THE SPANISH COLONIAL TRADITION

IN PHILIPPINE MUSIC

In 1521 the first Spanish ships arrived in the Philippines. The conquistadores had
various motives for coming. Among these was the desire to gain control over the
trade routes supplying the European market with spices and other exotic
merchandise from Asia. To accomplish this, they needed to gain control over the
native rulers. At the same time, they had to compete with the extensive influence
of Islam and of Islamic leaders all over the islands. God, gold, and glory became
the basis for the Spanish colonization of the Philippines.
Every Spanish expedition included a group of missionaries tasked to bring the
Christian faith to the natives. Conversion involved not only embracing a new set
of religious beliefs but also turning away from existing cultural practices. Thus the
Spanish colonial regime from 1565 to 1898 reshaped Philippine culture in general
and Philippine music in particular. The songs on the exploits of epic heroes and
the rhythms of the native drums and gongs gave way to the chants of the Christian
church and the harmonized music of the organ, harp, and guitar.

Liturgical Music
The Spanish discovered that the Filipinos were a singing people. In 1604 Pedro
Chirino (Blair and Robertson XII:263) noted that:
government and religion is founded on tradition They
preserve it in songs, which they know by heart and learn when
children, by hearing these sung when they are sailing or tilling
their fields, when they are rejoicing and holding feasts, and
especially when they are mourning their dead. In these
barbarous songs they relate the fabulous genealogies and vain deeds of their gods

The early dictionaries written by the missionaries to enable them to teach the
Christian faith to new converts included long and varied lists of native song types.
Pedro de San Buenaventuras Vocabulario de la lengua Tagala (1613:141)
enumerated the following under the entry cantar:
auit (romance), hila (remeros), sambitan (llorando muertos),
nananambitan (llorando difuecto), sambotanin (emborrachera),
hilirao (emborrachera), diyona (de borrachera), oyayi (arrolando
los nios), dayao (victoria), tagumpay (la victoria)

The famous Vocabulario de la lengua Tagala by Juan Noceda and Pedro

Sanlucar (1864:19) added to this list, talindao indolanin, dolayanin (en el
calle) soliranin, manigpasin (los remeros), holohorlo (arrulos al nio), umbayi
(triste), umiguing (suave) dopayanin balicongcong.

Unfortunately for Philippine music, the sentiment prevailing among the clergy at
the time of conquest was that such material was the province of the devil and a
barrier to the spread of the Christian faith. To clear the way for the latter, the
sights and sounds of the old rituals had to be eradicated. As a whole, the
performance and practice of what must have been a rich music culture was so
discouraged that much of it virtually disappeared, and only a few pieces survived,
albeit in altered form.
But even as they suppressed native music, the missionaries doubled their efforts
at teaching European religious music to the new Christians who proved to be
adept and enthusiastic in learning the plainsong, the flute, the harp, and the guitar.
Fifty years after the conquest, the Church established schools for teaching the
indio the music of the faith.
In monasteries and churches, the first sounds of the Christian church that the
native heard was the Gregorian or plainchant, an austere, unaccompanied
monophony. This body of systematically codified and organized songs, put in
order in the 6th century by Pope Gregory I, represents one of the oldest surviving
Western music traditions. Gregory ensured the disciplined, uniform practice of
plainchant by strengthening the Schola Cantorum, a singing school for the training
of church musicians founded in Rome in the 5th century. The Schola became the
center of training for all musicians within the church, an authoritative body that
determined the character of church music and developed the musicians that would
teach this practice all over the Christian world. Thus, the uniformity of style as
well as the practice and quality of music were ensured.
It was this principle that led the Roman Catholic Church to include, among its
missionaries to the Philippines, church musicians and music teachers. Notable
among these were Juan Bolivar, Lorenzo Castelo, Ignacio de Jesus, and Manuel
Arostegui, among the Augustinians; Pedro Bautista, Geronimo de Aguilar, and
Jose de la Virgen, Franciscans; and Domingo Cera, Recollect. Church histories
describe the duties of these missionary musicians as the musical training of young
boys, the writing of books on music and music theory, the composing of music for
liturgical purposes, the performance of music for the masses, and, particularly in
the case of Fr. Cera, the training of young musicians in the manufacture of musical
instruments.
In 1601 the first orchestra was organized by the Augustinians in Guadalupe. In
1606, the Franciscans, under the leadership of Juan de Garrovillas, founded a
seminary in Lumban, Laguna where 400 boys were trained to sing, play, and
manufacture musical instruments. The first director of the seminary was Juan de
Santa Marta, who arrived in the Philippines in 1618 and who had been a singer in
the Cathedral of Zaragosa. By 1609, there were already, according to Morga, fine
choirs of chanters and musicians, especially around Manila. De Ribadeneira
(1947:67) notes that the young boys in such schools:

play very well together and very softly; and as a

whole are lovers of music. They serve Masses either
by singing plainchant or playing the organ. Some
are very good readers, such that to hear them sing an
epistle and place accents, it seems they knew Latin.

By 1742, a full-fledged conservatory of music, the Colegio de Nios Tiples de la

Santa Iglesia Catedral, was established in Manila. Solfeggio, vocalization,
composition, organ and strings were part of the basic curriculum. Subsequent
graduates of the Colegio, such as Salvador Pion, Fulgencio Tolentino, Maxima
Nazario, Manuel Lopez, Jose Canseco, Antonio and Hipolito Rivera, and Marcelo
Adonay brought the standard and unified methods of the church into every
Christianized province of the country.
An outstanding product of the Agustinian Colegio and composer of Filipino
liturgical music was Marcelo Adonay (1848-1928) of Pakil, Laguna. He began his
work at the age of eight when he was apprenticed as a sacristan at the San Agustin
Church. He later became a choirboy and would, during his off-hours, escape to
the choir loft and learn to play the organ by himself. He also learned to play the
piano and violin, and to compose in both the contrapuntal and harmonic styles.
He was later named maestro di capella and by 1870 was director of the church
orchestra. He is praised by Antonio J. Molina for keeping his religious music in
harmony with the severe regulations of the church liturgy, while projecting the
vitality religious fervor and Christian faith, hope, love, and charity that
were often absent in the theatrical, showy music that was in vogue in his day
(Manuel 1955:38).
Native-born musicians were the backbone of music practice in the Philippines,
singing, playing, and composing for church activities. Prominent local artists
active in church music in the 19th century were Balbino Carrion, tenor; his son,
Juan Carrion, also a singer and violinist; Andres Ciria Cruz, who also sung with
visiting Italian opera companies; Natalio Mata, organist and teacher; Simplicio
Solis, organist and composer; and Jose Canseco, pianist and composer.
In this setting, religious music flourished. Aside from the Gregorian chant, more
elaborate music in polyphonic and harmonic styles was also performed. A partial
listing of works composed by Fr. Manuel Arostegui (Baas 1924:28) called
Augustino Filipino, gives us an idea of the repertoire that might have been
familiar to a church musician of the 19th century: grand mass for full orchestra,
with organ or piano and four or eight voices; O Salutaris Hostia and Motete al
Santissismo, for solo baritone, with violin and harmonium accompaniment;
Salve, for three voices, with organ or piano accompaniment; Flores de Maria,
for three voices, with organ for harmonium accompaniment; and Ave Maria, for
tenor solo with piano or harmonium accompaniment.
Much of this music was written for vocal and instrumental ensembles in various

combinations. The latter usually include the violin and other strings, piano,
harmonium, and the queen of church instruments, the pipe organ. The last was
usually imported from Spain, like that of the old church of Santo Domingo in
Intramuros which supposedly possessed a fine double open diapason on the
pedals, its longest pipe rising 18 feet above the floor (Baas 1969:30). In time,
some of the organs were manufactured locally. Pioneers in this effort were the
Recollects who established a school for organ builders. In 1818, a native organ
made of bamboo was constructed in Las Pias under the direction of Fr. Diego
Cera. Nine hundred pieces of bamboo were used and great care was taken to
ensure the proper treatment of the fragile material. The builders had to wait until
the proper season to cut the bamboo, which they then buried beside the sea for
half a year to protect it from weevils and ensure durability.
In all aspects of music practice, the Roman Catholic church in the Philippines
developed Western musical norms and ideals which through the centuries took
firm root in fertile and receptive soil.

Paraliturgical Music
Because the Christian religion was such a powerful force in the Spanish colonial
period, its influence extended outside the confines of the church liturgy and into
the domains of daily life. This related in varying degrees to Christian belief. Some
of these were initiated by the clergy themselves. Others might originally have
been church-sponsored but later developed away from church supervision and lost
much of their religious character. Still, others that developed outside church
supervision combined Christian and non-Christian elements and forms.
Through time, Church authorities had mixed feelings about these practices,
alternately encouraging them as expressions of simple piety and banning them as
works of the devil.
These paraliturgical devotions abound in Philippine society until today. Some of
these are practiced by all the major Christianized ethnolinguistic groups. Probably
the most widespread of these practices are the Lenten pabasa, the Marian flores
de Mayo and the santacruzan, both held in May; the Easter salubong and bati; and
the Christmas panunuluyan.
The pabasa is the public chanting of the pasyon, a long verse narrative on the
life and death of Jesus Christ. The earliest of these verse narratives set in
octosyllabic quintillas, Gaspar Aquino de Belens monumental Tagalog poem
Mahal na Passion ni Jesu Cristong Panginoon Natin na Tola (Sacred Passion
of Our Lord Jesus Christ in Verse), was first published in 1703. Other pasyon in
other Philippine languages were published later, many of them translations of the
anonymous 1814 Tagalog poem, Casaysayan nang Pasiong Mahal ni Jesucristong
Panginoon Natin na Sucat Ipag-alab nang Puso nang Sinomang Babasa (An

Account of the Sacred Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ Which Should Inflame the
Heart of Anyone who Reads It). It is not known when the pasyon first came to be
performed in public, but by 1827, when a parish priest complained in a letter about
erroneous doctrinal ideas being spread by such performances, it could be assumed
that the pabasa was already a well-entrenched custom.
Today, the pabasa thrives as a Lenten practice all over Catholic Philippines,
performed during the entire season, from Ash Wednesday to Black Friday. The
style of chanting varies not only from region to region but even from town to
town. Some punto or basic melodies are sung in unison and resemble plainchant.
Others are borrowed from current popular melodies and are sung in two or threepart Western harmony. Still others are accompanied by instruments in many
different groupings. The vocal quality is tense with a raised upper palate. A
much admired type of voice is called matinis high-pitched and penetrating.
The punto, a term used in pabasa singing in Batangas, is an interesting feature of
the form. It refers to the basic or skeletal melodies associated with the pabasa.
Almost any melody, whether a traditional one from the early centuries of Spanish
rule or the newest popular song, can form the basic punto. Thus there are punto
based on Bahay Kubo (Nipa Hut), Aloha Oe, and even the Philippine
National Anthem, alongside such venerable tunes as the tres caidas, kinalamyas,
and biniyulin.
While a given punto is fixed and easily recognizable, it is also usually the practice
to weave ornamentsslow tremolos, slides and mordentlike embellishments
into the punto. This practice, called pagduduyan in San Mateo, Rizal, adds to the
beauty and grace of the melodic line. Such ornamentation also gives the individual
singers a chance to add their individual stamp to the chanting. This elaborate use
of ornaments, coupled with the unusual vocal quality, aside from giving the pabasa
color and variety, suggests an earlier, pre-Spanish vocal style.
Despite the disparate melodies, textures, and performance practices, all the pabasa
are linked together by several characteristics. First, they are communal
performances of a long narrative poem on the life of Christ. Second, the pabasa is
performed for a long period of time, usually lasting at least 12 hours. Finally, this
communal effort is considered the fulfillment of a panata. The panata, an element
found in many folk Christian practices that developed outside the Christian
Church, is a vow made to God, the Virgin Mary, or other favorite patron saints, in
which a person promises to perform a difficult act or task in return for a favor
bestowed by the deity, such as deliverance from illness or misfortune, passing a
government examination, or securing a good job. The task often takes the form of
a long and elaborate ritual involving, among other things, singing or chanting the
praise of the patron (the aspect of God or the deity invoked). The pabasa, for
example, is a panata offered to Jesus Christ and is practiced all over the Christian
part of the nation. But many panata forms are practiced on a local or regional
level and are offered to lesser deities such as patron saints.

Two such examples, the subli of southern Batangas and the sanghiyang of Cavite,
show how established and accepted elements of universal Christianity may be
merged with regional devotions to local icons.
The subli is a devotion-celebration with music, poetry, dance, and prayer. In its
most famous version, found in the town of Bauan, Batangas, it is dedicated to and
seeks the favor of the Mahal na Poong Santa Cruz (Beloved Lord of the Holy
Cross), a miraculous wooden cross that is the popularly accepted patron of the
town. The ritual, which may last from 6 to 8 hours, features uninterrupted
dancing to the beating of drums and chanting in unison of mystic verses narrating
the story of the Mahal na Poon. The major celebrations of the subli coincide with
the Maytime santacruzan. At one point in the ritual, the distinction between the
story of Santa Elena and the true cross and the tale of the Mahal na Poon
disappears and the two merge, one into the other.
The flores de Mayo, also known by the name alay, are devotions to the Blessed
Virgin Mary. Although each region, and sometimes each town, has a slightly
different practice and a different set of songs, the basic form remains the same.
On early afternoons in May, a procession of young women and girls carrying
flowers winds its way through the towns main street, singing songs in honor of
the Virgin Mary. In the church, the pairs of girls (or girls and boys) offer their
flowers to the statue of the Virgin as they sing in two-part tertian harmony, to the
accompaniment of the guitar, organ, or a small orchestra. The flores is climaxed by
the big procession at the end of the month, which features the Virgin on a carroza
(float), preceded by the zagala or young girls and ladies bearing symbols of the
attributes of the Virgin Mary.
A second Maytime ritual is the santacruzan, a devotion to the Holy Cross that
reenacts the finding of the true cross of Jesus Christ by Queen Helena, mother of
the Roman emperor Constantine. The moving pageant, accompanied by brass
bands and choirs of singers, also moves through the towns main streets. The
participants, dressed in elaborate costumes, personify characters from the story of
the finding of the cross. As clerical control over these practices weakened, there
was a tendency to combine the two Maytime devotions, leading to some
confusion over their nature and character. Further secularization in the 20th
century has led to their becoming the vehicle for a grand display of gowns and
finery by the young elite members of the town.
A good example of how a secular form separated itself from an originally churchsponsored practice is seen in the panunuluyan (seeking entry) and its related form,
pamamasko (Christmas carolling). The former is a nativity pageant staged in
various places around the town. Townsfolk dressed as characters in the
Christmas story take part in this sung reenactment. A travelling choir and
orchestra performing Christmas carols accompany the actors.

This church-sponsored play might have been the origin of the practice of
pamamasko, in which bands of young folk travel from house to house during
Christmas time singing for alms. In the Leyte and Bicol regions, they are called
pastores or estudiantinas, usually 12 girls and/or boys headed by a capitana (lady
captain), and garbed in colorful costumes. Most of the tunes they sing are in the
traditional Spanish villancico time of 6/8. In practice, however, folk musicians
often change the rhythm and phrasing to balse or paso doble or even irregular time,
altering the character of the original songs to suit local tastes. An example of this
is the Catalonian villancico, Pastores a Belen, by the pastores of Camalig, Albay
which is transformed into a paso doble. Similarly, the pamamasko, although once
part of the panunuluyan, has become part of the secular side of the Christmas
celebration. Divorced from the religious pageant, it has been transformed into a
fund-raising event and all proceeds raised by the young people are used to fund
social dances or fiesta events for the next year.
During the period of hondras, the November festivals for the dead also known as
undas or todos los santos, similar singing groups are called mangangaluluwa.
They represent the wandering spirits of the dead that carol from house to house,
begging for alms and playing pranks on stingy house owners. The villancicos,
danza, habanera, and balse that form the bulk of their repertoire are based on
popular Spanish or Mexican tunes, and are unrelated to the music of the Catholic
Church.
Easter Sunday has its own set of extraliturgical celebrations. These commonly
include the salubong, which begins with separate processions of the veiled Mater
Dolorosa and the Risen Christ, sometimes accompanied by the choral singing of
the Stabat Mater or a brass band. The processions wind up in the churchyard,
where the meeting of the Virgin and Christ is then dramatized. The Virgins black
veil of mourning is lifted by a little girl dressed as an angel, while a chorus of girls
and young women sing the Regina Coeli, Laetare (Queen of Heaven, Rejoice),
with antiphonal alleluias. Sometimes, balse and mazurka are performed before and
after the removal of the veil. Sometimes, the salubong also includes a special
dance, the bati, wielding flags and banners to the accompaniment of the drum.
These songs and dances were most likely disseminated and encouraged by the
church; they bear its stamp of approval.
The merging of local and universal is likewise seen in the sanghiyang of Cavite
which invokes the basic icons of the Christian pantheon such as the Virgin Mary
and the Santo Nio. But the sanghiyang mediums are also possessed by numerous
other spirits such as the hari ng kailaliman (king of the underworld) and San Juan
Sambanog Tiwan-tiwan. In this trance state, they perform unmetered chants,
half-spoken and half-sung. The entire ritual calls upon these deities with food
offerings, chanted prayers, incense and flame to bestow health, good fortune and
prosperity upon the celebrating community.
As typified by the subli and the sanghiyang, native ritual music that persisted

despite Spanish control, that responded to the new belief system, and thus
entered the realm of Christian practice constitutes an important category of
music of the Spanish colonial period.

Secular Music
As the ritual music of the native religion mixed with the music of the new faith,
the many forms of secular indigenous music assimilated elements of European
secular genres introduced from Spain and/or Mexico.
Like the joyous songs for greeting guests in the northern Cordillera, the berso
golpeado of the Ibanag of the Cagayan Valley is a traditional greeting song in triple
time accompanied by a cinco-cinco guitar which strums out chord progressions.
The latter appear, at first, to be simple attempts at simulating Western harmonies.
Upon closer inspection, however, these express a different concept of sound in
which two alternating clusters of tones are played repeatedly to create a
continuous, unbroken sound over which a vocal melody may be built. This
feature may be seen in song forms in other Christianized regions of the country as
well.
Secular ballads relating historical events, heroic deeds or humorous anecdotes may
still be heard in hispanized areas. The composo, a narrative song type found in
Panay, is a vehicle for the spread of local news. At happy gatherings, such as
after-work drinking parties, ordinary townsfolk compose and perform songs that
retell the tales of the last devastating typhoon, the exploits of rebels or bandit
leaders, and even the latest juicy gossip. Musically, its diatonic melodies and
chordal accompaniment on the guitar show the influence of Western melody and
harmonic progression.
Perhaps the most famous of all of these hybrid song forms and styles is the dancesong kumintang. In the 19th century, numerous writers referred to it as the
national song. Originating from Batangas, a province known in early times as
Kumintang, it was actually a regional variant of the awit, a song in slow triple
time. Cast in plosa verse or 12-syllable quatrains to a line, the texts usually dealt
with love and courtship, although it could also be about more general topics, such
as the hypocrisy and the follies of man.
The kumintang was first noted in a print by Nicolas de la Cruz Bagay dating back
to 1734. The first extant example of notation is the Comintang de la Conquista
(Comintang of the Conquest) found in Jean Mallats Les Philippines, published in
1846. Epifanio de los Santos, writing in 1916, warned that portions of this
transcriptionnotably a piano line and a portion of the accompaniment that
features some modulation or moving from one tonality to anotherare probably
additions of the transcriber (a certain Henry Cohen), and are not characteristic of
the authentic kumintang. Indeed, if these elements are eliminated, this early

transcription bears striking structural similarities to the awit, still performed in the
mountains of Batangas today. The kinanluran (of the west) and sinilangan (of
the east) awit styles, as well as the guitar-plucking awit technique still known as
kumintang resemble not only the Comintan de la Conquista but other 19thcentury transcriptions as well, and provide a valuable link to an ancient tradition.
Secular music from Spain also made an impact in the form of light, popular songs
and dances. The Spanish school system cultivated in the native and mestizo elite
a taste for Italian operas such as Aida and Spanish zarzuelas such as Jugar con
fuego (Playing with Fire) brought to the islands by troupes visiting from Europe,
especially after the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869.
Familiarity with these European forms became a mark of gentility. Young women
of good breeding were expected to play waltzes, the habanera and mazurka on the
piano or harp and sing popular arias.
Prominent families sponsored tertulias, informal parties at which the main activity
was the reading of Spanish poetry and the performance of light classical works by
Italian composers such as Rossini and Verdi.
Gradually, Philippine songs and dances modeled on these European forms
developed. By the 19th century, writers for the propaganda movement could
point with pride to song and dance forms in the European style developed in the
islands. The most famous of these was the kundiman.
The kundiman is a lyrical song in moderate triple time. Unlike the kumintang,
which has a strophic or a verse-and-refrain structure, the kundiman is divided into
two or three separate sections, each with a different melody. Also unlike the
kumintang and the berso golpeado, where two chords or clusters of tones are
alternated repeatedly to produce a continuous, unchanging sound, there is in the
kundiman a clear harmonic progression in the Western sense and even modulation.
While it is possible for the two or three sections of the kundiman to be in a single
key or tonality, it is more likely that each section is in a different mode.
The lyrics of the kundiman are about romantic love, although love of country and
sorrow over the loss of a loved one are common themes as well. To the 19thcentury Tagalog, the kundiman was the very soul of the beloved motherland. The
most famous kundiman which fired the patriotic sentiments of revolucionarios
(revolutionaries) in the struggle for liberation from colonial rule from 1896 to 1898
was Jocelynang Baliwag (Jocelyna of Baliwag).
Other Western forms were adopted by the Filipinos. The habanera named after
its place of origin of Havana, Cuba, and also known as danza or danza
habanera is in duple time, typified by La bella Filipina by Massaguer. The
polka, a lively Bohemian dance in fast duple meter, is exemplified by the popular
Pamulinawen (Stone-hearted) of the Ilocos. The jota, originally a Spanish folk

dance, has sections in duple and quadruple time, as seen in the jota moncadea.
The mazurka, which originated from Poland, is usually danced in 3/4 or 6/8 time
by 8 to 16 couples. The paso doble, a dance in duple meter slightly faster than
the march, is exemplified by No te Vayas a Zamboanga. The rigodon, based on
the French court dance, is danced for state functions in duple meter, such as the
rigodon de honor. The marcha or march in duple time is exemplified by Alerta
Katipunan (Katipunan Alert) and Julian Felipes Marcha Magdalo (Magdalo
March), which became the Philippine National Anthem. The most famous of all,
the balse or waltz, is an Austrian dance in lifting triple time, examples of which
include the famous Ang Maya (The Sparrow) composed in 1905 by the Filipino
waltz king, Jose Estella. As may be seen in many of the examples, these forms
continued to be popular among Christianized Filipinos during and even after the
American colonial period.
Filipino musicians, by all accounts, took easily to European-type music.
Speaking in 1892, Albert Friedenthal could say that, as musicians the inhabitants
have won fame all over the Orient. The district of Pandacan was, in the 19th
century, known as Little Italy because of its many skilled musicians, musical
troupes, and orchestras (Baas 1969:50).
The musical education and career of the prominent 19th-century composerconductor from Pandacan, Ladislao Bonus, gives us an idea of the range of
experience of the Filipino secular musician. Outside of the church, no formal
system for musical education existed. Bonus learned his skills by taking lessons
from older musicians, and by sitting in as assistant and apprentice player in the
bands and orchestras that were often hired to accompany visiting zarzuela and
opera troupes. Eventually he became a highly regarded contra bass player,
versatile in other string instruments as well. Manuel (1970:57) notes that
sometime in 1886 or 1887, an all-Filipino opera company was organized in
Pandacan under his directorship. Among the operas performed by the company
were Lucrezia Borgia, Linda di Chamounix, Lucia di Lammermoor, La
Traviata, and Fra Diavolo. Teodora San Luis was its prima donna. Other
soloists included Josefa Tiongson, soprano; Victoria Medina, mezzo-soprano;
Andres Ciria Cruz, Pedro Alcantara, and Alejo Natividad, tenors; Domingo
Guanzon, baritone; and Eduardo Ciria Cruz and Jose Canseco (who doubled as
stage director), basses.
Aside from the opera company, Bonus also directed the famous Orquesta
Feminina de Pandacan, an all womens ensemble immortalized in painting and
lithograph by Simon Flores de la Rosa. Organized and managed by Raymundo
Fermin, also known as Maestrong Mundo or Mundong Bulag, this unique
group of singers and instrumentalists actively performed in Pandacan as well as
neighboring towns and provinces.
Bonus is also known as a composer, his best known work being the first fulllength Filipino opera, Sangdugong Panaguinip (Dreamed Alliance), premiered in

1902, with libretto by Pedro Paterno.

The active career of this 19th-century Filipino musician trained in Western
classical music seems to prove that by the 19th century, the local music scene was
already populated by singers, instrumentalists, conductors and directors, and
composers who were well equipped to staff a musical establishment patterned
after that of Spain and the rest of Europe.
The light classical 19th-century style spread into the far areas of Christian
Philippines. European staples such as the balse, the danza, and the polka, as well
as popular overtures like those from William Tell, El anillo de hierro (The Ring
of Iron), and Poet and Peasant, were familiar to the rondalla and comparza,
ensembles of string instruments. While the composition of these ensembles
differed from place to place, these usually included the piccolo, bandurria, laud,
octavina, guitar, bandola, and bajo de uas.
Another ensemble that was to have considerable impact on the music of Spanish
Philippines was the brass band. The first bands were organized to provide
marching music for the military. In time, this music was also used for all the major
civic parades and functions, as well as religious festivals and processions. As the
band grew in popularity, civic organizations and even prominent families would
organize bands for their pleasure. At the serenata (open-air concert) held on the
eve of town fiestas, competing bands would show off their technical prowess and
dexterity, as well as their knowledge of the band repertoire, which would include
marines and overtures from operas by famous Italian composers.
An indigenous offshoot of the brass band that deserves some mention is the
musikong bumbong, According to local accounts, these groups were attempts by
19th-century nationalists and revolutionaries to create a uniquely Filipino sound.
These attempts led to the creation of the all-bamboo ensembles organized along
the lines of the marching band, playing music composed by Filipino composers.
The members of the St. Anthony Original Bamboo Band of Tonsuya, Malabon,
Rizal are fourth-generation descendants of a band of Katipunero musicians who
organized a musikong bumbong ensemble in 1896. Their theme piece, Veteranos
de la revolucion (Veterans of the Revolution), is a typical example of the band
music in vogue before the turn of the century.
By the second half of the 19th century, the rise of nationalism had kindled an
interest in indigenous culture. The scholarly publications by European
ethnologists and enthusiasts of Philippine culture, such as Wenceslao Retanas El
indio Batangueo (The Batangueo Indio) and Manuel Walls y Merinos La
musica popular de Filipinas (Popular Music of the Philippines) gave us the first
detailed picture of musical life in various parts of the Archipelago. Later works
by Philippine scholars include Pedro Paternos El individuo Tagalo y su arte
(The Tagalog People and Their Art) and Isabelo de los Reyes El folklore
Filipino (The Filipino Folklore). Their combined efforts give us insights not only

into the forms of Philippine music but the social practices as well that surrounded
the performances of these indigenous forms. The pasyon, the kumintang and the
kundiman were among the most closely studied and described, but other dance
songs, such as the pandanggo and balitaw, were also mentioned.
By the second half of the 19th century, there was a growing number of skilled
composers, increasingly well versed in Western compositional techniques. A
number of them consciously sought to bring indigenous folk forms such as the
hele-hele, kundiman, balitaw, and zapateado into the genteel art music of the
period. Julio Nakpils Recuerdos de Capiz (Souvenirs of Capiz) and
Marangal na Dalit ng Katagalugan (Noble Hymn of the Tagalog Region),
Diego Perezs Recuerdos de Filipinas (Memories of the Philippines), and
Jose Estellas La Tagala (The Tagalog Woman) are examples of such exploratory
attempts. Other composers were Dolores Paterno, a student of Perez, who composed
La Flor de Manila (The Flower of Manila) which has come down to us under the
title Sampaguita, and Julian Felipe, who composed the present Philippine National
Anthem.
These efforts continued well into the 20th century, even with the imposition of
American rule. These first attempts at defining and articulating a national music
were followed up by later scholars and composers. Fueled by such figures as
Epifanio de los Santos and by the nationalist movement in the first half of the
century, the preservation and documentation of the native music that had absorbed
strong Spanish elements led to the writing of more and more art music based on
these forms. In the 1920s and 1930s, composers such as Nicanor S. Abelardo,
Francisco Santiago, Francisco Buencamino, Bonifacio Abdon, Juan S. Hernandez,
and Antonio J. Molina were to enshrine the kundiman and its related forms as the
embodiment of Philippine music. Nasaan Ka, Irog? (Where Are You, My Love?)
and Pakiusap (Plea), both kundiman; Mutya ng Pasig (Muse of Pasig), a
kumintang; and Hatinggabi (Midnight), a danza habanera; and other so-called
classics of the American period actually sprang from and were nurtured by an earlier
time.
From the 1950s to the present, many Filipino composers of serious music have
looked to lowland folk music for inspiration for their own compositions. Many
of them built on the melodies of some famous songs, such as Lucio D. San Pedros
Suite Pastorale, where the most famous piece Sa Ugoy ng Duyan (As the
Cradle Rocks) was inspired by an Angono lullabye; Bernardino Custodios Pauliuli (Repetition), whose passacaglia is based on Bahay Kubo (Nipa Hut);
Francisco Buencaminos Mayon Concerto, whose principal theme is taken from
Sarung Banggi (One Night); Redentor Romeros Philippine Portraits, which
anthologizes and interprets several folk songs.
Today, many of the folk songs produced by the regions have been popularized
beyond their places of origin. They have become part of the national song
repertoire, because of folk dance performances like those of the Bayanihan

Philippine Dance Company and the Ramon Obusan Folkloric Group which
incorporate songs into their dance suites; through choral concerts and competitions
where the usual repertoire includes Philippine ethnic and folk songs; through radio
and television programs which may feature these songs in contests or as themes;
and through the physical education courses in the primary and secondary schools
of the Department of Education, Culture and Sports in which these songs are taught.

Epilogue
Nearly four centuries of Spanish rule brought irrevocable changes to Philippine
music. European forms were introduced, taught, and imbedded in the
Christianized Filipinos consciousness and psyche. They did not remain simple
transplants for they were not only appropriated by the Filipinos, but became an
integral part of the Philippine musical heritage, intricately woven into indigenous
Asian strands. These interacting strains have resulted in an exciting and dynamic
soundscape that remains today and continues to flourish not only in the
countryside which produced this type of folk music, but in the urban centers as
well. These musical forms have become synonymous with the very identity of the
contemporary Filipino. E.R. Mirano

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