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)

Rosalina Abejo's Guerrilla Symphony

 

Rosalina Abejo conducting an Orchestra

    Rosalina Abejo, a Filipino composer and a nun, was one of the more forgotten Philippine composers today. Her music aren't played by any orchestra or musicians ever since her death - I have no knowledge of any of her works being played in the country in the past few decades, except probably a few performances of her Tartanilla Race for solo piano in private concerts or recitals. Perhaps this is partly because of her political affiliations and connections. Fortunately for us, Abejo was one of the very few classical Filipino composers whose works are commercially recorded and preserved. About three LPs of a few of her large scale works were made, as well as a song from the 1979 LP album Pagdiriwang.

A review of an all-Kasilag album "Kasilag East/West"

"Kasilag East/West" is an album containing four of Kasilag's works. It was released in 1979 under Kubing Records. For the performers, Lucrecia Kasilag herself conducts the Cultural Center of the Philippines Philharmonic Orchestra with Zenas Reyes-Lozada as Pianist.

Lucio San Pedro's Symphonic Poem "Lahing Kayumanggi"

Lucio San Pedro, the composer

    One of my favorite Filipino pieces, Lucio San Pedro's symphonic poem was written in between 1961-1962 for Concert Band as a commission by the Music Promotion Foundation of the Philippines. Later arranged for orchestra, this piece won the hearts of the audience and critics who first heard the piece at the premiere and in subsequent performances. This was evident with the piece receiving the Republic Cultural Heritage Award in 1962. 

    Here I made a quick analysis of the work, describing the piece in detail. This will hopefully make the listener appreciate and understand the work better.

    Listen to the piece here: (recording by Gerard Salonga conducting the Global Studio Orchestra - with a summarized description of the piece in the description)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wy3SjCxCY6o