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:

Dolores Paterno

Portrait c. 1870 by Justiniano Asuncion

    Dolores Paterno (March 10, 1854 – July 3, 1881) was the first Filipina composer that we know of. Her brother was the famous Pedro Paterno. Dolores Paterno was the composer for that immortal song "Sampaguita," also known as "La Flor de Manila." 

    According to her relatives (as found in the CCP Encyclopedia of Philippine Art,) at one night Dolores became inspired and fascinated by the poem about the flower her mother had told to her. Restless, she went to the piano and composed the tune.

    With the help of her brother, it was published in 1880 and quickly became popular among the elite and later, the public.

Liwanag P. Cruz-Field

    While Liwanag P. Cruz-Field is now an obscure figure today, she was quite prominent during her lifetime. She was the first to graduate with a Music Teacher's Diploma at the UP Conservatory of Music. Before and during the war her composition for orchestra, Taga-bundok Overture, was popular and it was played regularly by university and professional orchestras. After the war, she was mainly involved in the Choral scene. She founded the Philippine Choral Society in the 1950s. 

Descriptive Analysis of her Taga Bundok Overture

Lucrecia Kasilag

    Lucrecia Kasilag (August 31, 1918 – August 16, 2008) is perhaps one of the most successful Filipino musicians. Her large output of compositions, combined with her pioneering work in Philippine ethnic music as well has her various positions in several music foundations and organizations made her as one of the most important and influential music figures of the Asian Classical music scene. 

    She is known for incorporating native Philippine music into Western musical idioms. Although she's not the first to do this, she was the one who extensively incorporating Asian musical concepts and instruments into her works. An album of her some of her orchestral works was recorded in 1979.

    As an administrator, she was the President of the Cultural Center of the Philippines for about a decade, Chairman of the League of Filipino Composers, Dean of the Philippine Women's University College of Music and Fine Arts, Chairman of the Asian Composer's League, President of the National Music Competitions for Young Artists and many, many more.
    She has gathered dozens upon dozens of awards and medals for her musical compositions, musicological, and administrative works. These include the Republic Cultural Heritage award and the National Artist of Music award.

Rosalina Abejo, SFCC

    Ma. Rosalina Abejo (July 13, 1922 – June 5, 1991) holds the distinction of being the first ever nun to conduct orchestras (with the permission of the Pope) as well as the first Filipino nun composer. Her works are mostly in the post/neo-romantic idiom. Being a nun, she's produced a wide inventory of sacred music like masses in Tagalog and Bisaya, Ave Marias and others. She also collected local Villancicos to a book and wrote music textbooks for school use.

    Her secular and art music are just as extensive. She composed more than a dozen symphonies, several piano concertos, cantatas, an oratorio, and several chamber works. In an interview, she says she likes to set historical events into music, and this is true. Some of examples in this style are: Cantata Conversion of King Humabon; Blood Compact of 1565; Guerrilla Symphony; Overture 1081; and Mutiny and the Woman: Bloodless Revolution.

Amada G. Santos-Ocampo de Francesco

(from left) Amada, Rosalina, and Lucrecia

    Amada Santos-Ocampo de Francisco (23 June 1925 – 20 December 2009) was the 3rd female composer to be admitted to the League of Filipino Composers. She both studied locally (UP Conservatory, Centro Escolar University) and abroad (DePauw University, Indiana University of Indiana.) Her style is varied, ranging from neoclassical to atonal, though leading more into modernism. Late in her life she has composed primarily for ballet.

Alice Doria-Gamilla

    Alice Doria-Gamilla (20 September 1931) was the composer of "A Million Thanks To You" a song that Pilita Corrales immortalized in her albums. A piano prodigy, she can already play some piano selections by ear and even create simple pieces at the age of three. She was taught by her mother during her childhood years, and later enrolled in UST Conservatory, studying piano under Bernardino Custodio. 

    She composed about 300 songs and instrumental works so far, but her 1960 song "A Million Thanks To You" was the one that became a hit. While it was successful during its release, it was when Pilita Corrales sung the work that it became a sensation during that time. 

Ma. Christine Muyco

    Ma. Christine Muyco is one of the Filipina composers on the frontier of Contemporary Philippine Music. She is currently a music professor at the UP College of Music, and she is also a musicologist, producing a book called Síbod: Ideology and Expressivity in Binanog Dance, Music, and Folkways of the Panay Bukidnon in 2016.