Music is essential to the lives of every individual—sounds and melodies are so powerful -
-
@nayongpilipino.museo
Time and Traditions of Philippine Musicality
-
1
-
music, and the rondalla
harana
kundiman or the melancholic -
-
Musical Instruments and the Rhythm of Social Practice Once the sounds of the everyday community are understood on a social level, we can turn
@nayongpilipino.museo
-
-
2
The materials used for the instruments are commonly taken from their natural resources, -
tongali
kaleleng for the Bontok, kulasing
the instruments are not found within the community, these can -
out the Philippines are such
are not mined in the Philippines Fig. 1. Cole, Fay-Cooper. 1922. Plate 82. The Tinguian: Social, Religious, and Economic Life of a Philippine Tribe. 2 vols. Vol. XIV, Anthropological Series.Chicago, USA: Field Museum of Natural History
gangsa
agung
"As they play they search for a balanced texture where no one plays louder or ahead of the other…. each enjoying the peal of gongs they seldom hear and only on these occasions. After a while, they exchange instruments to savor the tones of other gongs, for there are preferred ones with more resonant and longer ones."
@nayongpilipino.museo
-
balu,
3
The kulintang / kolintang is another social metal instrument which Cadar (1996) demonstrates through his observations with the Maranaw group. The iconic group of metal gongs laid out in a row on a short table is seen as part of the ensemble, which includes the babnir, a medium-sized gong, and the drum called dadabuan or dabakan. The sound of the kolintang can be heard from afar, which entices the community to join in. Playing the ensemble becomes a social event and affirmation of relationships, where participants are encouraged to join and volunteer as alternates for various parts of the ensemble. Interactions are encouraged during musical playing, and the concept of "harmony" is not only viewed as a theoretical musical achievement but also includes the interactions of the players themselves in showing that they play together without overpowering the other. Yet, as was demonstrated in the above example regarding the day-eng of the Kanakana-ey, it is understood that in this social event where the kulintang is highlighted, the audiences are also expected to participate. Ethical and social expectations are emphasized through the shared experiences and exchanges.
And yet, strip these associations away, we are faced with everyday life mirroring art even in the most mundane choices. The recent example would be the group of men walking down the mountain after a full day's work in Belong, Tinglayan, Kalinga (courtesy of Kefanay Eljhay Langngag), the men rib each other, laugh while dancing and dancing, all the while reappropriating materials such as the bamboo called bangiba (Campos 2010; Villanueva 2014) and the banana leaf to represent the shield (kalasag) in a ritual music and dance for healing illnesses and death.
@nayongpilipino.museo
Such public performances serve as community identifiers (Smith-Shank 2002), where the material culture serves as a medium for the intangible cultural practice that provides cohesive participation among the members of the community. Even at the lack of social gatherings, music and the subsequent instrument producing it can already signal an association. Maceda (1998) articulated that flutes are commonly played as the melody and are associated with courting or festivities. Flutes, made commonly of any type of bamboo, is a popular musical instrument in the Philippines due to the availability of raw materials (Dioquino 2008). Nose flutes are commonly found in the Cordilleras and are commonly only associated with males, and played while traveling or when in the company of other males. In Mindanao, the Tiruray and the Maguindanao groups associate flutes to courting as the versatile harmonies can play both joyous and sad music to move the heart of a beloved. The tuning of the flutes may be associated with exchanges between Java, Borneo, and Mindanao which Maceda (1998: 49) believes are similar practices.
Indeed, as Cole (1913: 111) mentioned in elaborating on the ritual observations of the Bagobo of Davao: "The ceremonies and dances are so closely associated with everyday affairs that in the description of the life of the [Bagobo] up to this point we have left only a few to be discussed." This statement seems an apt description not only for the Bagobo or other Davao groups of Mindanao but also for the rest of the Philippine groups as well. Perhaps when speaking of musical instruments, it is also important to acknowledge the importance of melodies produced not only by musical instruments in the strictest sense but also show the sonorities of everyday life.
4
Melodies of the Mundane Everyday life is accompanied by rhythms of the mundane, merging the expected ordinary and placing the people within the environment. Lefebvre and Régulier (Lefebvre, Régulier, and Zayani 1999) envisioned the social rhythms defined by the mundane, demonstrating the importance of the commonplace and punctuated by events. For Maceda (1986), he muses on the concept of time through Southeast Asian music by drawing connections between the relationship of vibrations and melody. In the Philippines, percussions such as gongs and drums produce steady repetitive beats where the vibrating sounds overlap to indicate the solidity and longness of time, utilized by many Southeast Asian groups and present in rituals, celebrations, and events that make up the transitions of everyday life. Where the percussions become the melody, he points out that their state of repetition and drone of the metallophones reflect infinity in the mundane, yet transforms to indicate strict hierarchies in the event of their use for worship or other secular practices.
In the same session, Dr. LaVerne de la Peña expounded his research on the day-eng of the Kankana-ey through his talk entitled "Poetry and Music: The Kankana-ey day-eng as event, act, and style" which was the topic of his dissertation in 2000. In the unfortunate chance where he managed to observe three death wakes in Abatan, Buguias, Benguet. Here, he defines day-eng as a "poetic and musical discourse among the Kankana-ey mourners",thus providing the setting for this musical dialogue conducted only within the realm of a death wake. The day-eng allows the mourners to converse with the dead and the rest of the
@nayongpilipino.museo
In the recent International Mother Language Conference and Festival held online, Dr. Felicidad Prudente gave a talk entitled "The Female Body in Rhythm: The Art of Rice Pounding among the Buaya Kalinga Women of Northern Philippines" where she demonstrated how the Kalinga women's routinely rice pounding accompanied by melodic grunts and the occasional giggling is embedded in a cultural tradition surrounding rice. Interestingly, she backed her observation by showing how the melody changes according to the number of rice pounders working on the single mortar "asung". The familiar sounds of pounding rice, the occasional hitting of the pestle and mortar, and pestle "au", and the harmonious sounds emitted by the women and their neighbors evoke an ethnography of the Kalinga community. Just by listening to the sound, one can be transported to the small town of Buaya in the Cordilleras where the pounding of rice is transformed into social interaction.
Fig. 2. Cole, Fay-Cooper. 1922. The Tinguian: Social, Religious, and Economic Life of a Philippine Tribe. 2 vols. Vol. XIV, Anthropological Series. Chicago, USA: Field Museum of Natural History.Page 454.
5
attendees of the wake, to uplift the feelings of those present, to negotiate terms between the bereaved and the community, and other concerns. Throughout this conversation, the performer and the group continuously interact through response. A standard beginning and ending of the discourse signal the transition from one performer to another, accepted by another member of the group; changes in the melody may be accepted in the case of a guest, not within the community. In this case, the entire performance of day-eng becomes an encompassing melodic practice that facilitates group interaction and transitions necessarily performed for the family and the guests of the dead. This social poetry and exchange become part of the acceptance of death, demystifying the taboo of death into a negotiation between the ancestors, the dead, and the living.
The Philippine lute in its many names also featured in various social practices. Maceda (1995) mentions its many different names depending on the group: kudlung, faglung, hagelung, kudyapi, ketiyapiq, and others, but the structures are more or less the same as it utilizes two strings to be plucked and played. Among the Maguindanaos, the lute is mostly associated with court musicians accompanying the Datu, with the scales called dinaladay (hemitomic) and binalig (anhemitomic); playing a particular scale also describes the environment where the lack of half-step already indicating the sound of nature as well as animal sounds. This indicates how tones are used for setting locations and atmosphere. Interestingly, emotions are also considered part of nature, and specific music may refer to praises, celebrations, and even sadness or love. For the T'boli woman who plays the hagelung, the act indicates love and affection since the instrument is meant to be embraced while played. The Palawan kusiyapiq, another version of the lute, can play a melody that imitates the sound of the quail bird to produce vocals that accompany the music, but may be played without vocals at all. The contextual geographic and circumstantial events that the musical instrument can be played shows the fluidity and the intimate relationship of the material and the musician.
Fig.3. Cole, Fay-Cooper. 1913. The Wild Tribes of Davao District, Mindanao. Anthropological Series 12 (2):49-203."The kodlon or native guitar." (Bagobo group)
@nayongpilipino.museo
These two cases show us that music and everyday sounds are intertwined to form the setting that identifies a community. The everyday sound of rice-pounding to the occasional event of death are both settings that encompass melodies of the community. In this, the rhythm of society may have verses, interrupted by changes through events, before transitioning once more into everyday life.
Such examples show that in any circumstances, music becomes a part of the social life of groups. Formal musical instruments may be used, but the beauty of performance may also rely on the mundanity of the materials used. OA voice used for speaking can become a song performed in death and can be used to narrate or ease the transition from life to death. Rice pounding becomes
6
a community bonding framed by mortar, pestle, harvest, and song. And musical instruments such as a lute, in its many names, becomes the medium of versatility that places people within their space in landscape and nature. The mundane every day becomes transformed into social rhythms of groups, where materials and conversation becomes a song, and where movements for all days become a dance. Conclusion: The Environment as Music and the Person as Musician
Can we say then that the person is a musician? Mora (1987) discloses that in his fieldwork with the T'boli people by Lake Sebu, the group considers their environment as their source of inspiration for music; however, in a complex way, human behaviors mirror the natural environment and thus comes the roundabout practice where the music takes inspiration from human behavior relaying natural environment. In an extensive study regarding the relationship of the Philippine lutes Brandeis (2012) showed that it is likely that the more familiar use of the lutes can be found throughout the south of Mindanao while only traces of this could be found in the north. While there are stringed instruments found at the Cordillera (Campos 2010; Campos and Blench 2014), and indeed, even at the south among the Bagobo (Cole 1913), the form of the kudyapi is a step closer towards the form of the guitar or even the violin. The body is either hollowed from one type of timber and attached to a fret. Strings may be abaca, although the popular nylon is now being used. These can be used for socialization and get-togethers, but they may also be used for ceremonies and dances in another event. And still, the designs on many of the musical instruments mirror the designs on the torogan houses of the Maranaw, their textile (Mora 2012), and their art. The musician shows that they are in much influence with the manifestation of their art, drawing inspiration and beauty from their interaction and their environment. The jaw's harp or the kubing can be found throughout the Philippines. This bamboo strip is thinned with two parts stripped to leave a middle part. When the instrument is bitten by the musician to play the music, the middle part of the instrument is struck to produce a vibrating sound. The tones are manipulated by the shape of the mouth and the air being produced. The kubing can be played in recreational events (Santos 2017) but may also be used as communication. Although there are several jaw's harp around the world, to discover and utilize the bamboo--a widely-used material for house-making, weaving, and others--as a source of sound highlights the keen knowledge gained on the environment. Moreover, the different use of bamboo for music including flute, nose flute, xylophone (Maceda 1998), and zithers (Campos and Blench 2014) indicates the versatility of plant use which people fully took advantage of. The reshaping of their environment,
@nayongpilipino.museo
As we understand the connection between cultural melody and community practices, we can also begin to understand how the musician may use it for personal use. Music, of course, is also considered an expression of self—it can mirror the musician's skill, thoughts, and their identities. Santos (2017) elaborates on several examples of this, one of which is the gitgit or a three-stringed fiddle played with a bow, an instrument traditionally used by the Mangyan group. In this case, he elaborates the many ways this instrument can be used: to express loneliness or love—thus as an accompaniment to the poetic ambahan of the Mangyan.
7
Fig. 4. Worcester, Dean C. 1906. The Non-Christian Tribes of Northern Luzon. Philippine Journal of Science 1 (8):791-876. Plate LVII 1-2. (Left Image) A Tingian woman of Balbalasan playing a bamboo mouth organ.(Right Image) A Tingian man of Manobo, Abra, playing a nose-flute.
The importance of nature is something that many may take for granted. While new and influential tones in Philippine music merge with traditional tunes, a question would be how much do we now understand regarding the fusion of traditional music alongside colonial music. Perhaps it is through understanding the rhythmic changes of social culture, so can we understand how the musicality of people transforms. As the environment and nature change, so do people—and the musicians within the culture understand that this is the future that they will face. In the event of such choices of humans as musicians facing the initial inspiration of their ancestors, we must understand that, in the end, the changing environment may be a harsher burden for the person—the musician—and strive to see through their music to understand the fast-changing environment forcing their rapid adaptation to discordant change.
@nayongpilipino.museo
adaptability using the materials available to them, and producing art that is not only seen but also heard and performed hints at the entwined nature of arts and the environment.
8
Brandeis, Hans. 2012. Boat Lutes in the Visayas and Luzon – Traces of a Lost Tradition. Musika Jornal 8:3-94. Cabales, Justin Cydrick Gaffud. 2015. Music of Pre-colonial and Spanish Colonial Phil ippines, and the Filipino Rondalla. Masters. California State University, Northridge, California, USA. Cadar, Usopay H. 1996. The Role of Kolintang Music in Maranao Society. Asian Music 27 (2):81-103. Campos, Fredeliza. 2010. A Study of the Musical Instruments of Ifugao in the Cordillera Region, Northern Philippines, Hong Kong University, Hong Kong, HK. Campos, Fredeliza, and Roger Blench. 2014. Heterochord Board and Strip Zithers in the Cordillera, Northern Philippines. The Galpin Society Journal 67:171-47. Cole, Fay-Cooper. 1913. The Wild Tribes of Davao District, Mindanao. Anthropological Series 12 (2):49-203. Cole, Fay-Cooper. 1922. The Tinguian: Social, Religious, and Economic Life of a Philip pine Tribe. 2 vols. Vol. XIV, Anthropological Series. Chicago, USA: Field Museum of Natural History. de la Pena, LaVerne David Carmen. 2000. Traversing boundaries: A situated music approach to the study of day-eng performance among the Kankana-ey of northern Philippines. Ph.D., University of Hawai'i at Manoa, Ann Arbor. Dioquino, Corazon. 2008. Philippine Bamboo Instruments. Humanities Diliman 5 (1-2):101-113. Dioquino, Corazon C. 1982. Musicology in the Philippines. Acta Musicologica 54 (1/2):124-147. Lefebvre, Henri, Catherine Régulier, and Mohamed Zayani. 1999. The Rhythmanalyti cal Project. Rethinking Marxism 11 (1):5-13. Maceda, José. 1979. A Search for an Old and a New Music in Southeast Asia. Acta Musi cologica 1(1):160-168. Maceda, José. 1998. Gongs and Bamboo: A Panorama of Philippine Music Instruments. Quezon City, PH: University of the Philippines Press. Mora, Manolete. 1987. The Sounding Pantheon of Nature. T'boli instrumental music in the making of an ancestral symbol. Acta Musicologica 59 (2):187-212. Mora, Manolete. 2012. Tune and Textile: Interrelatedness in the Music and Weaving Arts of the T'boli, Philippines. Humanities Diliman 9 (2). Santos, Ramon P. 2021. Philippine Music Forms/Composition. National Commission for Culture and the Arts [cited 18 June 2021]. Available from https://ncca.go. ph/about-ncca-3/subcommissions/subcommis sion-on-the-arts-sca/music/philippine-music-formscomposition/. Santos, Ramon P. 2017. Musical Instruments as Emblems in the Socio-Cultural Commu nities in the Philippines. Agung 20 (6):3-4. Smith-Shank, Deborah L. 2002. Community Celebrations as Ritual Signifiers. Visual Arts Research 28 (2):57-63. Villanueva, Cristina B. 2014. Putting voice to the silent: researching the Cordillera pho tographs of Robert B. Fox, Sr. of the University of the Philippines Baguio Cordille ra/Northern Luzon Historical Archives.
@nayongpilipino.museo
References
9
MUSEO NG NAYONG PILIPINO PROJECT Patricia Cecille Monica H. Panganiban Project Head/ Conservator Anna Carla Pineda Senior collections Researcher Renz Lauren S. Santos Digital Archivist Essie Loise F. Dela Cruz Collections Assistant Princess Mhay V. Hernandez Collections Assistant
PROGRAMS UNIT
HERITAGE SPACE PROGRAM Laya Boquiren-Gonzales Program Head
@nayongpilipino.museo
Ian Paulo O. Mejia Project Development Officer III
Tamara Kriss L. Bañez Project Officer/ Researcher Miguel Angelo Medina Multimedia Artist
10
Nayong Pilipino
nayongpilipino.gov.ph @nayongpilipino.museo