HISTORY OF PHILIPPINE MUSIC

Athalia Lexine Conti Marfil Grade 5 – St. Martin de Porres

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Philippine Music, A Historical Overview

CORAZON CANAVE-DIOQUINO

The Philippines, an archipelago of 7,100 islands, is made up of 77 provinces grouped into 16 regions. The main groups include Luzon, the Visayan islands, and the Mindanao islands. Based on religion, the population may be grouped into three broad categories: Christian groups, indigenous religion groups, and Muslim groups. The Christian groups are the largest and are concentrated in the lowlands of Luzon and the Visayan islands. Indigenous religion groups are found in upland northern Luzon, Mindanao and Palawan. Muslim groups are concentrated in Mindanao, the Sulu islands and southern Palawan.

Although, geographically, the Philippines belongs to the East, its music has been heavily influenced by the West owing to 333 years of Spanish rule and 45 years of American domination. Music in the highland and lowland hamlets where indigenous culture continues to thrive has strong Asian elements. Spanish and American influences are highly evident in the music of the urban areas. In discussing Philippine music, three main divisions are apparent: (1) an old Asian influenced music referred to as the indigenous; (2) a religious and secular music influenced by Spanish and European forms; and (3) an American/European inspired classical, semi-classical, and popular music.

The Indigenous Traditions

The indigenous traditions are practiced by about 10% of the population. Eight percent of this minority comprises some 50 language groups of people who live in the mountains of northern Luzon and the islands of Mindanao, Sulu, Palawan, and Mindoro in southern and western Philippines. The remaining 2% of these groups are the Muslims from Mindanao and Sulu.

While there is no written information about the music in the Philippines before the arrival of Magellan in 1521, subsequent reports made by friars, civil servants and travelers include descriptions of instrumental and vocal music–sometimes mentioned in passing, other times in greater detail. From these documents, various kinds of interments made of bronze, bamboo, or wood are cited. These include gongs of various kinds of size and shapes, drums, flutes of different types, zithers, lutes, clappers, and buzzers. Vocal genres include epics relating genealogies and exploits of heroes and gods; work songs related to planting, harvesting, fishing; ritual songs to drive away evil spirits or to invoke blessings from the good spirits; songs to celebrate festive occasions particularly marriage, birth, victory at war, or the settling of tribal disputes; mourning songs for the dead; courting songs; and children’s game songs. It is this type of music that is still practiced today by the indigenous groups.

The Spanish-European Influenced Traditions

With the coming of the Spaniards the Filipino’s music underwent a transformation with the influx of western influences, particularly the Spanish-European culture prevalent during the 17th to the 19th centuries. The Hispanization during the succeeding three centuries after 1521 was tied up with religious conversion. It effected a change in the people’s musical thinking and what emerged was a hybrid expression tinged with Hispanic flavor. It produced a religious music connected to and outside the Catholic liturgy and a European-inspired secular music adapted by the Filipinos and reflected in their folk songs and instrumental music.

The American Influenced Traditions

The American regime lasted from 1898 to 1946 during which time Philippine music underwent another process of transformation.

In the newly established public school system, music was included in the curriculum at the elementary and later at the high school levels. Music conservatories and colleges were established at the tertiary

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level. Graduates from these institutions included the first generation of Filipino composers whose works were written in western idioms and forms. Their works and those of the succeeding generations of Filipino composers represent the classical art music tradition which continues to flourish today.

Side by side with this classical art music tradition was a lighter type of music. This semi-classical repertoire includes stylized folk songs, theater music, and instrumental music. The sarswela tradition produced a large body of music consisting of songs patterned after opera arias of the day as well as short instrumental overtures and interludes.

The strong band tradition in the Philippines, which began during the previous Spanish period and which continues to this day, produced outstanding musicians, composers and performers. Another popular instrumental ensemble was the rondalla which superceded an earlier type of ensemble called the cumparsa. The latter was an adaptation of similar instrumental groups, the murza of Mexico and the estudiantina of Spain.

American lifestyle and pop culture gave rise to music created by Filipinos using western pop forms. Referred to as Pinoy pop it includes a wide range of forms: folk songs, dance tunes, ballads, Broadway type songs, rock’ n’ roll, disco, jazz, and rap.

These three main streams of Philippine music– indigenous, Spanish influenced religious and secular music, American/European influenced classical, semi-classical, and popular music comprise what we refer to today as Philippine music.

About the Author: Corazon Canave-Dioquino musicologist, is a professor at the University of the Philippines, College of Music where she has taught for the past 42 years.She is actively involved in the collection and archiving of musical Filipiniana at the UP Center for Ethnomusicology at Diliman, Quezon City.

Source:

http://ncca.gov.ph/subcommissions/subcommission-on-the-arts-sca/music/philippine-music-a-historical-

overview/

Philippines Music History

The recitative and simple two note music of Philippines originated as a result of the trade relations with

different races such as the Arabs, Chinese, Indonesians, Japanese, Malaya, Hindus and the Indo

Chinese.

Music had an important role in Philippines in regulating and coordinating the religious and social life of

the Filipinos.

Music was considered sacred and was treated as a fine art, and a subject to be taught. Though

Philippine music timeline narrates sanctity of Philippine music, 1795 was the year of Golden Age of

sacred music in Philippines music history.

At time when paper and pen was not invented the Filipinos sought the help of palm leaves, bamboo

canes and barks of trees and pieces of sharp stick to write the song.

A number of instruments made out of bamboo and wood were created during the primitive days and the

reed type of wind instruments was introduced by the Chinese and the Japanese.

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Plucked instruments such as the guitar, banduria, octavina, laud and the banjo were also used to create

music in Philippines. The Gansa and the Kulintang are some of the Muslim Filipino instruments and the

bamboo flute and gong are the mountain region instruments.

The traditional music of the Philippines comprises of Gong music which was further divided on the

region into gangsa and bossed gongs and the Harana and the Kundiman lyrical songs which reminds

the islands of the Spanish period.

The Rondalla is also one of the traditional music which was performed in Philippines using the

mandolins and the guitars. A fragrance of traditional music is also observed in Philippine dance forms

like the Tinikling and Carinosa.

The Philippine madrigal singers have portrayed before the world the tradition of Philippines in the field

of choral music. Today Philippines can proudly say that they have contributed almost 200 choral

composers and arrangers to music.

Pepe Smith, Mike Hanopol and Wally Gonzales laid the roots of rock music in Philippines. Philippine

rock also conducted experiments by adding folk songs to rock. It captured the attention of the younger

generation.

In the 1960s with the song 'Killer Joe' Philippine rock received recognition worldwide for its major

achievement in the history of music. Soon the Philippine rock topped the American charts.

In 1841 the Tondo theatre in Philippines was erected to stage Tagalog plays and the Spanish plays. An

Engineer named Jose Bosch created the Teatro Castellano theatre for the purpose of presenting songs

and plays.

Teatro Comico in manila built in 1970 and the Arroceros theatre near the Mehan garden for performing

Tagalog plays were some of other popular Philippine theatres in the history of Philippine music.

Source: http://www.themusichistory.com/philippines-music-history.html

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I. Indigenous Music

Largely functional

Expressed either instrumentally, vocally, or a combination of both

Indigenous Musical Instruments

Aerophones • Any musical instrument which produces sound primarily by causing a body of air to

vibrate, without the use of strings or membranes, and without the vibration of the

instrument itself adding considerably to the sound. Best represented by the many

types of bamboo flutes that are found all over the country

1. Lip Valley Flute

o paldong, or kaldong of the

Kalinga

o palendag of South

Maguindanao

o pulalu of Manobo

o Two by two fingerholes. Protruding mouthpiece with a hole. The instrument is decorated with

carvings blackened by burning.

2. Nose Flute

o The northern tribes call

this kalleleng (Bontoc and

Kankanai), tongali (Ifugao and Kalinga)

and baliing (Isneg). In the Central

Philippines, it is known as lantuy among

the Cuyunin, babarek among the

Tagbanua and plawta among the Mangyan.

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o Long bamboo tube, closed at one end by the node in which

the blowing hole is burnt. The flute has three finger holes. The

blowing hole is placed under an angle against the nose and

the player gently blows into the tube.

3. Suling of Maguindanao

o This is so called because the blowing end is encircled with a

rattan ring to create mouthpiece

4. Pipe with Reed

o Sahunay of the Taosug

o Tube with six fingerholes; mouth piece of bamboo with cut

out reed; mouth shield made of coconut shell; bell made of

leaf (probably bamboo) and blue plastic ribbon.

Ring Flute

Nose Flute

Pipe with Reed

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Chordophones

o Any musical instrument which makes sound by way of a vibrating string or strings stretched

between two points

o Include bamboo zithers, guitars, violins, and lutes

1. Zither

o A stringed instrument made from a single bamboo section, around three to four inches in

diameter, with a node at each end. Serving as strings are raised narrow strips of the outer skin

fibers of the bamboo itself, with the ends still attached to the body of the instrument.

2. Kudyapi/Kudlung

Zither

Kudliung (Central Mindanao)

Kudyapi (Bukidnon)

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o Two stringed lute made of wood, one string for the melody, one for the drone. Eight frets

originally held in place placed on the neck of the lute by a sticky rubbery substance. The lute is

decorated with floral motives; the tail is carved to represent a stylised crocodile head.

Idiophones o Any musical instrument which creates sound primarily by way of the instrument vibrating itself,

without the use of strings or membranes

o Include bamboo buzzers, percussion sticks and gongs

1. Jaw Harp

o kubing of Maranao

o kolibauTingguian, arudingTagbanua, kolibauTingguian,

o A very thin slit of bamboo or brass with a narrow vibrating tongue in the middle longitudinal

section

o Considered a “speaking intrument”, Placed between the lips of the player, its tongue is made to

vibrate by striking the projecting end of the instrument with the thumb or by pulling a string

attached to it. The mouth of the playeracts as the resonator, and as the shape of the mouth

cavity changes, the pitch and quality of the sound varies. This enables the player to

communicate message with his instrument. For this reason, the jew’s harp is a favorite of

lovers and is played by both men and women. It is thus considered a “speaking intrument”.

2. Bamboo Buzzer

o balingbing, or bunkaka Kalinga; batiwtiw (Central Philippines)

o a bamboo tube which is open or split at one end

o This instrument is played alone or in groups as a form and diversion or to drive away evil spirits

along a forest trail.

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3. Kulintang (Maguindanao and Maranao)

• It consists of eight gongs placed horizontally in a frame and tuned to a flexible pentatonic or five-

tone scale. The kulintang ensemble is often considered as the most cultivated of the region’s

musical expressions. Aside from being a medium of entertainment and hospitality, the kulintang

also serves as a vehicle for social interaction and group solidarity and for learning ethical

principles

Membranophones

• Any musical instrument which produces sound primarily by

way of a vibrating stretched membrane

AGUNG (Bagobo)

Bangibang

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Vocal Forms

o Lullabies (owiwi, dagdagay, oppia, lagan bata-bata, bua, and kawayanna)

o didactic/figurative

o Occupational dinaweg (boar), the kellangan (shark-fishing), and the didayu (wine-making)

o Occasional appros, nan-sob-oy, sarongkawit, dikir

o War

o love ading, sindil

Ethnomusicologist Jose Maceda

o Songs mark every stage of human development from birth and infancy to adulthood and death,

night and day, and many occasions in the cycle of natural events and the flow of human

activities whether personal, social, economic, political, spiritual or cosmic.

Patterns and Characteristics

o Improvisation o Low and limited range of notes o Melodic ornamentations o Greater variety of voice quality o Chant-like monotone singing in most groups o Rhythmic freedom o large number of reiterated and marked accents on one vowel

II. Spanish-European Influenced

• Liturgical music

– Gregorian chant

– Pasyon

• Secular music

– Harana

– Kundiman

– Rondalla

– Sarswela

1. Harana

o Traditional form of courtship music in which a man woos a woman by singing

underneath her window at night

o Structure based on the plosa

o Pananapatan, pasasalamat, pagtumbok, paghilig, pamamaalam

2. Kundiman

o A lyrical song made popular in the Philippines in the early 19th century

o Almost all traditional Filipino love songs in this genre are heavy with poetic emotion

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3. Rondalla

o Patterned after estudiantina and comparasa

o Plucked string ensemble

o Bandurria, laud, octavina, guitar, and bajo de uñas

III. American influenced

o Neo-classicism

o Conservatory of Music

o popularity of American rock’n’roll, pop music, dance,

and disco

o “tunog-lata”

IV. Post Liberation

o Filipino Rock

“Killer Joe” by Rocky Fellers

Manila Sound

Folk rock

o Original Pinoy Music

o Filipino Hip Hop and RnB

o Contemporary Philippine Music