Van Cao (composer of the National Anthem: "March to the fronts")

Late composer Van Cao was born in Vu Ban (Nam Dinh province) on November 11, 1923 and died on July 10, 1995. He made great contributions to the fields of music, poetry and painting and was presented the Ho Chi Minh Prize in 1996 by the State of Vietnam. He was the composer of Tien Quan Ca (March to the Fronts) which was later selected as the Vietnamese national anthem. 

In the middle of 1944, Van Cao joined the operations at the Viet Minh front (the League for the Independence of Vietnam) in Haiphong. By the end of the year, he worked for Doc Lap (Independence) newspaper - the organ of the Democratic Party that lay the Viet Minh front. During this time, he began to develop the idea of the song.

The composer’s autograph that remains in Van Cao’s selected song book, published in 1993 by the Music Publishing House, says that "In November 1944, I wrote Tien Quan Ca myself on a stone printing slab on the first literature and art page of Doc Lap newspaper that remains the handwriting of a mere apprentice.

A month later, when the newspaper was issued, I returned from a printing office. Crossing a small street (now Mai Hac De street), I suddenly heard the sound of a mandolin from a balcony. There was someone practising the Tien Quan Ca. I stopped and felt moved. The emotion that came to me was more significant than all of my songs performed at theatres earlier."

On August 14, 1945, at the Tan Trao National Congress in Tuyen Quang province, the Provisional Government selected Tien Quan Ca as the national anthem. During the days of the general uprising from August 17-19, 1945, the song was sung in marching demonstrations and meetings of the revolutionary public in Hanoi. The Fourth Rank soldiers from the Dong Trieu military zone along the operation roads to liberate Haiphong also sung this song loudly. Following was Saigon and other localities nationwide that were heard resounding with Tien Quan Ca, and the song became a part of history. The immortal song has gone together with each section of the national revolutionary road for more than the past half a century. It has contributed to encouraging and stimulating the armed forces and people in the cause of national liberation and reconstruction.