Phạm Duy (5 October 1921 – 27 January 2013) was one of Vietnam's most prolific songwriters 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 Văn Cao and Trịnh Công Sơn. 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 divided his career into several periods:

Folk Songs (Dân Ca), which recorded the images of the Vietnamese during the struggle for independence, culminating in his Song Cycles (Truong Ca), which join several folk tunes to proclaim the greatness of the Vietnamese people. Included in this period is his 1968 album, Folk Songs of Vietnam, released on Folkways Records.
Heart' Songs (Tâm Ca) - which aimed to awake humanity's conscience, to protest against violence and inhumanity.
Spiritual Songs (Đạo Ca), with a Zen character, which aimed to seek for the truth.
Profane Songs (Tục Ca), which tackled head-on hypocritical attitudes and phony virtues.
Children's Song (Nhạc thiếu nhi), Young Women's Songs (Nữ Ca) and Peace Songs (Bình Ca), which were songs of joy.
Resistance Songs and for the motherland
Refugees Songs and for life in exile.

In addition, his many love songs have been sung and learned by heart by three generations over the last forty years.
Notable songs

Phạm Duy wrote about 1000 songs.
Trường ca Con Đường Cái Quan [The Mandarin Road] - a cycle of 19 songs detailing a journey from northern to southern Vietnam. He started writing the songs in 1954 and competed them in 1960. The purpose of these songs was to affirm the cultural unity of Vietnam and to protest the partition of the country.These songs are still banned in Vietnam.
Trường ca Mẹ Việt Nam [Mother Vietnam] - a cycle of many songs about Vietnam personified as mothers. These songs are still banned in Vietnam.
Việt Nam Việt Nam - the last song in the cycle, it enjoyed the status of an unofficial national anthem in South Vietnam. Before dying, he expressed his wish for this song to be allowed to circulate in his native country.
Phạm Duy has also written lyrics for many foreign songs and brought them to Vietnamese audiences. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.