gong culture since each minority has its own way of playing gongs,” he informed. “The most interesting part is that I had the chance to join people there in playing gongs. It gave me a special feeling. When I’m back in Italy, I’ll share with Italians the knowledge and experiences I’ve taken from here.”At a meeting with Dak Lak authorities last week, Ratta said he has seen a change in local gong culture. “I’ve seen some ceremonies where people also use guitars together with gongs. I can’t estimate if it’s good or not, but it has proved that gongs are more and more open to the public, and they are not only being used in ethnic minority communities.” (tuoitrenews.vn Dec 13)
