Early Unofficial Lyrics of the Philippine National Anthem (1898-1920)

Julian Felipe, composer of the Philippine National Anthem

    Every Filipino knows Julian Felipe's National Anthem by heart and its Tagalog lyrics Lupang Hinirang. Some of us might also Jose Palma's original Spanish lyrics, or the English version. Since Felipe's original composition originally doesn't have lyrics, so authors attempted to make a set of lyrics for it.

    However, there are still many versions and translations set to Felipe's Anthem that are obscurely-known today, such as the Tagalog translation used by the Japanese, and the Tagalog translation by Ildefonso Santos used until 1956. These were all officially adopted as the lyrics of the anthem at some point, but even more obscure and interesting are the unofficial lyrics used during the Revolution and the early part of the American Occupation.

    These early unofficial lyrics tells us a lot of history. Two of these are even earlier than Jose Palma's work! It shows that even before Jose Palma's work became widespread, Filipinos made their own lyrics to express their own patriotic fervor to the music of Julian Felipe's anthem.

    Unfortunately only a small fraction of these local lyrics were recorded and written down. For this post, I've searched five of them:

Uncovering the Hidden History of Alerta Katipunan

    Alerta Katipunan is one of the most popular songs from that revolution that survived to this day. Yet almost nothing is known about it and how it came to be one of the most beloved battle songs of the revolution, at one point used as an anthem.

    For a long time, the history of this revolutionary song lingered in obscurity - the identity of the composer and its "Spanish military" origin remained unknown to us, until recent scholarships have finally revealed the concealed origins of Alerta Katipunan - with many more uncovered along the way.

    I've taken the hassle to connect the existing evidences and accounts in order to uncover the origins and make a concise timeline to see how a Spanish loyal hymn became a battle song of the revolution.

The Three National Anthems of the Philippines and Patriotic Marches of the Revolution & War (1896-1902)

Original publication of the National Anthem

    An often overlooked factor when discussing history is the importance of music. During wars, the military would have bands play marches and other pieces to boost morale to their soldiers. Even before the Revolution, there were already the Spanish Regimental Bands organized in the Philippines, as well as town bands such as the Peñaranda and Zabat Bands of Nueva Ecija. 

    The Philippine Revolution and the later Philippine-American War sure has no deficiency in having these works for band. Although there are songs such as local kundiman sung among the soldiers, this article focuses on band music such as paso-dobles and hymns composed during and shortly after the Philippine Revolution and the Philippine-American war, including our current National Anthem and the two lesser-known anthems that came before it (as well as other patriotic works produced by composers of the Revolution)

The "Misa Pastorela" Tradition of Provincial Philippine Churches

    Pastoral Masses "Misa Pastorela" are traditionally sung during Simbang Gabi (Dawn Masses celebrated for 9 days before Christmas.) As in the name, the Misa Pastorela were composed in the 'pastoral' fashion - they are primarily written in 6/8, with prominent dotted rhythms in the melody, sometimes with a drone to depict shepherds and the countryside. 

    Back then, singing the Misa Pastorela is a staple of the Simbang Gabi tradition in the Philippines. However, with the introduction of the New Roman Missal (Novus Ordo) in 1969 brought by Vatican II, the tradition singing the Pastorela started to disappear. Some churches translated the lyrics into the vernacular to adhere with Vatican II, but most abandoned the old Pastorela settings. In addition, recent composers wrote new Pastorela settings modeled after the New Mass. Only a few places today still sing the old Pastorelas of the olden times.

Teodoro Araullo - The other Filipino Waltz King

    The early years of Filipino classical music during the late-Spanish and early-American period were less given attention compared to the times of Nicanor Abelardo onwards. Although recently, studies on composers from this early era (1869-1916) of music such as Jose Estella, Marcelo Adonay, and Julio Nakpil were being researched and published. 

    One composer from this era stood out to me for some reason. His name is Teodoro Araullo. Like other composers from this period, he was a composer of marches and waltzes. However, despite his almost total obscurity today, he is actually one of the most popular composers from the early American period, rivaled only by Jose Estella. For that reason, he might just be the "Prince" of Filipino Waltzes, but that's just an informal title by me!

Huang Chen-Mou 黃楨茂 - Filipino-Chinese composer

    I first encountered Huang Chen-Mou's music in the book Rizal: The Songwriter, Musician, and Music Lover by Danny Yson, published in 1995. In the last chapter, he reproduced some works by composers that set Rizal's poetry into music. One of them was Huang's setting of Rizal's "Ultimo Adios." It immediately caught my curiosity, because the lyrics were translated to Chinese! It's also by a composer I've totally never heard of before. About a week later I found myself deep in the rabbit hole researching all I could find about this composer.

Juan C. Bañez - A Short Biography

Juan Banez, c1950s

    Juan Claudio Bañez (1908-1965) was a Filipino teacher, composer, arranger, concert pianist, organist, and choral conductor. He is primarily known today as the pianist who reconstructed Francisco Santiago’s Piano Concerto after the original was destroyed. This essay provides a short biographical sketch of the man, in hopes of bringing his legacy to light.