Văn Cao (born Nguyễn Văn Cao, Vietnamese pronunciation: [ŋʷjə̌ˀn van kaːw]; 15 November 1923 – 10 July 1995) was a Vietnamese composer whose works include Tiến Quân Ca, which became the national anthem of Vietnam. He, along with Phạm Duy and Trịnh Công Sơn, is widely considered one of the three most salient figures of 20th-century (non-classical) Vietnamese music.
Văn Cao was also a notable poet and a painter. In 1996, he was posthumously awarded the Hồ Chí Minh Prize for Music.
After the Nhân Văn–Giai Phẩm affair, a movement for political and cultural freedom in 1956, he had to stop composing. Most of his songs, except Tiến Quân Ca, Làng Tôi, Tiến Về Hà Nội, and Trường Ca Sông Lô were prohibited in North Vietnam.
All of his songs were once again authorized in Vietnam until after the Đổi Mới, 1987.
In 1992, the American composer Robert Ashley composed the solo piano piece Văn Cao's Meditation, which is based on a National Geographic magazine's image of Văn Cao playing his piano.
Buồn tàn thu (1939) ("Sadness at the end of autumn", the first song of Văn Cao)
Bến xuân (1942) ("Spring river dock", music by Văn Cao, lyric written together with Phạm Duy)
Thu cô liêu ("The lonely autumn")
Đàn chim Việt (1944) ("Vietnamese flock of birds" - rewritten lyric from Bến xuân)
Bắc Sơn (1945) (song about Bắc Sơn Uprising, was originally written for the same name Bắc Sơn play of Nguyễn Huy Tưởng)
Chiến sĩ Việt Nam (1945) ("Vietnamese soldiers")
Trường ca Sông Lô (1948) ("Lô river epic", an epic to commemorate the success of Việt Minh in repelling the French in Operation Léa at Lô river)
Tiến Quân Ca (1944) ("Army marching song", national anthem of Democratic Republic of Vietnam since 1946, then Socialist Republic of Vietnam since 1976)
Bài ca Chiến sĩ Hải quân (1945) ("Song for marines")
Hải quân Việt Nam hành khúc (1945) ("Vietnamese navy march")
Không quân Việt Nam hành khúc (1945) ("Vietnamese air force march")
Tiến về Hà Nội (March on Hanoi)
Thăng Long hành khúc ca (Thang Long marching song)