The first eleven pieces were recorded at the Thang Long Water Puppet Theater in Hanoi. Anyone who has ever been lucky enough to see a performance of water puppet theater is likely to have fond memories. A tradition that exists only in Vietnam, it dates from the eleventh century and is said to have arisen from the determination of artists to present their performances despite the flooding of the delta.

The second nine pieces are representative of the music of the Royal Hue Court from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It is said that the early kings would weep when they heard the sound of the high notes of the flutes, lutes and zithers and the beating of the bronze drums. The musicians would play the sweet harmonies of their ancestral music only when they had ?an audience worthy of their art.?