MUSIC of the LOWLANDS of LUZON

MUSIC of the LOWLANDS of LUZON

by MA CHARITY I NAVARRO

Social Functions

Music for Worship and Religious festivities

Composition

Songs

Dances

Instrumental music

Cultural Context

History and Traditions

Spanish colonization

Christianity and Catholic religion

Performance Styles / Techniques

Tiples

INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC

Las Piñas Bamboo Organ

The Tiples de Santo Domingo is an all-boy vocal group established in 1587 by Fr. Pedro Bolaños, O.P., and is currently the oldest existing choral group in the Philippines. The word “tiple” in Spanish means the soprano voice of a boy. When members reach the age of puberty, their voices change either to a tenor or a bass. The boys range from 8 years old to 14 and sometimes a little bit older.

Fr. Diego Cera started with the construction of the bamboo organ in 1816 and it was finished eight years after in 1824. It has gone through a lot since then.

The St. Joseph Parish Church in Las Piñas houses the Bamboo Organ, and it is about ten kilometers south of the heart of Metro Manila.

If there’s one thing that is unique about Las Piñas, it is the Bamboo Organ, which is considered a Philippine National Treasure. On November 24, 2003, it was given this recognition by the National Museum of the Philippines since “it is the only 19th century Bamboo Organ in the Philippines that has survived and is still functioning.” This unique musical instrument is composed of 1,031 pipes, and 902 of which are made out of bamboo while the rest are metal.

VOCAL MUSIC

The man behind this masterpiece was a Spanish missionary called Fray Diego Cera Dela Virgen Del Carmel, who was in fact, the first parish priest in Las Piñas during the Spanish era. He came from the town of Graus (Huesca, Spain), but he settled in this part of the Philippines from 1795 to 1830.

The Mass

Pastores

Moro-moro/Komedya

Senakulo and Pabasa ng Pasyon

Salubong

Flores de Mayo and Santacrusan

Moro-moro & Komedya

The Mass

Pastores

The “Pastores” is a play portraying the nativity wherein they then solicit money from the owner of the house.

A form of sacred musical composition, is a choral composition that sets the invariable portions of the Eucharisticliturgy (principally that of the Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion, and Lutheranism) to music.

Moro-Moro is a type of Secular Komedya which portrays the clash between the Muslims and the Christians where the forbidden romance between the prince and the princess is settled by having the non-Christian be converted to christianity or by his or her death followed by a resurrection through divine intervention.

The Religious Komedya is also called Komedya de Santo centers on the life of Christ or of any saint. It usually seen during church celebrations. The actors move in a stylized way, have extravagant costumes and elaborately choreographed war scenes.

Salubong

Senakulo

Flores de Mayo & Santa Cruzan

Lenten play depicting the life, suffering & death of Christ. Comes from Spanish word “cenaculo” meaning cenacle -room where the Last Supper took place

It is an Easter Sunday ritual done before dawn at exactly 4am and reenacts the Risen Christ’s meeting with His mother that originated from Marinduque

It is performed in the churchyard under a specially prepared arch where the veiled image of the Virgin Mary has been placed

Flores de Mayo (Spanish for "Flowers of May") is a festival held in the Philippines in the month of May. It is one of the May devotions to the Blessed Virgin Mary and lasts for the entire month.

The Santacruzan is the pageant on the last day of Flores de Mayo, held in honour of Helena of Constantinople (known as Reyna Elena) and Constantine the Great finding the True Cross in Jerusalem. Its observance in May probably stems from the old Galician date for Roodmas, which was abolished when Pope John XXIII combined it with the Feast of the Triumph of the Cross on 14 September

Pabasa

Pabasa festival is more like a tradition when old folks in particular read a book called “Pasyon” ( The Passion of Christ ). But instead of reading it, they chant it or read it in a tune. Singing the whole book phrase by phrase, line per line.