III INSPIRATION BEHIND THE NOTES OF THE PHILIPPINE NATIONAL ANTHEM

III

INSPIRATION BEHIND THE NOTES OF THE PHILIPPINE NATIONAL ANTHEM

President Emilio Aguinaldo, on 5 June 1898, issued a decree setting aside June 12 as the day for the proclamation of Philippine Independence from Spain. It was about this same time that Aguinaldo commissioned Julian Felipe,34 a Filipino composer and music teacher, to compose a hymn that would be played during the independence day ceremonies.

By June 11, Felipe finished the composition and played this to Aguinaldo and other revolutionary leaders present at that time.35 Felipe titled his composition Marcha Filipina Magdalo, adopting the name Magdalo from Aguinaldo’s faction of the Katipunan. 36 Aguinaldo enthusiastically adopted this composition as the anthem of the Philippines and Felipe changed the title to Marcha Nacional Filipinas (Philippine National March).37

On June 12, Aguinaldo proclaimed the independence of the Philippines at Kawit, Cavite and the Marcha Nacional Filipinas was performed by the members of the San Francisco de Malabon band as the Philippine flag, made in Hong Kong by Felipe Agoncillo’s wife, Marcela Agoncillo,38 together with her daughter Lorenza Agoncillo and José Rizal’s niece Delfina Herboza, was unfurled.

When the Marcha Nacional Filipinas was played on 12 June 1898, it was without lyrics. It was only about a year later, on 3 September 1899, when the poem of José Palma, a Filipino poet and soldier, titled Filipinas and written in Spanish was adopted as the lyrics of the national anthem.

The lyrics of the anthem would then be translated into English in 1934 by a Filipino writer, Camilo Osias, and an American, A.L. Lane. It was then called The Philippine Hymn. In 1956, Julian Cruz Balmaceda and Ildefonso Santos penned the lyrics of the current Filipino version entitled Lupang Hinirang.

But beyond the obvious historical significance of the history of the Philippine national anthem, if one delves deeper into the music, one can discern the distinct influences behind Felipe’s composition.39 In his memoirs, Julian Felipe said that the Marcha Real of Spain, the Triumphal March from Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida, and La Marseillaise were the three musical pieces that he used as the basis for the Philippine National Anthem.

If you break down the composition of the Lupang Hinirang into three distinct movements, the melodic patterns in its third movement, which starts from the point—

Lupa ng araw ng luwalhati’t pagsinta, Buhay ay langit sa piling mo; Aming ligaya nang pag may mang-aapi, Ang mamatay ng dahil sa iyo.

—distinctly evoke the opening strain of the French march La Marseillaise. Felipe’s choice of La Marseillaise as musical influence could be due to the similarities in the objectives of the Philippine and French revolutions which both aimed to free the people from oppression.