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163South-East AsiaVietnamAccording to the available information, the traditional music of the Viets, themain ethnic group of Vietnam, has some interesting forms of group singing (particularlyresponsorial forms), although the group singing is based on unison (social polyphony).Therefore we can repeat what is generally known about Vietnamese traditional music,that it is based on a tradition of vocal monophony.On the other hand, traditions of vocal polyphony are found in the singingtraditions of several ethnic minorities of certain regions of Vietnam (Nam, 1988:41).More than 50 minorities live in Vietnam. Some of the minorities live in the lowlands, andothers live in the uplands (mountain regions). As is often a case, the earliest population ofVietnam is preserved today as minorities in the mountain ranges (mostly in centralVietnam) (Nguyen, 2002:531). Another mountainous region of the country – the northernpart - is mostly inhabited by groups that came from southern China between the 1300sand 1800s. The Vietnamese mountain peoples have different (from the Viets) origins,physical features, languages and musical cultures. Vocal forms of polyphony aredocumented among the central, and particularly the northern mountainous minorities.According to a very few available examples of Vietnam polyphony, two-part singing isprevalent, and heterophony and drone forms are present. Both of these examples are fromKao-bang province of northern Vietnam:Ex. 92. Vietnam (Do Ming, 1975:156)