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)

    Much attention was given to the text of the work, but the musical side of the zarzuela has been unjustly neglected. The text has been published numerous times beginning in 1898, but the music stayed in manuscript form. The manuscripts of the text and music were deposited at the National Library until World War 2, where it was burned due to bombings. Because of previous publications, the text survived the war. But the same cannot be said to the music where the only copy, the manuscript, was burned along with the Library.

    The original music was neglected until the 70s when Dr. Herminio Velarde Jr. organized a team of researchers to research on the music of the work for the first post-war performance of the Zarzuela. Several people who saw or took part in the original 1902 performance or the early film adaptations were interviewed and were tasked to sing the songs as they remembered it. The research was successful and the Zarzuela was presented for the first time since World War 2 in 1971 at the Cultural Center of the Philippines.

    In Helen Samson-Lauterwald's book Music in the Zarzuelas of Severino Reyes, she presented the reconstructed music of Walang Sugat made by the team of Herminio Velarde Jr. for the revival production of 1971. According to her book, there are two versions of the reconstruction: the "Original" and the "Edited" versions. The "Original" version is the original result of Velarde's field research, containing the melodies as remembered by people who saw the original productions. The "edited" version, on the other hand, is the one presented at the 1971 production and the version still used today. It contained the melodies from Velarde's research, but modified in order to be more presentable with the modern audience.

    Samson-Lauterwald also reported that Severino's son, Pedrito, has expressed disapproval of the edited version, saying that "they no longer sounded like Fulgencio Tolentino, but of the editor's"

Samson-Lauterwald compared the two versions together, and revealed the differences between them. Some songs were only slightly altered, but some were drastically modified, like with the case of "Huwag Mong Silaban" where the song was replaced with an entirely different melody and lyrics:

Original Reconstruction of Huwag Mong Silaban (Samson-Lauterwald 2016)

Edited Reconstruction of Huwag Mong Silaban (Walang Sugat Souvenir Program 1970)

    Both Samson-Lauterwald and Velarde Jr. provided much significant information regarding the original music of Walang Sugat. However, both doesn't include in their researches an important source: Old 78rpm recordings.

    The first recordings came to the Philippines during the 1910s. Victor, one of the recording labels, struck contracts with Zarzuela singers such as Maria Carpena and Victorino Carrion to make recordings. Maria Carpena was famous for being the "first Filipino recording artist" with her recording of "Ang Maya" being the very first recording made by a Filipino artist. However, many doesn't know that she also made other recordings, including several songs from Walang Sugat.

Maria Carpena (left) and Victorino Carrion (right)

Here is the list of Walang Sugat recordings made under Victor records c. 1910:

1. Ang Mananahi [likely "Ang Karayom Kung Iduro"] (Socorro Basilio)

2. Julia, Puten  y Tenoñg ["Dalawang Braso"] (Maria Carpena, Hilaria Alvarez, Victorino Carrion)

3. Walang Sugat ["Huling Habilin"] (Socorro Basilio)

4. Miguel y Julia ["Julia Niyaring Dibdib"] (Victorino Carrion and Maria Carpena)

5. Duo de Viejos ["Di Bawal ang Umibig"] (A. Nicholas and B. Molina)

    I've identified the exact songs (in brackets) based on the titles printed at the record. All are accompanied by Orquesta Molina.

    Some of these records are in the hands of various collectors, including in the collection of Nestor Vera Cruz. However, I cannot locate copies of "Ang Mananahi" and "Miguel y Julia." One of the collectors, Pinoy Shellac, has provided a short excerpt of "Huling Habilin" in their Facebook page. I was surprised that, by the first note, it was already completely different from the reconstructed versions. 

The beginning of "Huling Habilin" as sung by Socorro Basilio

The beginning of "Huling Habilin" (Original Reconstruction)

The beginning of "Huling Habilin" (Edited Reconstruction)

    There are reasonable arguments to believe that these recordings contain the original music of Fulgencio Tolentino. They are recorded only a decade after the first performance. It was also recorded when the composer and librettist were still alive and the singers were members of Reyes's Gran Compania de Zarzuela Tagala. However, problems such as recording cuts (due to limited runtime of the discs) and low quality of the recordings should also be considered when reconstructing from these records..

    The discovery of these recordings has shed new light on the original music of the work as they are sung by the original performers themselves. This also begs the question as to why the recording is completely different from the reconstructed versions. Was Velarde's research really accurate? Was Socorro Basilio's recording a later revision? Or were the songs people remembered in Verlarde's research not the originals? More serious research should be done regarding this matter.

Sources:

- Lapeña-Bonifacio, Amelia (1972). "Seditious" Tagalog playwrights: early American occupation. Manila: Zarzuela Foundation of the Philippines.

- Lucas, R. B. (2004). A Preliminary Annotation of Selected Discography by Filipino Artists 1913-1946. Journal for the Arts, Culture and the Humanities, 3(March 2004), 75-106.

- Samson-Lauterwald, Helen (2016). Music in the zarzuelas of Severino Reyes ("Lola Basyang"). Quezon City: University of the Philippines Press.

- Spottswood, R. K. (1990). Ethnic Music on Records: A Discography of Ethnic Recordings Produced in the United States, 1893-1942. (Vol. 4). Illinois: University of Illinois Press.

- Walang Sugat Program Notes. Cultural Center of the Philippines. 1971.

- http://walangsugatzarzuela.blogspot.com/

- Pinoy Shellac Collections