Phạm Duy - Part I

Pham Duy (October 5, 1921 – January 27, 2013) was a prolific Vietnamese songwriter. With a musical career that spanned more than seven decades through some of the most turbulent periods of Vietnamese history and with more than one thousand songs to his credit, he is widely considered one of the three most salient and influential figures of modern Vietnamese music, along with Van Cao and Trinh Cong Son. His music is noted for combining elements of traditional music with new methods, creating melodies that are both modern and traditional. A politically polarizing figure, his entire body of work was banned in North Vietnam during the Vietnam War and subsequently in unified Vietnam for more than 30 years until the government began to ease restrictions on some of his work upon his repatriation in 2005.

Pham Duy died on January 27, 2013 in Saigon , one month after the death of his eldest son Duy Quang. Thousands of well-wishers, including many of the most notable names in Vietnamese music, paid their respects at his home before he was buried on February 3, 2013 in Binh Duong Park Cemetery.