The Culture Ministry in Hanoi has told a music copyright agency to stop collecting royalties on “Tien quan ca” (“The Marching Song”), which has been the country’s anthem since 1976, and of North Vietnam before that, reports BBC online Friday.
The family of composer Nguyen Van Cao, who died in 1995, registered the song with the Vietnam Centre for Protection of Music Copyright last week, and are demanding royalties for all public performances except in schools and “important state ceremonies”, Thanh Nien newspaper reports.
A ministry official states that the national anthem cannot be copyrighted, adding that Van Cao’s widow offered it as a gift to the nation in a 2010 letter. This was the composer’s own wish, according to the official.
Not so, says Van Cao’s eldest son Van Thao: There was never any “family consensus” on gifting the song, which is why they decided to authorize the Centre to start collecting royalties.
The copyright announcement has angered many veteran musicians.
Nguyen Quang Long says that Van Cao’s name was “honoured in perpetuity (i al evighed) as part of the nation’s history” when parliament chose it as the North Vietnamese anthem in 1946 and that should be enough.
The Culture Ministry now is proposing a prestigious ceremony to “honour the song’s gifting” to the nation, BBC notes.
