Nhạc tiền chiến is a body of lyrical, romantic Vietnamese-language art-songs, sung at a slow tempo by a solo voice over gentle piano or guitar accompaniment. The melodies follow Western major-minor harmony but stay fluid and melancholic, owing much to French chanson. The lyrics, written in literary Vietnamese, dwell on lost love, nostalgia, autumn and moonlit scenes.

The style emerged in late-1930s Hanoi, under French colonial rule, when young Vietnamese composers trained in Western music set out to write Western-style songs in their own language. The name 'tiền chiến' means 'pre-war,' a retrospective label for work created before the First Indochina War (1946-1954). Văn Cao, Phạm Duy and Đoàn Chuẩn led the movement, and the music was loved nationwide until the country was partitioned in 1954.

Listen for the tension between Western harmony and the natural melodic bends that Vietnamese tonal speech imposes. Against simple piano or guitar backing, the expressive range of the voice does the heavy lifting — that is where the kinship with chanson is clearest.

Văn Cao's 'Buồn Tàn Thu' (1939) is an early landmark and a natural way to hear where modern Vietnamese song begins; from there, explore Phạm Duy's vast catalogue.

Văn Cao, one of the genre's defining composers, also wrote 'Tiến Quân Ca,' the national anthem of Vietnam — a rare figure who penned both tender love songs and a nation's anthem.