Day 1
Wednesday, 18 September 2013
ABELARDO HALL
PERFORMANCE AS RITUAL, RITUAL AS PERFORMANCE
11:00am – 12:30nn
Moderator: c/o Mass Communication
Banda Uno Malaya: Rehearsal as Ritual
in a Community Band
Jocelyn T.
Guadalupe
Music, University of the
Philippines, Diliman
Gangsa and Jeans: Reflection on Video
Documentation of Kalinga Musics by
Minpaku
Michiyo
Yoneno-Reyes
Asian Center, University
of the Philippines,
Diliman
(Seeing-Sounding Social
Transformation in) Teaching Asian and
Philippine Performance Traditions
Through Experiential Learning
Amparo
Adelina C.
Umali, III, PhD
Center for International
Studies, University of
the Philippines, Diliman
Lunch
Day 1
Wednesday, 18 September 2013
PLARIDEL HALL
SACRED TRADITIONS, SITES OF RESISTANCE
1:30pm – 3:00pm
Moderator: c/o Mass Communication
Tradition in Motion: Evolving
Expressions of Devotion to the Sto.
Niño of Malolos
Articulating Resistance at the Margins
of Power: A Study on Ritual Symbols in
the Music of the Iglesia Filipina
Independiente
Ritualizing the Villancico: Tension,
Ambivalence and Order in the Music
and Traditions of the Philippine Misa de
Aguinaldo Ritual
Nikki Briones
Carsi-Cruz
Interdisciplinary Studies,
Ateneo de Manila
University
Arwin Q. Tan
Music, University of the
Philippines, Diliman
Ma.
Alexandra
Iñigo-Chua
Music, University of
Santo Tomas
Seeing-Sounding Social Transformation in (The Music of) Philippine “Theaters”
1
RITUALS: SENSES OF PLACE AND COMMUNITY I
3:30pm – 5:30pm
Moderator: Josefina Antonio
The Dotoc Soundscape: Music,
Agency, Community
Jazmin
Badong
Llana
Arts, De La Salle
University-Manila
Flights of Bodies and Beliefs: Through
Seas and Identities, Historical and
Theatrical Spaces
Basilio
Esteban S.
Villaruz
Music, University of the
Philippines, Diliman
Soundmarks: Locating Music and
Dance in Sariaya, Quezon
Verne dela
Peña
Music, University of the
Philippines, Diliman
Searching for Dumaracol, an Epic of
the Kalamianen Tagbanua of Northern
Palawan: an Exploratory Field
Research
Eulalio R.
Guieb III
Mass Communication,
University of the
Philippines, Diliman
Day 1
Wednesday, 18 September 2013
PLARIDEL HALL
RITUALS: SENSES OF PLACE AND COMMUNITY II
8:30am – 10:00am
Moderator: Jeremias Perez
Responses to Culture Change in the Ritual
Practices among SaranganiBlaan: The Case of
Instrumental Music Odél (Log Drum)
Mi Hyun Oh
Music, University
of the Philippines,
Diliman
Contextual Performance of Teduray Agong
Music and Courtship Dance
Rowena
Cristina L.
Guevara
Engineering,
University of the
Philippines,
Diliman
Pag-Jamu Bohey Deya: Observing
Socialization and Memory in the Music-Dance
Ritual of the Sacred Well among the Sama of
Tabawan Island, Municipality of South Ubian,
Tawi-Tawi Province, Southern Philippines
Matthew CM
Santamaria
Asian Center,
University of the
Philippines,
Diliman
2
Seeing-Sounding Social Transformation in (The Music of) Philippine “Theaters”
19th CENTURY SCENES AND BEYOND
10:30am – 12:00nn
Moderator:
Musica Moralia: The Buenaventuras, Music,
and Politics
Resil B.
Mojares
University of San
Carlos
Performing Pity in Balagtas: Translation and
the Question of Address
Vicente L.
Rafael
History, University
of Washington,
Seattle
Performances of Martyrdom and their Spaces
of Density: Rizal, Suicide Bombers, and
Saints
Marian P.
Roces
Independent
Scholar
Lunch
Day 2
Thursday, 19 September 2013
ABELARDO HALL
PROTEST SONGS IN/AND POLITICAL THEATER
1:00pm – 2:30pm
Moderator: Verne Dela Peña
Protesta/Propaganda: Mga Musika sa Pagbuo
ng Lipunang Filipino sa Panahon ng Bagong
Lipunan
Raul C.
Navarro
Music, University of
the Philippines,
Diliman
Pagkanta ng Totoo sa mga Lipunang
Sinilensyo
Teresita
G. Maceda
Arts and Letters,
University of the
Philippines, Diliman
Tunog at Hulagway sa Espasyong Dulaang
Raha Sulayman, Fort Santiago sa Danas ng
Philippine Educational Theater Association,
1967-1995
Apolonio
B. Chua
Arts and Letters,
University of the
Philippines, Diliman
3:00PM – 4:00PM
Moderator: Feliz Macahis
Seeing-Sounding Social Transformation in (The Music of) Philippine “Theaters”
3
Abelardo Hall Auditorium: A Theater for All
Seasons
Ramon P.
Santos
Music, University of
the Philippines,
Diliman
Jonas U.
Baes
Music, University of
the Philippines,
Diliman
Break
5:00pm-6:00pm
From Ading to the Weeping of Crocodiles:
Sound Murals and Social Spaces in Philippine
Contemporary Music
He is choreographer and choreologist (Benesh System), and once artistic director of UP
Dance Company (which he founded) and Dance Theater Philippines—for which he
created most of his 100-plus choreographic works, some seen abroad. For eight years
he was ballet chair for National Music Competition for Young Artists, and judged eight
times for Asia Pacific International Competition in Tokyo. He has read papers and
published worldwide, including monographs, articles to dance references and journals in
Asia (including the ASEAN), USA and Europe. Treading Through: 45 Years of
Philippine Dance (UP Press, 2006) won a national award, and the 3-volume Walking
Through Philippine Theater collected 40 years of dance and theater reviews (UST
Press, 2012). He edited Vol. 5: Dance of CCP Encyclopedia of Philippine Art, and is
now doing the same for its 2nd edition.
Day 3
Friday, 20 September 2013
PLARIDEL HALL
SUBALTERN SPACES/POPULAR SOUNDS
8:30am – 10:30am
Moderator: Arwin Q. Tan
The Pub Scene: Theater of Collaboration
Lara Katrina
T. Mendoza
English, Ateneo de
Manila University
Femmecees Reprznt! The Lives, Strides
and Rhymes of Filipina Rappers at the
Dawn of Pinoy Hip-hop in the Late 80s and
Early 90s
Roselle
Pineda
Arts and Letters,
University of the
Philippines, Diliman
Tertulia: Public Music in Private Spaces,
Private Sphere to Public Sphere
Ma. Patricia
B. Silvestre
Music, University of
the Philippines,
Diliman
Crisancti L.
Macazo
Santa Isabel College
Disciplining Women Through Music: A
Preliminary Interpretation of Women's
Music in Late 19th to Mid-20th Century
Manila
Basilio Esteban S. Villaruz
Professor emeritus in University of the Philippines; External Examiner for University of
Malaya; Commissioner for UNESCO National Commission of the Philippines; President
of World Dance Alliance-Philippines; past president of World Dance Alliance-Asia
Pacific. He helped set up the dance degree program in the UP College of Music, and
sits in CHED’s dance and theater technical panel.
STREET SCENES, PUBLIC PERFOMANCES
11:00am – 12:00nn
Moderator: c/o Mass Communication
4
Seeing-Sounding Social Transformation in (The Music of) Philippine “Theaters”
Seeing-Sounding Social Transformation in (The Music of) Philippine “Theaters”
33
Arwin Tan is an Assistant Professor at the College of Music of the University of the
Philippines. He obtained his Bachelor of Music degree, major in Choral Conducting,
magna cum laude and class valedictorian (2000), and a Master of Music degree, major
in Musicology, from the same university. He has been awarded the "Ani ng Dangal" by
the National Commission for Culture and the Arts in 2013 for his achievements in the
field of choral arts. He has sung with the Philippine Madrigal Singers under the late
National Artist for Music, Andrea O. Veneracion. Tan is the conductor of Novo
Concertante Manila, currently ranked number eight in the World Ranking of the Top
1,000 choirs by Interkultur, Germany.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Dr. Nicanor G. Tiongson is professor emeritus at the University of the Philippines
(U.P.) Film Institute in Diliman and former dean of the U.P. College of Mass
Communication. In 1986-1994, he served as vice president-artistic director of the
Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP). As visiting professor, he taught courses on
Philippine arts and culture at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, the Osaka University of
Foreign Studies, and the University of California, Berkeley. He is founding chair of the
Dulaang Babaylan, which sought to study, revive, and revitalize traditional dramatic
forms. As a scholar, he published studies on traditional dramatic forms like Kasaysayan
at Estetika ng Sinakulo at Ibang Dulang Panrelihiyon sa Malolos, Kasaysayan ng
Komedya sa Pilipinas: 1766-1982, Sinakulo and Komedya. He also authored Salvador
Bernal : Designing the Stage, the first book on Filipino stage design. In film studies, he
authored The Cinema of Manuel Conde and edited the four Urian anthologies, the last
of which (2013) is on the New Wave Independent Film. Among his creative works are
the sarswelas Pilipinas Circa 1907 and Basilia ng Malolos, and the contemporary
adaptations Noli at Fili Dekada 2000 and the Panay epic Labaw Donggon : Ang Banog
ng Sanlibutan. He has written several librettos for dance, including Siete Dolores and
Realizing Rama. He is the editor-in-chief of the 10-volume CCP Encyclopedia of
Philippine Art and the Tuklas Sining of the CCP, a 30-part video and monograph series
on the Philippine arts.
Rolando B. Tolentino is the Dean and professor of film at the College of Mass
Communication (CMC) of the University of the Philippines, Diliman. He has written
numerous articles on Philippine cinema, literature, and pop culture. He is a member of
Manunuri ng Pelikulang Filipino and a contributor to Criticine, an online journal
dedicated to elevating discourse on Southeast Asian cinema. He obtained his
baccalaureate degree in Economics and master’s degree from the De La Salle
University and doctorate degree in Film Studies from the University of Southern
California.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Amparo Adelina C. Umali, III, Ph.D., known to many as Jina, is an Associate
Professor and Coordinator of the East and Southeast Asian Studies of the Center for
International Studies of the University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman. She completed
her M.A. and Ph.D. in Japanese Literature (Comparative Theatre) at Doshisha
University in Kyoto City, Japan. She finished her Secondary Course in Theatre Arts at
the Philippine High School for the Arts and her BA Theatre Arts in UP Diliman.
32
Seeing-Sounding Social Transformation in (The Music of) Philippine “Theaters”
Flowers, Toast Songs, and Masked
Streakers: The Oblation Run as Ritualized
Street Theater and Spectacle
Reuben
Ramas
Cañete
On-line Street Performances of Musicians
with Disabilities: Politics of Recognition in
Motion
Eufracio C.
Abaya
Asian Center,
University of the
Philippines, Diliman
Education, University
of the Philippines,
Diliman
Lunch
PERFORMING HEROICS
1:00pm – 2:00pm
Moderator: c/o Mass Communication
Trace of a Trace: Dance and History in
Virginia Moreno’s The Onyx Wolf / Itim
Asu
Myra Beltran
Independent Scholar
Adaptation, Spectacle, Archive in the
Beginnings of 'Screen Rizal'
Patrick F.
Campos
Mass Communication,
University of the
Philippines, Diliman
The Many-splendoured Kundiman in the
"Paki-usap" Film Score (1940): A
criticism on the Seeing-Sounding of
"Romantic Love" in a Philippine
Feudalistic Class Structure
José S.
Buenconsejo
Music, University of the
Philippines, Diliman
Music and Early Cinema in the
Philippines
Nick
Deocampo
Mass Communication,
University of the
Philippines, Diliman
SCREENS AND/AS SONIC SPACES
2:00pm – 3:30pm
Moderator: c/o Mass Communication
Seeing-Sounding Social Transformation in (The Music of) Philippine “Theaters”
5
Paglulugar sa Espasyo, Espasyo ng
Paglulugar: Isang Historikal na
Pagninilay sa Konstruksyon ng
Individual at Publiko ng Manonood ng
Pelikula
Roland B.
Tolentino
Mass Communication,
University of the
Philippines, Diliman
PLENARY
3:30pm – 4:30pm
Moderator: c/o Prof. Patrick Campos
Contesting Ideologies in the Theater of
1902
Nicanor G.
Tiongson
Mass Communication,
University of the
Philippines, Diliman
planning, design, and architectural services for museum, exhibition, and urban design
projects.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Matthew CM Santamaria is a professor of Asian and Philippine Studies at the Asian
Center, University of the Philippines Diliman (UP Diliman). He received his degree of
Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the College of Social Sciences and
Philosophy, UP Diliman in 1985. He finished his degree of Master in International
Studies from the same institution in 1989. He received his degrees of Master of Law in
Political Science and Doctor of Law in Political Science from the Kyoto University
Graduate School of Law in 1993 and 1999, respectively. He has published works on
the topics of religion, law and the state; political culture; and ritual and performance. His
current research interest is in Sulu studies focusing on the Sama (aka Bajau) peoples of
maritime Southeast Asia.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Ramón Pagayon Santos (b. 1941) belongs to the New and Experimental Music group
of Filipino composers. He initially trained in Composition and Conducting at the
University of the Philippines, and earned his Master of Music (with distinction) and Ph.D.
degrees at Indiana University and State University of New York at Buffalo, respectively.
His past appointments include Composition Chair and Dean of the University of the
Philippines (UP) College of Music, Chairman of the Asian Composers League, and
Secretary General of the League of Filipino Composers and the National Music
Competitions for Young Artists Foundation, Artistic Director of the Cultural Center of the
Philippines, and Head of the Executive Board of the National Music Committee and
Commissioner for the Arts of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts. He is
currently serving as University Professor Emeritus of the UP, President of the
Musicological Society of the Philippines, and Executive Director of the UP Center of
Ethnomusicology.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Ma. Patricia Brillantes-Silvestre has degrees in Musicology (BM, cum laude) and
Spanish (M.A.) from the College of Music and College of Arts and Letters, respectively,
from the University of the Philippines, Diliman. She also obtained a Diploma de
Esapñol como Lengua Extranjera from the Univesity of Salamanca, Spain. Her
background in music and Fil-Hispanic has led into scholarship in the areas of Historical
and Urban Musicology involving the Spanish heritage and Fil-Hispanic music and
culture and social history. Her publications include articles in DIAGONAL (Journal of
the Center for Iberian and Latin American Music, University of California at Riverside
2008), Musika Jornal (UP 2009), the anthologies Quiapo: Heart of Manila (Mla.2006),
The Life and Works of Marcelo Adonay (UP Press 2009, which won the Alfonso Ongpin
Best Book on Art in the 2010 National Book Awards), and UP Home and Campus (UP
Press 2010), a number of entries in the CCP (Cultural Center of the Philippines)
Encyclopedia of the Arts, Music Volume (Manila1994). Prof. Silvestre is currently
working on her PhD in Philippine Studies.
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Seeing-Sounding Social Transformation in (The Music of) Philippine “Theaters”
Seeing-Sounding Social Transformation in (The Music of) Philippine “Theaters”
31
Roselle Pineda is a teacher, performer, community organizer, and activist. As Assistant
Professor at the Department of Art Studies in University of the Philippines, Diliman, she
teachers Popular Culture, Performing Arts, Art Theory, Art Criticism, Perspective in Art
History, and Art Community Organizing. She holds a degree in Art Theory and Criticism
from the same department, and her thesis entitled “Eloquent Crevices: Lesbian
Interventions in (Art) Theory, History and Production” was awarded for Best Thesis in
the year 2003.
As a scholar, she has delivered papers and published essays on women, the body and
performance, queer art, critical/cultural pedagogy, art community organizing, indigenous
peoples art and culture, LGBT art, LGBT movement in the Philippines, and Marxism and
art.
As an artist she has directed several dance-dramas and operas, including the Philippine
production of Otto Nicolai’s The Merry Wives of Windsor. She is also regarded as one of
the most provocative Performance Artists in the country. She is a multi-media artist,
working on simple technologies in dance and choreography that can be applied in
communities. Aside from this she produces, performs and arranges music.
Seeing-Sounding Social Transformation in
(The Music of) Philippine “Theaters”
ABSTRACTS
Banda Uno Malaya: Rehearsal as Ritual in a Community Band
Music, Jocelyn Timbol-Guadalupe
Banda Uno Malaya of Taytay, Rizal, founded in 1875 is one of the oldest if not the
oldest community band in the Philippines. The ethnographic study focuses on the theme
of rehearsal as ritual in a community band. Using data gathered from document
analysis, observation of recorded rehearsals, and interviews among band members and
audience, an analysis is made regarding rehearsals as rituals in public spaces, how
learning occurs in social processes, and theories of practice and agency in the survival
of the community band. Implications for the study include the role of the band in the
community’s temporal life and the transmission of cultural values through community
music education.
As a social activist and community organizer, she did community and field work in
various communities in the Philippines, including the Cordillera Autonomous Region
(Northern Indigenous Peoples of Cordillera), and Hacienda Luisita, Pampanga, among
others. She also organizes and gives art workshops in theater, music, and shadowplay
in various depressed communities in the country.
Gangsa and Jeans: Reflection on Video Documentation of Kalinga
Musics by Minpaku
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
In this presentation, I ask the meanings of the video production on music of Kalinga by
National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka, Japan, a.k.a. Minpaku, in 2008.
Vicente L. Rafael is a Professor of History whose research and teaching include the
following fields: Southeast Asia (especially the Philippines), Comparative Colonialism
(especially Spain and the United States), and Comparative Nationalism. He maintains
an active interest in the related fields of cultural anthropology, literary studies and
European continental philosophy. Through his location in the department of history, he
has sought to touch on topics that include language and power, translation and religious
conversion, technology and humanity, the politics and poetics of representation.
Michiyo Yoneno-Reyes, PhD
Asian Center, University of the Philippines
The team videotaped a wedding, musical demonstrations, interviews, and everyday life
scenes. The unedited video was organized into a total of some 15 hour DVDs. The
team produced two sets of video clips —one from the videos taken in the provincial
capital and another from those of a remote village — without narration and with only
minimal captions and explanations in Japanese text. These are made open and
accessible to the visitors of the Museum. Multi-lingual documentary film production is
being planned.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Dr. Michiyo Yoneno-Reyes is as Associate Professor at the Asian Center, University
of the Philippines. She has co-authored Global Goes Local: Popular Culture in Asia
(University of British Columbia Press 2002), The Philippines and Japan in America’s
Shadow (National University of Singapore Press 2011) among others. Her research
areas are in ethnomusicology, anthropology, and studies in Philippines and Japan.
Marian Pastor Roces is a critic and independent curator living in the Philippines.
Published internationally, her writing is focused by her interest in clothes, cities,
museums, the construction of minorities, and contemporary art that exercises
skepticism about art and culture. She is currently working on 19th century universal
expositions in relation to 20th century international art events. Pastor Roces is also
principle partner of TAO Management Corporation, which provides curatorial, cultural
30
Seeing-Sounding Social Transformation in (The Music of) Philippine “Theaters”
Reviewing the unpolished videos and two sets of video clippings, I suggest that these are
significant documentation of the practice of the place and time, as they present rare mediated
visual images of local people performing gangsa without “ethnic” costume and choreographed
formation, in the midst of the flux of the staged representation of the music culture of the northern
Luzon highland, and these must be made available in the Philippines. I attribute the advantages
of the Minpaku to its unique location among the stakeholders in (and outside) the production of
video documentation: Minpaku is free from the agenda and discourse of national culture building;
and it is outside of the metropolis-peripheral power relation within the country. However, it
represents the country which is in asymmetrical economic relation with the Philippines. That was
aptly manifested in the spontaneous chanting examples in which chanters narrated the hardship
of life and asked for financial supports from the crew, demonstrating the heritage of using chanting
as channel of dialogue where confrontational expressions are allowed, in a community where
otherwise speech is expected to be non-confrontational. This prompts me to further expound on
the authenticity of text-context conjuncture.
Seeing-Sounding Social Transformation in (The Music of) Philippine “Theaters”
7
(Seeing-Sounding Social Transformation in) Teaching Asian and
Philippine Performance Traditions Through Experiential Learning
Amparo Adelina C. Umali, III, PhD
Center for International Studies, University of the Philippines
This paper aims to contribute to expanding the cultural space in teaching Asian and
Philippine performance traditions through the practice-based approach of experiential
learning in collaboration with masters and/or students of masters of performance
traditions and creating occasions to perform them.
By building on the present theory-based approach in teaching Asian and Philippine
performance traditions and engaging it with the practice-based approach, as a method
of study, this paper, hopefully, can provide one dimension in the continuing effort to
understand, appreciate and perform non-Western, non-mainstream performance
traditions.
Tradition in Motion: Evolving Expressions of Devotion to the Sto. Niño of
Malolos
Nikki Briones - Carsi Cruz Ph.D.
Interdisciplinary Studies, Ateneo De Manila University
This paper examines the evolving structure and expression of devotion to the Sto. Niño
as manifested in the most recent celebration of the Fiesta of the Sto. Niño de Malolos
(Dakilang Kapistahan ng Sto. Niño De Malolos). I anchor the discussion on the
innovations initiated by this year’s Hermanos Mayores 2013, the Aniag family, analyzing
their aesthetic sensibilities, notions of power, concept of nation, and allegiance to their
Sto. Niño image. I explore patterns of continuity and change highlighting points of
departure from customary practices, and the debates, negotiations and continuing
dialogue on the future direction of the Malolos fiesta as it grows in size and gains fame.
I employ an iconographic analysis of the changing identities of the Sto. Niño images on
exhibit during the fiesta, showing how the Infant Jesus icon has an inexhaustible
incorporative capacity, allowing devotees creative license to collapse time and space in
creating composite identities for the Holy Child. I also examine the interplay between
the international and the national, as foreign influences are worked into the themes of
the fiesta, and the identity of the Sto. Niño, and how these alien elements are merged
with nationalist imagery to create a narrative of Filipino-ness and our place in the world.
The malleability of the Sto. Niño identity is what gives the Malolos fiesta a distinctive
orchestration when compared with its Sto Niño de Cebu counterpart.
This study shall also pay close attention to “choreographic phenomena, ”which includes
the dances and ritual gestural repertoire performed throughout the course of the fiesta;
as well as the “choreography of the crowd” or the habits of gathering and modes of
participation by devotees. It will show the changing “movement” of the procession, its
new routes, paths of pilgrimage, sites of convergence, composition of participants, and
how this challenges the traditional hierarchy and heralds a shift in sites of political and
economic power.
8
Seeing-Sounding Social Transformation in (The Music of) Philippine “Theaters”
Dr. Raul C. Navarro is currently Associate Professor of Choral Conducting and
Graduate Coordinator of the UP College of Music. He was Chair of the Conducting and
Choral Ensemble Department of the UPCM from 2005 to 2011. He finished his Doctor
of Philosophy degree in 2004 from the UP College of Arts and Letters. Both his Master
of Music (1999) and Bachelor of Music degrees in Choral Conducting (magna cum
laude, 1996) were earned from the UP College of Music. He also has a Bachelor’s
degree in Music Education (cum laude, 1990) and an Associate of Music in Piano
(1989) from the Santa Isabel College – Manila.
Dr. Navarro won the National Book Award (History Category) in the 27th National Book
Awards, given by the National Book Development Board and the Manila Critics Circle in
2008, for his book “Kolonyal na Patakaran at ang Nagbabagong Kamalayang Filipino:
Musika sa Publikong Paaralan sa Pilipinas, 1898-1935,” published by the Ateneo de
Manila University Press in 2007. He also won the 2008 U.P. Gawad sa Natatanging
Saliksik sa Filipino (Original Research Category) and a UP Diliman Centennial
Professorial Chair (July 2008-June 2009) for the same book. Dr. Navarro is a UP Artist
Awardee (2009-2011). He was also given an Outstanding Alumni Award for Culture and
the Arts by the University of the Philippines Alumni Association in June 2011.
With the UP Vocal Ensemble–SIC Singers, Dr. Navarro won Gold (Category Champion) and
Bronze Awards in the Folkloric and Mixed Choir Categories, respectively, in the 2008 Busan
Choral Festival in Korea. He was also the music director of the Vox Angeli Children’s Choir
when the group was declared Champion in the Children’s Choir Category (A2) of the 2008
Hong Kong International Youth and Children’s Choir Festival where they also won a Silver
Diploma in the Folkloric Category. He was awarded “Outstanding Choral Educator” at the
Cultural Center of the Philippines by the Sta. Isabel College in February 2006 and was a
recipient of the “U.P. Sigma Delta Phi Professorial Chair” for 2006-2007.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Mi Hyun Oh obtained her Master of Music degree in musicology at the University of the
Philippines. Her research interests include Mindanao music cultures, Asian music and
cognitive musicology. She is currently in the doctoral program in music and part-time
faculty at the same College. She is co-music director of a Korean traditional percussion
ensemble based in the Philippines.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Verne de la Peña, Ph.D, is an ethnomusicologist whose research areas include
Benguet Kankana-ey, Tagalog, and Filipino hiphop. He has presented papers and
lectures on burial rites and prestige feasts in Buguias Benguet as well as repartee
singing and drinking events in Sariaya Quezon. Most recently, he has investigated the
Filipino battle rap phenomenon known as Fliptop and currently involved in a research
project in Bontoc. He is presently the chairman of the Department of Musicology,
University of the Philippines College of Music, and a Member of the Advisory Board of
the UP Center for Ethnomusicology and the Philippine Musicological Society. He sits at
the editorial board of Musika Jornal, the academic publication of the UP Center for
Ethnomusicology. He is also producer and host of the weekly DZUP radio program
entitled Tunog at Tinig featuring Philippine music and musicians for which he has
received a special mention for best entertainment radio show at the 2011 Catholic Mass
Media Awards. The university has conferred him the rank of UP Artist I for the period
2011-2013.
Seeing-Sounding Social Transformation in (The Music of) Philippine “Theaters”
29
Research, the Routledge Journal of Performing Arts (2011), and in the edited book
Performance Studies in Motion (Methuen Drama London, forthcoming in 2013).
Articulating Resistance at the Margins of Power: A Study on Ritual
Symbols in the Music of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Arwin Q. Tan
Music, University of the Philippines
Crisancti Lucena Macazo is the founder and conductor of the Santa Isabel College
Chamber Orchestra and Head of the String Department of the said college. He is also a
violinist of the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra of the Cultural Center of the
Philippines. He earned his Bachelor's Degree in Music Education at the University of
Santo Tomas Conservatory of Music in 1999 being the recipient of the Rector's Award
for Academic Excellence. In 2012, he was conferred the degree Master of Music in
Music Education with emphasis on Violin Pedagogy by the Santa Isabel College
whereby awarded the Meritissimus honor. At present, he is in the Doctor of Philosophy
in Music Program of the University of the Philippines.
As the newly established Iglesia Filipina Independiente (IFI) attempted to assert its
influence over the Filipinos in the first decade of the 20th century, it utilized various
forms of social propaganda to affirm its position as the national church of the Filipino
nation. Of the several potentially far-reaching mechanisms available, the church took
advantage on the recognized power of music to inculcate the strong nationalist fervor of
its founders among its members and proclaim its undisputable political presence the
society.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Prof. Teresita G. Maceda currently serves as chair of the Department of Filipino and
Philippine Literature at the University of the Philippines. She was the first director of
UP’s Sentro ng Wikang Filipino (Filipino Language Center, 1989-1994) and one of the
first commissioners of the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino (Commission on the Filipino
Language, 1992-1994). As a scholar, Prof. Maceda has written articles on Pinoy
pop/rock and popular protest songs of social movements. She has also written about
Filipino as a national language and about Cebuano literature and Philippine literature.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Lara Katrina T. Mendoza, a language and literature teacher by profession and a
musician at heart, earned her AB Humanities and MA Literature degrees from Ateneo
de Manila University in the Philippines and her advanced master's degree in (MaNaMa)
in Cognitive and Functional Linguistics from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KUL) in
Belgium. Currently she is finishing her PhD Music at the University of the PhilippinesDiliman and hopes to be happily ensconced in the worlds she loves, teaching and
music.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Resil B. Mojares, Professor Emeritus of the University of San Carlos, has a Ph.D. in
Literature from the University of the Philippines. He is the author of such books as
Origns and Rise of the Filipino Novel, Theater in Society, Society in Theater, Waiting for
Mariang Makiling, Brains of the Nation, and Isabelo’s Archive. He has served as visiting
professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Hawaii, University of
California at Los Angeles, Kyoto University, and the National University of Singapore.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
28
Seeing-Sounding Social Transformation in (The Music of) Philippine “Theaters”
This paper inquires on the significance of the music in the Iglesia Filipina Independiente,
its symbolisms and representations as manifested in the church’s ritualistic performance
of its version of the mass. Among the newly composed music for the IFI in its first
decade of existence, the Balintawak: Misang Tagalog composed by Bonifacio Abdon
will be highlighted in this paper. It will be examined as a social device in the efforts of
the church in establishing its political presence, giving emphasis on the meaning of its
performance in public space, particularly setting the controversial church as its stage.
The grandeur of the Misa Balintawak’s special presentations on the church’s important
occasions also warrant the study of the significance of ritual or festival music, and how it
contributes to the church’s plight for social recognition and to the accentuation of its
nationalist contentions.
Ritualizing the Villancico: Tension, Ambivalence and Order in the Music
and Traditions of the Philippine Misa de Aguinaldo Ritual
Ma. Alexandra Iñigo-Chua
Music, University of Santo Tomas
The paper provides an investigation of some aspects of cultural alterations in the
context of Hispanic colonialism, in particular the appropriation of the misa de aguinaldo
ritual and the villancico musical genre in Filipino cultural praxis. It will attempt to
interrogate the process of how an appropriated ritual tradition becomes a crucial
defining factor in the postcolonial cultural identity of the people despite ambivalence and
incongruities in the nature of its existence. Moreover, it will explore how the villancico
was utilized in the creation of a shared subjunctive universe that is necessary in the
constitution of Filipino society. Through musical and textual analysis of Filipino
composed villancicos, it hopes to demonstrate how the performative and traditionalizing
features of the villancicos have contributed to the establishment of the balance and
socio-equilibrium in Philippine social life.
I intend to foreground the investigation of the traditions and music of the Simbang Gabi
primarily from the theoretical perspectives of ritual studies developed by scholars in the
field particularly Victor Turner and Adam Seligman, et al. I take on the propositions of
the conceptual models developed by these scholars as the basic approach in the
interpretative analysis of the particularities of this ritual and musical phenomenon.
Seeing-Sounding Social Transformation in (The Music of) Philippine “Theaters”
9
The Dotoc Soundscape: Music, Agency, Community
Jazmin Badong Llana, Ph.D.
Arts, De La Salle University-Manila
‘To live is to echo the vibrancy of things. To be, for material things, is to resonate,’ says
Alphonso Lingis (1994, 96).
The musics and sounds of the dotoc performances in the Bicol Region are practices of
sounding and making and showing the ‘vibrancy’ of life in the communities that keep up
these practices—as acts of ‘worlding’ in a postcolonial context.
All dotoc performances are sung or recited following a specific tradition of stylization like
the dicho of the komedya. And yet improvisation has led to a rich repertoire of melodies,
proof that the performers have actively intervened in the received practices, inventing
and reinventing tunes and melodic patterns, rearranging verses, using new ways of
instrumental accompaniment. Such active ways of ‘resonating’ are evident among not
only the ‘actors’ in the dotoc dramatizations but also the communities that produce
these practices within the larger social context of the fiesta, religious devotion, and
community life.
What accounts for this vibrancy of performative practices and the central role of music
in the performances? What insights can one have from these about the societies that
sustain them? How have these practices of sounding functioned in relation to social
transformation? The paper will explore answers to these questions using the concept of
‘soundscape’ concomitant with the highly improvisational and presentative nature of the
performances and what they might signify in the ethical, cultural, political, and aesthetic
sense.
Cited Work:
Lingis, Alphonso. 1994. The community of those who have nothing in common.
Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.
Flights of Bodies and Beliefs: Through Seas and Identities, Historical
and Theatrical Spaces
Basilio Esteban S. Villaruz
Music, University of the Philippines
How does a people hang on to a legend that persists as historical and contemporary
expression of their cultural identity? The story of the 10 datus of Borneo migrating to a
Visayan island has long inspired literary, theatrical and musical representation, not only
as a myth of the Panayanons but also of a political entity called the Philippines.
This paper refers to several artistic constructions inspired by the legend, but mainly
focuses on one that stemmed from Panay Island itself—in its specific historical,
linguistic and musical embodiments: the Maragtas epic, the Hiligaynon of the Ilonggo
folks, and the composo and other musical conventions. It also queries ideas on artistic
construction in its verities and paradoxes, its situating in time and space of then and
now, its sense of belief and disbelief.
10
Seeing-Sounding Social Transformation in (The Music of) Philippine “Theaters”
grant; received his Certificate in Film as a French Government scholar in Paris, France;
and took up his A.B. in Theater Arts from the University of the Philippines.
Deocampo has won numerous awards for his gritty documentaries and personal films
and also received academic honors and fellowships from prestigious academic
institutions. He has written several books on cinema including his on-going work on a
five-volume history of cinema in the Philippines, from which is based his documentary
film series on the same subject.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Prof. Jocelyn Guadalupe earned her Bachelor of Music (magna cum laude) and
Master of Music in Music Education at the University of the Philippines College of
Music. She is presently taking up PhD in socio-anthropology of education at the UP
College of Education. She works as an assistant secretary in National Commission for
Culture and the Arts Music Committee; as chair at the Commission on Higher Education
Cultural Education Committee; and a board member of the Philippine Society of Music
Education.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Rowena Cristina L. Guevara is a third-year student in the doctoral program of the
College of Music, University of the Philippines Diliman (UPD). Her research interests
are in pedagogical aspects, music theory and computational modeling applied to
Teduray agong music. She is a Professor of Electrical Engineering at UPD, specializing
in speech, audio and image processing, and education.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Eulalio R. Guieb III holds a PhD in anthropology from McGill University. He obtained
his MA in Philippine literature and BA in broadcast communication from the University of
the Philippines-Diliman. He teaches ethnography, culture, development, qualitative
research, drama writing and criticism in the U.P. Department of Broadcast
Communication. He is currently the editor-in-chief of Social Science Diliman: A
Philippine Journal of Society and Change. His research interests include marine
protected areas, political ecology, legal and development anthropology, the politics of
representation, and history of the drama in Philippine television.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Jazmin Badong Llana (PhD, Aberystwyth University, UK) is Associate Professor of
drama, theatre, and performance at the Department of Literature, De La Salle
University-Manila. Presently she is an Executive Council member of the Committee on
Dramatic Arts, National Commission for Culture and the Arts. Active international
affiliations in the field of performance are with the Performance Studies international
(PSi) and the newly organized Performance Philosophy Association. She is also
convening the adhoc group Performance Studies Philippines. She has published in,
among others, a peer-reviewed congress book of the International Drama/Theatre and
Education Association (2009), the Philippine Humanities Review (2010), Performance
Seeing-Sounding Social Transformation in (The Music of) Philippine “Theaters”
27
and Philippine Literature (DFPP), College of Arts and Letters, University of the
Philippines.
The sea shores of a remote town in Batangas province witnessed his early training.
Whispering tunes to the waves, staring at the moving clouds and feeling the texture of
abandoned ancient church wall ruins punctured by balete tree roots colored his
childhood. He trained further in a string of Chinese schools before seeking admission to
the state university. Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA) honed his
theater skills.
He writes occasional poetry, does literary criticism and studies on Philippine literary and
dramatic materials, and creates with a theater group based in Metro Manila labor
unions, “Teatro Pabrika” improvisatory creative drama pieces. He also explores the
use of dramatic elements and rituals for occasions such as university graduation
ceremonies, and union congresses, integrating drama and literary elements in the
otherwise extremely academic and stiff venues.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Ma. Alexandra Iñigo-Chua has a Bachelor of Music in Piano, magna cum laude, from
the University of Santo Tomas Conservatory of Music (1991) and a Master in Music
major in musicology from the University of the Philippines College of Music (2000). She
was awarded a Faculty Development Scholarship program by the Commission on
Higher Education and is currently taking her doctoral degree in music at the University
of the Philippines. She holds an Associate Professor status at the UST Conservatory of
Music where she teaches History of Music, Forms and Analysis, and musicology
subjects. She was the Chair of the Music Literature Department from 2002-2007 of the
said institution. Her book Kirial de Baclayon, published by the Ateneo de Manila
University Press in 2010, inaugurates an important phase in the field of Philippine music
history scholarship. It is a pioneering study of early 19th century liturgical music
repertory, which fully utilized combined historical and analytical musicological methods
of paleography, textual criticism, and music analysis.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Nikki Briones Carsi-Cruz completed her Ph.D. in Southeast Asian Studies under the
supervision of Reynaldo Ileto at the National University of Singapore (2010). Her
dissertation entitled “From War Dance to Theater of War: Moro-Moro Performances in
the Philippines” received the Wang Gung Wu Prize and Medal for Best Thesis in the
Social Sciences and Humanities in 2011. She obtained her Master’s Degree in Peace
and Development Studies from Universitat Jaume I, Castellon, Spain (2002), and her
Bachelor’s Degree in International Studies from De La Salle University (1998). She
currently teaches with the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies at Ateneo de Manila
University.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Nick Deocampo is a prizewinning filmmaker, film historian, and a Professorial Lecturer
at the College of Mass Communication in U.P. Diliman. He received his Master of Arts
degree in Cinema Studies at the New York University through a Fulbright Scholarship
26
Seeing-Sounding Social Transformation in (The Music of) Philippine “Theaters”
The plot of the dance-drama Ang Baybaylan juxtaposes an indigenous religious
authority and a migrant (Asian) political leadership, brought forward to (Spanish)
colonial times, and written out in a late 20th century libretto and choreography. This
Central Philippines production hinges around a shaman (babaylan) who, even at death,
prevails not only through a young and female successor, but also as contemporary
reference to a “residual cultural core” through a theatrical and musical expression of a
national culture.
Will this ever-questioned legend continue to be relevant, even prophetic, in Philippine
political and national fate?
Soundmarks: Locating Music and Dance in Sariaya, Quezon
Verne Dela Peña, Ph.D.
Music, University of the Philippines
This paper seeks to contribute to the description of the ‘spirit of the place’ – the interfacing of
nature and culture that defines Sariaya as a locale – by exploring its soundscapes or the
atmospheres created by sound (Schafer 1969). The acoustic environment contributes as
much as do structural and social landscapes toward the shaping of distinctive local identities.
This relationship between living organisms and the environment mediated in sound has
been the subject of a growing discipline known as acoustic ecology. The present paper limits
the study to the examination of surviving traditional vocal musical expressions in Sariaya as
its “soundmarks” – the term Schafer uses analogous to landmarks in reference to sounds
unique to an area. Common and contrastive features mark the awit, dalit and pabasa as
observed in the field. Similar to the changing nature of the material and human structures of
the town, they occupy differing stages of existence varying from the endangered, to the
preserved, to the thriving.
Searching for Dumaracol, an Epic of the Kalamianen Tagbanua of
Northern Palawan: an Exploratory Field Research
Eulalio R. Guieb III
Mass Communication, University of the Philippines
The project is a search for the unrecorded epic, Dumaracol, of the Kalamianen
Tagbanua of northern Palawan. The presentation reports fieldwork experiences in
locating the remaining chanters and in documenting the current versions of the epic in
several islands of the municipalities of Taytay, El Nido and Linapacan. The project asks
the fundamental question: does the epic still exist? The project addresses this basic
concern before it can proceed in its inquiry about particular local knowledge systems
and customary practices of these indigenous cultural communities that find expression
in the epic.
The research identifies and outlines research issues that need to be addressed in the
documentation and preliminary analysis of the epic. The project is the first phase of a
multi-stage research in locating, recording, documenting, translating, and investigating
this almost unknown and rarely cited epic.
Key words: Dumaracol, Kalamianen Tagbanua, Palawan, oral literature, epic
Seeing-Sounding Social Transformation in (The Music of) Philippine “Theaters”
11
Responses to Culture Change in the Ritual Practices among Sarangani
Blaan: The Case of Instrumental Music Odél (Log Drum)
Mi Hyun Oh
Music, University of the Philippines
This paper investigates the consequences of the cross-cultural encounter between
dominant Visayans and Sarangani Blaan. I explore, in particular, the realm of music in
religious practices. In my research, I found out that rituals are not emphasized because
some aspects of animism have contradicted with the dominant religious sensibility.
Incorporation of the dominant culture has meant that the Blaan had formed new social
identities and had invented practices that indicated a selective accommodation to the
hegemonic culture. Such incorporation can be best seen in the altered meaning and
usage of present-day odél (log drum). In the past, this used to be utilized for ushering
the dead soul to the netherworld. Today, the odél (log drum) is used exclusively for
welcoming visitors in non-ritualized contexts.
Contextual Performance of Teduray Agong Music and Courtship Dance
Rowena Cristina L. Guevara, Ph.D.
Engineering, University of the Philippines, Diliman
The aesthetics, communicative aspect and structure of performance may be seen from
either the side of the performer or the side of the observer. In this paper, we explore the
social meaning of Teduray five gong music and courtship dance performance in public
space. Teduray agong music consists of 5 gong players, each with one gong. The
music is characterized by Maceda’s drone-and-melody as the gong hits 1nterlock to
produce drones, half-drones and improvisation. The courtship dance is performed by at
least one male and one female performer, with a sword and scarf, respectively. The
effect of context on the performance manifests in the choice of piece, length of
performance, structure and improvisation in the music. Three contexts of performances
are considered: private recording of music and dance by researchers and public
performance in a festival and in a graduation ceremony. In the private performance, the
objectives of the researchers were clearly explained prior to the recording. In the public
performance, the researcher was an inconspicuous part of the audience. In the end, the
significance of the courtship ritual has been altered to situate it in public space.
Pag-Jamu Bohey Deya: Observing Socialization and Memory in the
Music-Dance Ritual of the Sacred Well among the Sama of Tabawan
Island, Municipality of South Ubian, Tawi-Tawi Province, Southern
Philippines
Matthew CM Santamaria, Ph.D.
Asian Center, University of the Philippines, Diliman
This paper looks at ritual as an important source of collective memory as well as a
process of socialization via the performance of the igal dance and the kulintangan music
traditions among the Sama Tabawan of Tawi-Tawi Province, Southern Philippines.
Memory is seen mainly as a continuation of a pre-Islamic past via narratives of
12
Seeing-Sounding Social Transformation in (The Music of) Philippine “Theaters”
Manobo Possession Ritual (Routledge, 2002). He has taught at the University of
Pennsylvania (teaching Fellowship), the University of Hong Kong (while on a
postdoctoral fellowship), and the University of the Philippines where he is Associate
Professor in the College of Music. He currently serves as liaison officer for the
Philippines in the International Council for Traditional Music (ICTM), Chair of the
Humanities Division of the National Research Council of the Philippines, Editor of
Humanities Diliman, and is the incumbent Dean of the UP College of Music.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Associate Professor Reuben Ramas Cañete, Ph.D. (b. 1966), finished a BFA in
Painting from UST; MA in Art History at UP Diliman; and PhD in Philippine Studies, also
at UP Diliman. He is currently Associate Professor and Assistant to the Dean for Arts
and Culture, Asian Center, University of the Philippines Diliman as well as the Acting
Curator of the Asian Center Museum. He is also a regular member of the Division of
Humanities, National Research Council of the Philippines. As a writer, he contributed as
art critic to The Philippine Star, The Philippine Daily Inquirer, The Manila Times, The
Manila Bulletin, Business Day, Mabuhay, Asia Art News, and currently contributes to
BluPrint, My Home and Lifestyle Asia. His academic essays for Plaridel: Philipine
Journal for Mass Communications, Diliman Review, Espasyo: Philippine Journal for
Architecture and Allied Arts, and Humanities Diliman deal with issues of art history,
gendered space and masculinity. He has solo-authored five books [Pasyal: Walking
Around UP Diliman (2004); Homecoming: Buncio Collection of Philippines Art (2007);
Pulilan: the Blessed Land (2011); Art and its Contexts: Essays, Reviews and Interviews
in Philippine Art (2012) and Sacrificial Bodies: The Oblation and the Political Aesthetics
of Masculine Representations in Philippine Art (2012)]; edited one book-length
anthology [Suri Sining: The Art Studies Anthology (2011); and co-authored three other
books [The Philippine Heart Center: 30 Years of Heart Care and Compassion (2005);
Philippine Studies: Have We Gone Beyond St. Louis? (2008); and Pinoy Umami: The
Heart of Philippine Cuisine (2009)]. As an artist, he has conducted three solo exhibitions
and participated in several grouped exhibitions. He also served as President of the Art
Association of the Philippines (AAP) from 2000-2002. He received the Leo Benesa
Award for Art Criticism in 1996.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Patrick F. Campos is a film and literary scholar and a faculty at the University of the
Philippines Film Institute. He was formerly the Coordinator of the UP Film Center and
College Secretary of the UP College of Mass Communication. He is currently the
Director of the Office of Extension and External Relations of that college.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Apolonio Bayani Chua finished his PhD. In Philippine Studies at the University of the
Philippines. The University of the Philippines Press (2009) published his dissertation
“SIMULAIN: Dulambayan ng Manggagawasa Konteksto ng Militanteng Kilusang
Unyonismo (1980-1994)” (SIMULAIN: Worker’s Theater in the Context of Militant Trade
Unionism /1980-1994/). He is currently Professor in the same university handling
courses in Philippine Literature, Philippine Drama, Filipino Composition, Philippine
Studies and Rizal Course. He served as chair (2000-2003) of the Department of Filipino
Seeing-Sounding Social Transformation in (The Music of) Philippine “Theaters”
25
BIONOTES
Eufracio C. Abaya, holds a Ph.D. Anthropology from Michigan State University, and is
currently a Professor of Educational Anthropology in the Division of Curriculum &
Instruction of the College of Education, University of the Philippines. His current
research interests include: indigenous education; folklore, place, and education;
aesthetics of care; spirituality and aging; personhood, disability and local moral world.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Jonas Baes is a composer, ethnomusicologist and cultural activist. He studied at the
University of the Philippines [PhD 2004] and at the Freiburg Musikhochschule in
Germany. His works have been performed in numerous international festivals in
Europe, the United States, Asia and New Zealand. He has also published extensively
on the music of the Iraya-Mangyan and on issues of cultural politics, hegemony and
power. He was an Asian Public Intellectual Fellow in 2008 and was recently guest
professor in composition at the Musikhochchule in Lübeck, Germany.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Myra Beltran is the dancer and choreographer who formed Dance Forum in 1995.
From her initiative and use of alternative performing spaces, she is a pioneer in what
was is called Philippine independent contemporary dance in the Philippines.
She received the 2001 Alab ng Haraya (Flame of Inspiration) for individual recognition
in the performing arts from the National Commission for Culture and the Arts and the
Tanging Parangal (Highest Honor) from the City of Manila in 2007. Her solo repertoire is
the most extensive in the Philippines – a career path that has paved the way for other
dance artists in the Philippines. Ms. Beltran has done commissioned work for local and
international organizations in Taipei, USA. She has performed abroad in prestigious
dance festival, and has read papers on her art in conferences in Taipei, Korea and
Japan. She was an Asian Cultural Council Grantee for the years 2011-12 for which she
completed a three-month residency in New York City.
Ms. Beltran is the primary initiator and founding director of Wifi Body Festival and the
Contemporary Dance Map Series whose frame and guiding spirit is hers. These
initiatives have helped numerous choreographers in producing and presenting new work
and empowered many dance artists to pursue their unique paths in dance.
Ms. Beltran holds a master’s degree in Comparative Literature from the University of the
Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
José S. Buenconsejo studied musicology at the University of the Philippines, the
University of Hawaii, and at the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned his
doctorate in 1999. Recipient of grants from the East-West Center, Asian Cultural
Council, and Mellon Foundation (Dissertation Fellowship), Dr. Buenconsejo has
published a book, Songs and Gifts at the Frontier: Person and Exchange in the Agusan
24
Seeing-Sounding Social Transformation in (The Music of) Philippine “Theaters”
ancestors, spirits and magic. Socialization is viewed as a consistent practice of
observing proper “names, statuses and actions.” Both memory and socialization are
perceived to reach their fullest form of expression during ritual. Ritual, in turn, is seen to
be largely defined by the auditory and kinetic experience of music and dance. Part 1 of
the paper introduces the Sama Tabawan and their geographic and status location in the
so-called Sulu-world. Part 2 gives a brief description of the Pag-Jamu Bohey Deya
ritual as observed on site from 23-25 May 2013. Part 3 looks at specific instances of
retrieval and (re) creation of memory made possible mainly through trance dancing
called patakahan whereby ancestral and other spiritual personalities make their
individual presences felt and transmit their inter-generational messages. Part 4
discusses the notion socialization within the context of ritual as observed among a)
participants in the state of trance, b) participants as convenors of rituals, and c)
participants as onlookers of ritual.
The notions of “proscription” and “prescription”
appear to define socialization via ritual. By way of conclusion, Part 5 a preliminary
model of socialization and memory-making in Sama Tabawan ritual.This model hopes
to guide future research in Sama Tabawan rituals which to this day constitute a largely
unexamined area of life in the Southern Philippines.
Musica Moralia: The Buenaventuras, Music, and Politics
Resil Mojares, Ph.D.
University of San Carlos
Taking the exemplary case presented by four generations of a family of musicians, the
Buenventuras, the paper reflects on the relation between music and politics, the
difficulties in rendering political judgments on music (construed as a complex of acts
from composition to performance and reception), as well as the necessities for making
such a judgment.
Performing Pity in Balagtas: Translation and the Question of Address
Vicente L. Rafael, Ph.D.
History, University of Washington, Seattle
What constitutes the literary power of Balagtas' epic poem, "Florante at Laura"? How is
that power performed in displays of pity and generosity by the protagonists of the poem
and by the author himself? In this paper, I will seek to address these questions by
situating Balagtas in relation to a history of translation, paying attention in particular to
the vernacularization of Castilian and the secularization of public spaces of performance
by the nineteenth century.
Performances of Martyrdom and their Spaces of Density: Rizal, Suicide
Bombers, and Saints
Marian Pastor Roces
Independent Scholar
Martyrdom as performative act preserves religion in national imagining. I do not so
much argue this point as use it as a pivot into a discussion of the density of spaces
Seeing-Sounding Social Transformation in (The Music of) Philippine “Theaters”
13
where bodies perform community in extremis. Density itself is the object of this paper. I
propose that a dense, complexity-science regard towards the term "public space"
(beyond the gestures towards multi- and inter-disciplinary methods) will richly inform
current political analysis. And that the performative enacted politically in those spaces
explode and reorganize their specificities.
Paglulugar sa Espasyo, Espasyo ng Paglulugar: Isang Historikal na Pagninilay
sa Konstruksyon ng Individual at Publiko ng Manonood ng Pelikula
The paper is twice bracketed: Firstly by a chance encounter I had with a performance
piece on early Hezbollah suicide bombing during a period when I was thinking about my
curatorial work at the Rizal Shrine at Fort Santiago, Intramuros; and secondly by the
juxtaposition in my mind of current events in Lebanon and Syria, and the imminent
changes slated by the current authorities at the same Rizal Shrine. Within these
brackets, imagination is only one of myriad vectors of transformation.
Ang presentasyon ay tumitingin sa historikal na lugar ng panonood ng sine: mula sa
mga teatrong nagpapalabas ng popular na dula tungo sa pananakop ng pelikula sa mga
teatrong ito—ang pamamayani ng sinehan bilang pinakapopular na masang libangan sa
bansa. Popular ang sine dahil nakakapanghikayat ito ng komunidad ng manonood,
lampas sa outdated na pelikula na ipinapalabas sa telebisyon. Simula 1970s, magiging
pribatisado ang panonood ng sine sa iba’t ibang elitistang format: betamax, VHS, VCD
at DVD (pero hanggang mademokratisa ang VCD at DVD ng media piracy).
Protesta/Propaganda: Mga Musika sa Pagbuo ng Lipunang Filipino sa
Panahon ng Bagong Lipunan
Simula 2000, malawakang magbabago ang lugar ng pagtangkilik sa sine sa tatlong
halos magkakasabay na kaganapan: una, ang pagbabago ng sityo ng panonood, mula
stand-alone na sinehan tungo sa cinema complex na nakalagak sa malls; ikalawa, ang
pagbabago ng teknolohiya ng pelikula, mula celluloid tungo sa digital, at ang
proliferasyon ng piracy sa iba’t ibang format; at ikatlo, ang proliferasyon ng indie cinema
na may mataas na turing kahit pa manipis ang manonood nito sa cultural centers at
limitadong akses sa sinehan.
Raul C. Navarro, Ph.D.
Music, University of the Philippines, Diliman
Ang saliksik ay isang kritikal na pagtingin sa mga lipunang tinangkang buuin ng
magkabilang panig ng rehimeng Marcos at ng alternatibong Marksista-LeninistaMaoistang ideyolohiya sa ilalim ng Partido Sosialista ng Filipinas gamit ang mga
musikang propaganda at musikang protesta. Ang mga batis nito ay ang publikasyong
Mga Awit ng Bagong Lipunan, You Are Not Forgotten, Paghahasik: Mga Awit ng
Pabrika’t Lansangan, at Mga Kanta ng Rebolusyong Pilipino.
Kaakibat nito ang malay ding pagsasama sa daloy ng naratibo ang mga publikasyong
Philippine Society and Revolution (ni Amado Guerrero) at “Rectify the Errors, Rebuild
the Party” ng Partido Sosialista, An Ideology for Filipinos naman at Limang Taon ng
Bagong Lipunan ng rehimeng Marcos.
Matingkad ang labanan ng mga ideyolohiyang nais buuin sa ilalim ng Bagong Lipunan
at Partido Sosialista. At malay din ang programa ng rehimeng Marcos upang supilin ang
katunggaling alternatibo. Ang makinarya ng gobyerno sa pagkontrola sa taumbayan at
katunggaling ideyolohiya—militar, pulis, at para-militar na mga grupo—ay naging paksa
ng mga awiting protesta sa kanayunan at siyudad.
Pag-aaralan ang lirik ng mga awit, at mula rito ay bubuuin ang larawan ng mundong
tinatahak at iniendorso gamit ang metodong tekstuwal na pag-aanalisa.
Pakay ng saliksik na bumuo at gumawa ng kritikal na naratibo ukol sa mga mundong
inilarawan at itinulak sa mga awit.
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Seeing-Sounding Social Transformation in (The Music of) Philippine “Theaters”
Roland B. Tolentino, Ph.D.
Mass Communication, University of the Philippines, Diliman
Nais ng papel na imapa ang lugar at espasyo ng sine sa panlipunan at individual na
buhay ng manonood: sa isang banda, kung paano niya inilulugar ang kanyang buhay
batay sa sityo ng panonood ng pelikula; at sa kabilang banda, kung paano siya
inilulugar ng nagbabagong penomenon ng panonood ng sine.
Contesting Ideologies in the Theater of 1902
Nicanor G. Tiongson, Ph.D.
Mass Communication, University of the Philippines, Diliman
In 1902, the fate of the country hung in the balance. Aguinaldo had been captured the
year before, but Sakay had proclaimed the rebirth of the Katipunan. The Americans had
grabbed Philippine independence, but in many pueblos, and even in the U.S., protests
against the imperialist expansionism of McKinley’s government continued. In that liminal
moment between freedom and subjugation, colonialists and nationalists alike sought to
tilt the balance in their own favour by using either arms or cultural persuasion, with the
latter emerging as the strategy of choice after the end of the Phil-Am war. Not
surprisingly, such strategy was best realized through what was then the most popular
form of entertainment—the theater. In 1902, four important plays effectively advanced
their respective, and contrary, ideologies. Manila audiences watched the pro-American
Sandugong Panaguinip, the first Filipino opera, with script by Pedro Paterno and music
by Ladislao Bonus; the “chameleon play” Walang Sugat, the mother of all Tagalog
sarswela, with libretto by Severino Reyes and music by Fulgencio Tolentino; and the
“seditious” Tanikalang Guinto, a straight drama written by Juan Abad. In the same year
but across the ocean, Chicago, Boston, and New York were thrilled by The Sultan of
Sulu, a pro-McKinley musical comedy with script by George Ade and music by Alfred
Wathall. The paper analyses how these plays orchestrated the script, production
design, and music (or lack of it) to communicate their various messages to audiences in
1902.
Seeing-Sounding Social Transformation in (The Music of) Philippine “Theaters”
23
The Many-splendoured Kundiman in the "Paki-usap" Film Score (1940):
A criticism on the Seeing-Sounding of "Romantic Love" in a Philippine
Feudalistic Class Structure
Pagkanta ng Totoo sa mga Lipunang Sinilensyo
José S. Buenconsejo
Music, University of the Philippines, Diliman
Song has great affective power. It can stir such intense emotions so as to
spontaneously bond people together and create among them a sense of shared identity.
One of the few extant Filipino films, Octavio Silos's film "Paki-usap" (1940) based on the
theme song "Pakiusap" (Plea) by Franscisco Santiago (1889-1947) provides a "seeingsounding" of "romantic love" in a Philippine feudalistic social heirarchy based on wealth
and social class. A lame mimetic representation that can only offer an inert window into
heirarchy but not change it, the film revolves around the narrative of competing lovers
"wounded" by a social value for upholding class boundaries that, nonetheless, the
music in the soundtrack indexes sufficiently well in general. In addition to Santiago's
kundiman seen and heard as harana in the beginning, there are many other genres of
music that are incorporated in the screen representation, not mentioning the different
arrangements or renditions of the theme song, which project a complex picture of "love"
in relation to individual sincerity, collective duty, constraints, and legitimation of marriage
across a socio-political barrier.
At the height of student activism in the Philippines, for example, and throughout the
Marcos dictatorship, only the singing of the plaintive Bayan Ko enable demonstrators to
hold their ranks together and brave the tear gas, water cannon and police truncheons.
Music and Early Cinema in the Philippines
Nick Deocampo
Mass Communication, University of the Philippines, Diliman
Although initially silent, early cinema earned popular approval in the Philippines when
film screenings were accompanied by musical accompaniment. Here was reflected the
European culture that was once embraced by foreign and elite local theatergoers who
loved listening to the Western music used to accompany early films. In time, the seeds
of “native” culture also began to seek its own sonic space through the “traditional” music
that accompanied early local film productions. With the coming of sound in motion
pictures, film music became an integral part of the Filipinos’ cinematic experience, also
giving way to local film musicians to assert their homegrown innovations to the genre.
How the use of film music was influenced by the two colonial cultures
(Spanish/European and American) and the local culture and how in turn this “trialectical”
process shaped the country’s cultural history is the problem which this paper will try to
address.
Film music is a term used here to designate the deployment of music in order to
accompany the visual experience one gets in watching films. It provides the audio
dimension to film’s visual experience. Through its initial adoption in film and the varied
permutations it underwent in subsequent years—starting with the awkward experiments
in sound recording to the rise of slick Hollywood musicals—the history of how music
evolved in cinema also reflects how Philippine cinematic and cultural landscape have
evolved. Moreover, film music’s development is overlayed with the country’s political
history that has, in turn, determined the Filipino people’s cultural identity.
Teresita G. Maceda, Ph.D.
Arts and Letters, University of the Philippines, Diliman
Songs can be likened, in the words of Argentinian Bernardo Palombo of the group
Canta Claro, to “guns and flowers.” Where freedom of expression has been curtailed,
songs arm the people with bullets to fire directly at authoritarian rule, expose its true
nature and thereby weaken it. But the songs are also roses offered to victims of
violence and injustice, as well as assertions of the right of the poor to a life of dignity
and to love freely.
This paper analyzes representative songs written and performed in societies forced to
live under authoritarian rules. In Chile and Argentina during the period infamously
called “the dirty wars,” and in the Philippines during the dark years of Martial law, the
songs of protest were harnessed by the people for their truth-telling power to unmask
the ugly nature of the dictatorships.
Tunog at Hulagway sa Espasyo ng Dulaang Raha Sulayman, Fort
Santiago sa Danas ng Philippine Educational Theater Association, 19671995
Apolonio Bayani Chua, Ph.D.
Arts and Letters, University of the Philippines, Diliman
Layon ng artikulo na ilatag ang panimulang pagsasalansan ng mga datos ugnay sa
danas ng kompanyang Philippine Educational Theater Association sa mga produksyong
pandulaan nito sa Dulaang Raha Sulayman, Fort Santiago. Bibigyan diin ang mga
magkakahugpong na dalumat ng tunog, hulagway, at espasyo sangkot sa danas sa
mga pandulaang produksyion ng natukoy na kompanya sa mga taong 1967-1995.
Magtatangkang maglinaw sa partikularidad ng danas, kapwa sa pisikal na antas
hanggang mga kahulugang pampamayanan na nahuhuli sa mga proseso ng paglikha
ng dulaan. May tutok din sa anyo ng awit at dulang musikal, gayundin sa mga akda ng
musikerong Gardy Labad bilang espesyal na interes sa mga pangkalahatang talakay.
Pipili ng pinaka-angkop na mga detalye, halimbawa, sa abot ng kaya ng alaala ng
mananaliksik, gayundin susog na mga datos mula sa artsibo ng kompanya. Mula sa
antas ng danas, aangat ang pagsasalansan sa antas ng kahulugan, at higit na malawak
na pagsangkot sa dalumat ng kilusang bayan nang mga panahong naturan.
Pagpapatotoo, pagpapahalaga at pagbubunyi ang artikulo sa kultura at konteksto ng
dulaang hinubog at umiral sa partikularidad ng isang kompanya sa isang espasyo.
Key words: film music, early cinema, cultural history, colonization, indigenization,
Filipino identity, trialectic
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Seeing-Sounding Social Transformation in (The Music of) Philippine “Theaters”
Seeing-Sounding Social Transformation in (The Music of) Philippine “Theaters”
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Abelardo Hall Auditorium: A Theater for All Seasons
Ramon P. Santos, Ph.D.
Music, University of the Philippines, Diliman
The Abelardo Hall Auditorium was constructed in 1962 and finished in 1963 under the
auspices of the United States Agency for International Development. It was a structure
with fine acoustical properties second only to the almost perfect acoustics of the
Philamlife Auditorium. In fact, it was the second modern air-conditioned auditorium in
the greater Manila area built after the second world war. After fifty years of its existence
and countless activities, this auditorium has not only proven itself as a multi-functional
hall, but also a structure that stood witness to some of the most historical events within
the life of the UP Conservatory and later College of Music, but also within the life of the
University as well as the life of the nation itself. It has become a heritage site in which
the multi-dimensional Filipino soul has exhibited and communicated its unbounded
artistic and academic aspirations and has continued to dynamically expand its horizons
into the realm of human expression.
From Ading to the Weeping of Crocodiles: Sound Murals and Social
Spaces in Philippine Contemporary Music
Jonas U. Baes, Ph.D.
Music, University of the Philippines, Diliman
In September 1978, Jose Maceda's "sound mural" Ading was given its premiere
performance at the Abelardo Hall Auditorium. Rendered by groups of voices numbering
to about a hundred standing onstage; and then a hundred more bamboo instrument
players sitting with the public; the audience itself (numbering more than a hundred)
punctuated the music by extending a single note at specific moments. The repetitive
nature of the music along with the diffused sounds of intricate bamboo instruments
deployed within the whole performance space invoked collective memories from many
of those who were present The music created a semblance of a rainforest and a
community living within its bounties. Subsequent years saw three generations who
follow Maceda's epistemology, making space integral to the compositional process and
performance. In this paper, I address the issue of the integration of performance space
in the conceptual formulation of Philippine "New Music" [those from the lineage Jose
Maceda and those who follow him] from a political perspective, in relation to the
[re]construction of culture and invoking theories from critical geopolitics [Tuathail 1996;
Flint 2006; Megoren 2008; Baes 2011].
The Pub Scene: Theater of Collaboration
Lara Katrina T. Mendoza
English, Ateneo de Manila University
“historiograhic metafiction” by one of its foremost proponents, Linda Hutcheon. Taking
it further as staged performance, the paper benefits from Alexander Feldman’s
discussion of “historiographic metatheatre” which “employs one form of dramatic artifice
to expose another.” In this way, the paper will show that as performance The Onyx
Wolf / Itim Asu was able to point to the power structure in its constructedness.
Translated further as multi-media contemporary dance performance premiered in the
year 2009, as “Itim Asu: 1719-2009,” Dance Forum in the choreography of Myra
Beltran adds another layer to The Onyx Wolf / Itim Asu becoming another layer and
rendering / re-rendering - multiple frames within frames, leaving traces of a trace of
history in a performance which leaves its own traces.
Adaptation, Spectacle, Archive in the Beginnings of 'Screen Rizal'
Patrick F. Campos
Mass Communication, University of the Philippines, Diliman
The year 2012 marks the 100th year of “Screen Rizal.” As his fiction(s) exerted
influence on literary forms and his meaning contested by American colonizers and
Filipino nationalists in the first decade of the 20th century, Rizal also significantly
determined the beginnings of Filipino cinema. Rizal does so now, from our historical
point-of-view, as archival lacuna, appearing time and again as a kind of trace in records
of spectacles, public festivals, and stage performances.
The medium of film arrived in the Philippines two days after the execution of Rizal.
Possibly the earliest film footage recorded in the Philippines and one of the earliest
known exhibitions are related to the Rizal Day celebrations of 1904 and 1909
respectively. The first feature films produced in the Philippines are two box-office hit
biopics of Rizal released in 1912, shortly followed by adaptations of his novels. And
some of the earliest works of the “the Father of Philippine Cinema,” Jose Nepomuceno,
were likewise centered on the image of Rizal. All of these films are nonexistent today.
Concurrently, as more and more materials were filmed by Americans in or about the
Philippines and shown in America, literary form, popular theater, and the new medium
of film converged in the image of Rizal at home front. Again, here, the figure of Rizal
sheds light on the emptiness of the “native” audiovisual archive and the fullness of the
“Oriental” archive.
In light of the centennial of Screen Rizal, the paper traces the beginnings and
problematizes the parallel developments of the symbol of Rizal and of cinema as a
popular media form. It chronicles the historical developments of the "official" Rizal,
which reaches a climax in 1912 and 1913, as the idea of the nation was being
formalized, and comparatively analyzes the "popular" Rizal in the context of a nascent
“national” cinema.
Navigating the theatrical space that a bar or nightclub provides is to establish the
function and affordance (De Nora, 2003) of rock in the Pinoy Alternative scene.
Essentially, the performance of rock music in a decidedly theatrical space of the bar or
pub with its comforting darkness, the lit stage, and the ubiquitous alcohol served by
obsequious waiters and bartenders, is a cultivated practice carved out by specific,
particular tastes and preferences that can be viewed as other, sub-cultural, subaltern. A
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Seeing-Sounding Social Transformation in (The Music of) Philippine “Theaters”
21
performativity of crowds of hysterical photojournalists and video crews) that marks the
Oblation Run as a unique manifestation of “postmodern” street theater, imbibed with its
own hybridized rules of performance and ritual. By understanding the Run as theatrical
ritual within the political aesthetic dimension of fomenting social consciousness and
transformation, the study casts a critical eye towards how masculinity, media culture,
and spectacle in the era of globalization function as indices of modernity in Philippine
social life, and the inter-temporality of Filipino performative culture.
Keywords: Oblation Run, masculinity, APO, spectacle, street theater
On-line Street Performances of Musicians with Disabilities: Politics of
Recognition in Motion
Eufracio C. Abaya, Ph.D.
Education, University of the Philippines, Diliman
Deploying netnography, this paper delves into the subjectivities of netizens generated
by their on-line encounters with performances of musicians with disabilities in public
spaces, notably in streets and vicinities of Metro-Manila, Baguio City, and Talisay City.
Analysis will show that netizens, grounded as they are in translocal moral world, bring to
bear the politics of recognition (i.e., tensions between social inclusion and social
exclusion) through their textual narratives of “persons with disability,” “musical talent
and performance,” and “caring and disregard.”
Trace of a Trace: Dance and History in Virginia Moreno’s The Onyx Wolf /
Itim Asu
Myra C. Beltran
Independent Scholar
Virginia Moreno’s historical play The Onyx Wolf, or Itim Asu in translation, is a curious
text which, in its multiple layers and its self-reflexivity, blurs the categories of fiction and
history. But more than its apparent subject and its self-referential structure as written
text, its staging as drama and as dance in both events have of themselves, claimed
their symbolic places in history, both being historically placed as events occurring prior
to the declaration of martial rule in the Philippines (and in the case of dance, was
continuously performed during martial rule at the Cultural Center of the Philippines,
symbol of power of the dictator). Hence, in its written form and in its staged version as
drama and as dance, The Onyx Wolf / Itim Asu serves as a carrier of desire as myth
blurring with history.
pub possesses specific aspects of theatre: the stage, the compression of attention to
the performer(s) on the stage, the appeal of its music via the performance of the rock
vocalist also embodies the aspirations and sometimes inchoate yet cogent identity of
the adoring --- and some of the time, inebriated --- crowd of rock music aficionados and
casual bystanders. It is this very same stage that appears to be the point of
convergence of three different parties: the performer onstage, the audience in front of
the stage, and the producer/manager backstage. Often this is a triangulation of
negotiated relationships that are integral to the final performance; without these three,
there is no theater. The degree by which this performance leaves an impact is often a
function of how these three parties interact and collaborate. Following the basic studies
of Simon Frith’s seminal work in rock music and Antoine Hennion’s taste cultures in the
world of music, this paper aims to show how the theatre of the intimate pub is brought to
fruition by the colourful, eventful interaction and negotiation among the producer,
performer, and the audience. The discussion will focus mainly on the alternative Pinoy
rock band, Sugarfree and its lead vocalist, Ebe Dancel, as the main performers of the
Pinoy (alternative) Rock theatre.
Femmecees Reprznt! The Lives, Strides and Rhymes of Filipina Rappers
at the Dawn of Pinoy Hip-hop in the Late 80s and Early 90s
Roselle Pineda
Arts and Letters, University of the Philippines, Diliman
In the Philippines, the second half of the 1980s and the early years of the 1990s decade
saw the fall of a dictator, a “peaceful revolution,” later on, the massacre of peasants
under the new “democratic” regime, the soaring prices of oil and other basic goods, the
height of Filipino Diaspora, the Gulf War, and the social unrest against the US Military
Bases. Amidst this social strife, Pinoy (Filipino) Hip-hop was borne from the lines of
second generation Filipino-Americans (Fil-Ams) who either came back from the United
States or were born in the Philippines, especially within the areas where US Military
Bases are located, in Olongapo, Zambales and Pampanga. These “Amboys” – a
colloquial term for “American Boy” – formed the first Breakdance Crews. Soon after, hiphop as a musical genre and community became widespread because of nationwide
“Breakdance Battles.” From these gatherings, rapping and “Dj-ing” became a regular
trend in breakdance battles, until some of the prominent names and groups in Pinoy
Hip-hop emerged. The most popular being Francis “Kiko” Magalona, who started as a
break-dancer or a breaker, and later came to be known as The Master Rapper, The
Man from Manila and regarded as the Father of Pinoy Hip-hop.
This paper will discuss a re-reading of “The Onyx Wolf/ Itim Asu” as ongoing history as
a contemporary dance performance. The medium for this re-reading is contemporary
dance to emphasize the idea that “The Onyx Wolf” sought to convey a spirit of
resistance in Philippine history that is lodged in the body, surfacing briefly at various
points throughout Philippine history.
However, Pinoy Hip-hop remained marginalized and to a certain degree, underground
and anti-mainstream, despite the wide commercial success of some of the figureheads
in Pinoy Hip-hop. This ambivalent place of Pinoy Hip-hop within the popular music
industry created a highly diverse, oftentimes conflicting brand of music from hip-hop
artists, from the socially aware to decadent and sexist lyricism. This kind of Pinoy hiphop scene which is largely dominated by males and had created a rather misogynist
ambience, made it extra hard for Pinay (Filipina) women rappers to exist and persist in
this music community and genre. This is the trajectory of this research.
In problematizing The Onyx Wolf / Itim Asu as written text, the paper benefits from the
insights of how history is problematized by a postmodern kind of fiction, called
Although the term “femmecee” is a relatively new term invented to refer to women
emcees and/or rappers within the Pinoy Hip-hop scene, the existence and persistence
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Seeing-Sounding Social Transformation in (The Music of) Philippine “Theaters”
17
of pioneering Femmecees to thrive, produce music and organize within the community
of female rappers, have become a great source of history and story of women in music,
and of inspiration for the younger and aspiring femmecees of the present.
For this particular paper, I am focusing on three pioneering women rappers – namely,
Lady Diane also known as The First Lady of Rap, MC Lara and HoneyLuv of the rap
group 4EastFlava. As my title indicates, it is my intention to look into, first, the lives of
these Femmecees and how they came to choose and embrace a relatively marginalized
and male-dominated music community and genre. The questions that I will ask in this
section are - what are the social and personal backgrounds that pushed these women
into choosing Hip-hop as a musical genre? What were their struggles as women in a
male-dominated community? Secondly, I will look into their “stride,” swag or attitudes
and image as women rappers. I will also go into how much participation these women
undertook in terms of creating their image and their brand of music vis-à-vis their record
label or record company? Thirdly, I will do a textual analysis of their rhymes/lyricism and
music. It is my initial observation that the lyricism of most women rappers bears an
almost immediate critique to the social conditions that they are situated in, whether it is
a personal critique to the dominance of hetero-normative relations in romantic
relationships or a social critique to the never ending Oil Price Hikes or even, the Gulf
War. Moreover, I will go deeper into these women’s processes of creation, of how they
choose their subjects, write lyrics and on to putting the words into music. In conclusion, I
would like to see the place of women rappers or femmecees in the Pinoy Hip-hop
scene. What kind of space did they carve out for themselves? What were the scope and
limitations of their participation in creating that initial space for hip-hop and the country?
And what kind of path and how wide was that path that they paved for future, younger
and aspiring femmecees in the country?
As there is great scarcity, almost none, of resource/s written on Pinoy Hip-hop, more so,
Pinay Hip-hop artists, this paper will be a good initial contribution to a whole lot of topics
on women and popular music waiting to be written.
Tertulia: Public Music in Private Spaces, Private Sphere to Public
Sphere
Ma. Patricia Brillantes-Silvestre
Music, University of the Philippines, Diliman
This paper investigates the culture of the Hispanic tertulia, a popular form of domestic
recreation and site of sociability in 19th-century Philippine society. Merging music,
poetry, literature, dance and art with food and conversation, the tertulia was initially a
colonial-elite construct with its own class-and race-exclusive norms and values, but
which eventually was claimed by the educated middle class as well as the lower
classes. This development was occasioned by the Filipino “colonial Enlightenment”
brought on by the colony’s opening up to global urbanization, industrialization and
education in the last decades of the 19th-century, as tensions with Spain heightened.
The rise of a Filipino salon society and intelligentsia in this period propelled the tertulia
to the bourgeois public sphere (Habermas), its role in nation-formation as an arena for
rational-critical discourse spurred by the entry of the piano and print music into the
regular domestic setting. This paper seeks to address issues in the performativity of
public music in private spaces, the intricate aesthetic complications involved, and how
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Seeing-Sounding Social Transformation in (The Music of) Philippine “Theaters”
the private/domestic bourgeois sphere of intellectual and artistic sociability fostered
through music and the culture of print engendered a critical ‘public’ with an incipient
sense of ‘Filipino-ness’ cutting through ethnic barriers.
Disciplining Women Through Music: A Preliminary Interpretation of
Women's Music in Late 19th to Mid-20th Century Manila
Crisancti L. Macazo
Santa Isabel College
This paper is a preliminary study about Filipino women with regard their role in society
during late nineteenth to mid-twentieth century Manila. During the late 1800's, women
were domesticated through music but not honed as stage performers. These
"domesticated" Filipinas inevitably displayed their prowess in musical performances and
changed the view of the society that is dominated by men.
The research focuses on various agencies that contributed to the emancipation of
Filipino women from household performances to their display in concert stage. To
understand this process, I use Richard Leppert's theoretical framework on image and
gender of women in music and Eloisa Hernandez's study on Filipina visual artists of the
nineteenth century. I will support my findings with archival sources concerning music
schools, music academies, and interviews.
Flowers, Toast Songs, and Masked Streakers: The Oblation Run as
Ritualized Street Theater and Spectacle
Reuben Ramas Cañete, Ph.D.
Asian Center, University of the Philippines, Diliman
The Oblation Run, first held in 1977, has become something of a celebrated “street
theater” ritual in the contexts of the academic precincts of the University of the
Philippines (UP). Ostensively started as a form of consciousness-awareness raising
towards current social issues, the Oblation Run has become a preeminent feature in the
annual cultural calendar of the University, especially during the anniversary of its
founding institution, the Alpha Phi Omega (APO) Eta Chapter of UP Diliman. Held every
second or third week of December, this ritual partakes of equal parts fraternal
exhibitionism, performance art, protest art, and inter-gendered public spectacle in which
young male participants, naked except for head covers (and more recently, with
bouquets of flowers) “run” in a pre-designated route within the Palma Hall complex of
UP Diliman starting and ending in the fraternity’s tambayan, the Greenhouse restaurant.
This study attempts to frame the Oblation Run as a distinct manifestation of “street
protest theater” geared to legitimate the fraternal institutional power of APO through the
discourse of masculine “braggadocio” not unlike that of brash young opera tenors.
However, it is through the public display of multiple naked bodies that this brashness is
foregrounded and ciphered (chiefly by APO’s internal discourse) as a manifestation of
masculine “bravery;” while its ogling, heaving masses of screaming publics often
resignify this same act in other ways. Its success has bred numerous “copycat” Runs in
other UP campuses, as well as in street protest. It is the multiplicity of this spectacle,
open to the public and broadcast on national and global television (with its own
Seeing-Sounding Social Transformation in (The Music of) Philippine “Theaters”
19