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.

Early Filipino Symphonies

    It is without a doubt that Filipino composers have written many symphonies during its musical history. Rosalina Abejo wrote 14 symphonies, Pajaro wrote 3, Alfredo Buenaventura also wrote 3, and many more. However, our interest for today focuses on Philippine symphonies produced before World War 2. While most of them are now lost, this post sought to create awareness and new appreciation to these innovative works by the composers of the olden times.

Filipina Composers (Filipino Women Composers)

    I believe Filipina women today in the field of the arts are equally given opportunities in teaching, performance, and in education. Filipina musicians like Cecile Licad, Ernestina Crisologo, Jovita Fuentes, Camille Lopez-Molina, Carmencita Sipin-Aspiras, Carmencita Lozada, Ingrid Santamaria and many many others are widely celebrated locally and internationally. 

    However, Filipina composers seem to be an unpopular choice during those days. Though today there are now a lot more Filipina composers, in the 19th and 20th centuries there are very few who reached prominence. Here are some of them:

Rosalina Abejo's Overture 1081

   

Rosalina Abejo conducting an orchestra

    Rosalina Abejo is one of the Philippines' more underrated composers, and her music is certainly slowly becoming one my favorites. I have already written my thoughts one of her works: the Guerrilla Symphony. I've written a short introduction of Abejo there as well.

    Overture 1081 - a name that has intrigued me for so long. It was written in 1972 as commemoration to Proclamation no. 1081 - the proclamation that officially made Martial Law in effect. We all have our very divided opinions regarding Martial law, so I wondered: what would this overture sound like? A few days ago I finally listened to this piece for the first time after hunting for a copy of the LP for so long.

Lost Philippine Musical Masterpieces

"Listen to the polytonalism of Abelardo in his Panoramas; to the orientalism of Hernandez in his Scherzo; to the alla bravura of Santiago in his Concierto; and to the alla Ravel of Molina in his Clouds, and you will conclude that they are but first-class products of a superb mind... These modernistic touches did not flow from their hearts, but were formulated from their heads. The real Abelardo, Hernandez, Santiago, and Molina are best portrayed by Nasaan ka Irog, Maria Clara, Madaling Araw, and Hating-gabi respectively."

    These are the words of Filipino composer Hilarion Rubio regarding the "modern" compositions of his fellow colleagues. As you can see, he didn't particularly approve of the newer style of music his older colleagues were doing. He agreed that they are musical masterpieces, but they are only academic - devoid of the passion of their 'hearts' when compared to their older, traditionally written compositions.

    This quotation show how progressive compositions in pre-war Philippines lacked appreciation. I guess it's no surprise that, out of all works Rubio has pointed out, only one (Abelardo's Panoramas) survives to this day. The rest were lost or destroyed during World War 2. All our basis for most of these lost works are the accounts of people who heard them, and that's what we're gonna discuss today.

For this, we will mainly look at two composers' writings: Felipe Padilla de Leon and Antonio Molina's writings. Felipe de Leon's column for The Tribune Musical Corner describes the Philippine musical scene at the time of its writing. Antonio Molina, on the other hand, provides us with detailed analyses of works as well as providing us with history and insight on these pieces. Equally important sources are surviving souvenir programs, reviews, advertisements, and other newspaper articles. 

The original music of "Walang Sugat"

    

    Walang Sugat is probably the most popular zarzuela to ever grace Philippine Theater. The words of the zarzuela was written by the legendary Severino Reyes, popularly known as "Lola Basyang," and the music was written by the composer Fulgencio Tolentino. It was performed in 1902 at Teatro Libertad in Manila. Subsequent performances by the tandem of soprano Maria Carpena and tenor Victorino Carrion were immensely popular and made the zarzuela into a phenomenal success. three film adaptations were made on the zarzuela: A silent film on 1913, and feature films on 1939 and 1957.

Severino Reyes (left) and Fulgencio Tolentino (right)