ANALYSIS OE Musical Works [orcerereciertoater poo mts Each is unique yet related in ‘one way or another to other pieces in the set. But every piece is an example of particular concepts of time, language, line, and musical realization. They may provide the student with models of how a musical work may be approached and understood. TOCCATA (LITTLE TRAIN TO CAIPIRA) Heitor Villa-lobos Toccata is the fourth movement of composer Heitor Ville-lobos’s Bachianas Brasileiras, number 2 for orchestra. In the 9 Bachianas Brasileiras, written for various instrumental combinations, he attempts to fuse elements of the style of the great Baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach with Villa-lobos's own native Brazilian music. The piece, therefore, has two titles - the first, Toccata, referring to a type of keyboard composition characteristic of the European Ba- roque; andthe second, Little Train to Caipira, suggesting a journey through the Brazilian countryside. “Thus, in the pieee the composer is both building a musical structure and painting a picture through sound. The Toccata has a very neat, uncluttered structure. It begins with a brief introduction, followed by the 40-measure melody that serves as the main and only theme of the work. The melody is simple and straightforward and reminiscent of a Brazilian folktune, After the first presentation of the theme, there is a short inter lude, after which the theme is played straight through a second time. This time around, however, the instrumentation is altered, and a piano line is added to make the composite sound heavier and to give the texture a greater density. The piece ends with a mirror image of the introduction. Each section is balanced and coun- terbalanced and the structure is worked out with precision and clarity, 156But Villalobos is not just building avstructure, he is also painting a soundscape with tones. This is achieved through the skillful use of the materials of music. Timbre, for example, is fully exploited to create the feeling of “train-ness.” Villalobos has at his disposal the whole array of colors and qualities thata large symphony has, and he uses it to full advantage. To evoke the feeling of the train journey, Brazilian scrapers, rattles, tambourines, and triangles reprodtice the sounds of wheels, pistons, and gears shuddering to life or grinding to a stop. Flutes, clarinets, and oboes, overblown. or flutter-tongued, give us a train whistle from a distance or the shrill blasts of steam from the engine. Bass drums and tympani create the thudding of the wheels as the train races through the countryside. Rhythm, too, has much to do in making the sotind picture. The introduc- tion of the Toccata is a’section in which a single chord, called a pedal, is played over and over again with no harmonic changes taking place. Although the har- mony is static in this section, the rhythm is not. The piece begins with long notes of whole and half duration, creating the impression of slow, painful motion. Gradu- ally, the note values are halved, and shorter quarter and eighth notes take their place. This gives the listener a sense of accelerating motion, even if the basic quadruple meter (4) remains the same. Once the pulsating 16th note rhythmic motive has been established, it is sustained long enough for the composer to introduce and complete the 40-measure theme. In’ the listener's mind, the train hes started up its engines, groaned oitt of the station, and set off ona fast, even pace. Asthe theme ends. the rhythm is interrupted briefly by two measures of long-held half-note chords. ‘The train has stopped briefly at a way station. But the driving tempo resumes. presently and the theme is played a second time, As the melody comes toa close, aclosing section balances off the introduction. A pedal chords played to chords of longer and longer duration. This enables the listener to experience the gradual slowing down of the train as it reaches its destination. The journey has come toanend. Asin any well-crafted work, the listener is hardly aware of the painstaking work and skill the composer has:used to complete the work. He or she simply coasts along with the music, carried along by its colors and rhythms as the Little Train of the composer's mind bears him or her to Caipira, Brazil. LITTLE TRAIN arranged by Don Sebesky George Benson, guitar solo; Herbie Hancock, electric piano solo Jazz has in its vocabulary the very important term -improvisation. This is @ principle of musical realization quite different from that found in the Toccata by Villalobos. Thus, although the thematic material is identical in two pieces, the results are strikingly different. 157In Toceata, the composer fixed the shape the music will take, Villalobos wrote down all the notes that will be played by each instrument and indicated all the tempos, dynamic levels, and other details of the performance. One person, therefore, “composes” the piece. This is not true in jazz, however, where the end product is the result of collaborative effort of many artists and creators. In understanding the nature of this collaboration, we must first pause to look at the composition of a typical jazz ensemble. Stripped of all but its essentials, ‘the basic jazz group consists of two groups of instruments. The first group is called the rhythm section. This usually includes a’bass, a piano, and a drum set. The thythm section fulfills two important functions. First, it provides the basic rhythm against which all the melodies and improvisations are worked out. The drums are the dominant instrument here. Second, the rhythm section provides the chords which are the basic harmonic progression of each piece. The bass and piano, in particular, play this part. Most of the other instruments, including strings, brasses, keyboards, and vocals belong to the other group of instruments which work out solos. Each soloist is chosen beforehand by the arranger who decides how many choruses (repetitions of the theme) each soloist will play. A typical jazz structure will consist of a head, a set of solos, and a repetition of the head to end the work. Head isthe jazz term for theme, the melody on which all the solos are based. The head is often a familiar or popular tune and must be well known to all the players before they begin to play. Thus, the head is the only part of the piece which is usually written out forthe performers to follow. In Little Train, the 40-measure theme by Villa-lobos serves as the head. This is followed by a set of solos by various members of the group. In the piece, there are two of them ~ George Benson on the guitar. playing tWo chonises of the head and Herbie Hancock with four choruses on the electric piano. On one level, therefore, Villalobos composed this piece, He provided the basic shape of the piece: introduction - theme - interlude - theme - closing section, He also composed the melody or head. On a second level, Don Sebesky, the arranger, rewrote the piece to fit the smaller jazz ensemble of about ten people that performed the piece. The instrumental color of the piece is totally changed and the resulting sound is thinner and lighter than the original. Sebesky has also inserted six improvisations, changing the shape of the whole piece. On a third level, the soloists, Benson and Hancock, have been given 240 measures to work on and create their own melodies, patterns, and ornamental passages, They do this on the spot, without a written score. Ideally, they never repeat themselves. This gives the performer a great deal of freedom, for he or she can play whatever he or she wants to, within bounds, of course. The boundaries are the consequence of the fact that improvisation also requires skill and discipline. For the performer's lines must be well woven into the harmonic and rhythmic base provided by the rhythm section. During the improvisation, no one in the ensemble plays the head. But the rhythm section provides a solid base which teminids every one that the head is the organizing principle behind the improvisa- 158tion. Every performer and listener must have the head in mind asan ancher upon which to build. When listening to the choruses of Little Train, we also become aware that despite the fact that there is only one head, each performer interprets it quite differently, It reveals the uniqueness of each personality. ‘The guitar soles ap- proach the head with fluid running passages, while the pianist has a more ac- cented, jerkier rhythm, dissonant motives, and figures. But neither of them loses sight of the form and shape of the head, even in the wiklest moments of Hancock's improvisations. The musicians must be alert and finely tuned to their fellow performer's sensitivities. The interaction between performers, each one contribut- ing his or her own ideas, makes for the variety and complexity of the jazz idiom. ‘Thus, jazz improvisation works in two ways - first, giving the performers the freedom to develop their own ideas and second, demanding of the player the sensitivity and discipline to interact with other musicians and their own ideas. Two Examples of Kumintang The term kumintang poses something of a problem to students of Philip- pine music, In 1846, French writer Jean Baptiste Mallat included @ copy of a song called Comintang de la Conquista in his book Les Philippines. Mallat says that the comintang was so popular that he considered it the national song (“national chant”) of the country, According to Manuel Sastron, another 19th century writer, the comintang, a dance originating in the province of Batangas, was often per- formed in the 17th and 18th century. But by the time of the writing of his Batangas y su Provincia in 1895, it was no longer to be found in the area, What is the kumintang? Itis difficult to solve a problem when itis like an old jigsaw, with many pieces missing; and Philippine music history seems to be just such a giant puzzle. The two works that follow are part of the kumintang tradition. The first is an awit performed by folk musicians Donato Mendoza and Periano Caringal of Bauan, Batangas. The second is the famous Mutya ng Pasig by the composer Nicanor Abelardo. The musicians who composed or performed both Pieces of music refer to the kumintang and consider it an important aspect of style or form. By studying the two works, perhaps we listeners can come to a better understanding of the place of the term kumintang in Philippine music history. 159AWIT SA KRUS Donato Mendoza, voice Periano Caringal, guitar This dance song was performed by two folk artists in 1981. When:they were asked about the music being performed, several terms were used to describe and classify the style and form of the. piece - awit, pandanggo, kinanluran, and kumintang. All these categories could apply to Awit sa Krus which, according to thern, was a very old type of entertainment (/arong kinagisnan) that had remained popular with the folk until the end of the Second World War, The unusual sound and.form of the dance song de net conform to the most educated Filipinas's im- pression that the music of the Christian Filipinos is highly Westernized and di- vorced fram any Asian roots. What makes the Awit sa Krus sound like a typical awit, pandanggo, kumintang, kinanluran? Most of the music of this tradition consists of two lines - vocal and instru- mental, The voice may be male or female; the instrument, a drum (tugtugan), violin (rabel), or the guitar (gitara). If the singer does not dance, the performance is called an awit. Ifhe or she dances while singing an awit, itis calleda pandanggo. The Batangas artists distinguish between two styles of awit/pandanggo - the kinanluran and the sinilangan- Awit sa Krus belongs to the kinanluran style which is slower, more refined, older siyle native to the province. This isin :contrast to the sinilangan style which is faster, livelier, and said to have been introduced by pandanggeroes from the province of Quezon to the east. The kinanluran pandanggo has the basic rhythm: fragment, Kinanluran Rhythm This is beaten on the drum or strummed or plucked onthe guitan This pattern is played continuously from beginning to end of the performance. The repetitive character of the instrumental line creates what is called in Western music an ostinato. Often, the guitar ostinato involves alternately: strumming out two basic chiords: % g Kinanturan Chores eo) 160but sometimes, a more melodic ostinato is plucked out by the guitarist. The plucked technique is referred to-as the kumintang, considered one of the most beautiful instrumental techniques used in the awit/pandanggo, In Caringal’s performance, he switches back and forth between the refined plucking of the kumintang and the rougher, more vigorous kinanluran strumming, creating an arresting and dramatic instrumental line, On top of the ostinato, the singer weaves his awit. The awit, which isin dodeca-syllabic quatrains, is sung in a free, non-metric rhythm which approximates the patterns of speech. This way of singing is well suited to the purpose of the awit, which is to tell a story in song, InAwit sa Krus, Mendoza narrates one of the legends surrounding the Mahal na Poong Sta. Cruz, patron saint of Bauan. He ‘ornaments his melody with turns, runs, and melismas. Between phrases, the singer often pauses to dance. He also uses these pauses to recall or compose the next phrase. Because of these pauses, which are sometimes quite long, it is important that the instrumentalist continues playing the ostinato to keep the whole perfor- mance together. The drummer, violinist, or Guitarist often plays around with the basic rhythm, creating interesting alterations and improvisations to delight both the audience and singers as well. Thus, we see that the awit/pandanggo belongs to a tradition of music that has its own unique style and form, It is Part of an ancient music practice of the Tagalogs that remains a living tradition. MUTYA NG PASIG Nicanor Abelardo From the last decades of the 19th century onwards, a major concern of Filipino spholars has been the study and Preservation of traditional Philippine cul- ture towards the creation of a national identity. Because of this, artists trained in and influenced by numerous 19th and 20th century Western methods and tech- niques have also found it necessary to look back to older Philippine forms and styles for their inspiration. Such is the case with Nicanor Abelardo's famous song Mutya ng Pasig, which he calls a kumintang. In this work, the composer seeks to integrate his training in Western music with his experience of his own native traditions. The text of the song gives us important clues into what the composer is tying to do, Deogracias Rosario, who wrote the songtext, paints us the picture of arvapparition that comes to him one dark night. It is the spirit of the mutya of the Pasig, the pre-colonial riverine goddess whose story Jose Rizal collected in the closing decades of the 19th century, The mutya tells the poet the story of her death and the disappearance of her kingdom from the earth. She lost her powers 161and died due to, she suggests, the death of love. Thus, she floats helplessly on the waters near the Pasig, unable to bestow her blessings on her former kingdom. If the people wish her to return, they must return to her the love and allegiance she had once possessed. The image is a recurrent one in Philippine literature, appearing in such quises'as Mariang Makiling or Inang Bayan. The people have turned away from the old ways and have adopted a new culture. They have neglected the old gods and goddesses. Thus, the latter have withdrawn from human society. In the pro- cess, something valuable has been lost. The kingdom, the mutya says, can only be reestablished if the people strive to rebuild it with the fragments of love hidden within each of them. Thus, the longing to recover-an ancient heritage lost due to deliberate rieglect and rejection, as well as the hope that the heritage may be re- trieved if the people work to reunify the broken pieces that remain, is the theme of Mutya ng Pasig. Abelardo's music is an embodiment of this process. The composer is clearly bound to a Western musical language because of his personal training. As one of the early graduates and faculty members of the Conservatory of Music of the University of the Philippines in the 1920s and 30s and as a student at the Chicago Conservatory of Music in the United States, he had honed and mastered his skill in Western-type compositon. Thus, unlike the folk awit, the rhythm of the Mutyo ng Pasig is smoothened out to fit a conventional triple meter. Each melodic phrase is completed in four measures, a normative length in much of Western song music. The whole song is also yoked to'a harmonic progression acceptable to European compositional style. The song is divided into three sections, each separated by a short instrumental passage. The opening section, in which the text sets the stage for the appearance of the mutya, ends with the poet's recognition of the ghostly figure. This:section which ends with the dramatic cry, “Ito ang mutya ng Pasig,” is in the key of Eb minor. This is followed by a shorter, four-measure section in which the mittya prepares to speak. Musically, the section functions as a bridge between the first part, in the minor key, and the last section in the new key of Eb major. As the key changes, the Mutya begins to weave her” melodious, lyrical tale. The melody and intensity rise, ending with her impassioned plea to the listener to love her, remember her, and in this way bring her back to life. The singer ends with a triumphant coda, The work follows a conventional Western song form, skillfully changing from chord to chord, modulating from one key to another, and showing the composer's ability to put together a well-built art song. But Abelardo does more than this in Mutya. He also tries to retrieve the fragments of an ancient tradition and weave it into his song and possibly recreate the spirit of the kumintang, the lost national song of his people. 162This is clear in the various directions found in the piece. Abelardo puts the term Tempo de kumintang in the spot reserved for tempo markings. What is the Tempo de kumintang? This seems to be a description of the rhythmic motive that dominates the piano, or instrumental line: Mutya ng Pasig rhythmic pattern This pattern resembles in some ways the rhythm of the instrumental line of the awit/pandanggos previously studied. Abelardo also places the term tagulaylay above the vocal line, probably to describe the vocal style used. Tagulaylay is said to be used in the pasyon and related song types and is said to be a very ancient style. If one is familiar with pasyon chanting, one will recognize that many of the styles identified by the infor mants as “very old” resemble awit/pandanggo singing. The vocal line in Mutya is based on an early 20th century transcription by Epifanio de los Santos of a Kumintang sung to the text of Francisco Balagtas's Kay Selva. There are differences, to be sure. Abelardo fits each phrase of Mutya into four measures, while the traditional awit line is free and unmetered. But the composer tries to give us the feeling of song approximating speech rhythm that we find in the best awit singing by putting the melody to a verse line that is of very irregular length. The versification, to be sure, is quite different from awit poetry, which is 12 syllables per line, but the effect created by the composer is very evoca- tive of an awit. With the inclusion of these elements and the conscious efforts of the com- poser to weave them into the song, Abelardo is paying homage to the kumintang. {n the piece, he crystallizes the pag-ibig that he returns to the ancient symbol of our heritage. PAPANUK A LAKITAN Aga Mayo Butocan, kulintang The kulintang is'a set of eight bossed gongs of graduated sizes which are played with wooden sticks or mallets. Among the Magindanaoan of Cotobato, it is @ part of an ensemble which includes the agong (wide-rimmed gong), dabakan oblet-shaped drum), gandingan (set of four thin-rimmed gongs), and babandir (small thin-rimmed gong). The kulintang ensemble as a unit is called palabunibunyan - an ensemble of loud-sounding instruments. 163Palabunibunyan instruments are heard in various important occasions such as weddings (kalilang), baptisms (paigo sa ragat), and healing rites (kapagipat), Festive gatherings become venues for musical competitions, which are opportuni- ties for gong players to display their skill and virtuosity. Agong players are judaed by the quickness of their rhythm and tempos, playing positions and techniques in beating the gong, while kulintang:players are judged by the melodic-rhythmic or- namentations they create on the spot. Adapted from Palabunibunyan by Aga Mayo Butocan THY ganennnen, Babandir Gandigan Dabokan Kulintang Agong The improvisation on Papanuk a Lakitan by Aga Mayo Butocan isa binalig, one of the four rhythmic modes found among the Magindanaoan of Sultan Kudarat. The others are called sintilog, tidtts, and tagunggo. These modes are basic rhyth- mic patterns behind each improvisation. Each mode is associated with a different sentiment, feeling, or mood. For example, a sinulug is considered a sentimental pattern, while the taggungo is associated with calling the spirits to join in the healing rituals. In kulintang competitions, a performer is not told beforehand just what he or she is going to play. Asthe piece begins. the dabakan player who is respon- sible for leading off begins to beat aut one mode. The musicians must then follow, improvising on the spot, fitting their piece to the pattern given. Thus, the rhythmic mode is ane of the ordering principles of the entire piece. A\second ordering principle is the melody which, if played in.an ensemble, is performed by the kulintang player. Familiar songs or popular tunes are often chosen by the players as basis for their improvisation, In this piece, the melody Papanuk a Lakitan (Lakitan Bird) is played. The text of the song describes a young woman, who speaks to the lakitan, a bird associated with the carrying of messages. The gir! is lonely for her home and she asks the bird to send a message to her loved ones, Thus, to those whe are familiar with the song, it symbolizes the longing for a distant beloved home. Kulintang performances are often opportunities to communicate in many ways which might not’otherwise be sanctioned by society. For example, open courtship is frowned upon in traditional Magindanaoan society, However, young couples may send messages to each other via the wordless melodies being played ‘on the instruments of the paldbunibunyan. Thus, a girl may play Papanuk a 164Lakitan which could indicate that she wishes to send a message to a young man. The young man might answer on the gandingan by playing another familiar song like the one with the text Sia ka ka sia ka, which means “come here, come here to me.” This secret language enables people to communicate effectively in a non-verbal way, and young men and women desire to play the instruments for this reason Let us now look at the shape of a typical kulintang improvisation. In the piece, Butocan first sounds a short passage signalling the start of the piece. Each rhythmic mode has its own set of starting formulae with which to begin a piece. Papanuk a Lakitan has the following introduction: BINALIG [a]. Gece Aude) a | | Tol letal aca wh Magindanaoan Rhythmic Modes on the ‘Dabakan’ The performer then begins improvisation. Phrases of the basic tune are then played. Each phrase is repeated several times. Each time the phrase is played, the player may add a small ornament or alter it in subtle ways. After playing the chosen phrase on one set of gongs, the player may move into a phrase from another song or, as in the case of this selection, or she may move or trans- pose the same melody to a higher set of gongs. To move from one level to another, he or she will play a transition to ease the passage. These transitions are readily recognizable to an ear accustomed to kulintang practice. The player then proceeds to play the’ melody on the new level, improvising and altering as he or she plays. As long as the player wishes to continue or as long as he or she is encouraged to do so by the spectators, he or she may continue moving up and down the kulintang. To end, however, the player will sound a swiftly ascend- ing and descending pattern. These closing passages are also familiar to Magindanaoan listeners. When a palabunibunyan plays together, the four other instruments pro- vide a rhythmic drone for the melody instrument, kulintang. Usually the former do not know when the piece will end. Unlike in mainstream jazz, no sequence of choruses is agreed upon by the ensemble beforehand. This keeps all the players on their toes. Each player may even try to test his or her fellows’s skill and sensitivity For example, the kulintang player may try to mislead his or her companions by Playing closing phrases that sound like transitions, or transitions that sound like closing phrases. There is an electric tension between the players, each one keep- ing alert for the slightest sound or movement produced by others. Thus, sensitivity and feeling for one's companions are also required for this type of performance:this trait, along with one's creative ability to improvise as one goes along, makes for the complex and exciting sound of the kulintang. 165KLNTANG Ramon P. Santos When an artist alters a musical work, transcribing a piece originally con- ceived for one instrument fo another instrument, or taking a melody written in one siyle or idiom and rewriting it in another idiom, as we have seen in Villa-Lobos's Little Train or Abelardo's Mutya ng Pasig, the whole meaning of the piece is also altered or changed. For this reason, comparing Kintang, a piano piece by the contemporary composer Ramon P. Santos with Aga Mayo Butocan's traditional Papanuk a Lakitan is a very interesting exercise. The title is obviously a reference to the kulintang, the traditional musical instrument from Mindanao. In his piece; Santos is trying to evoke the sound idea of one instrument, using an instrument with a totally different sound mechanism, technique, and tradi- tion. The kulintang is a brass gong struck with light, wooden sticks. The pianois a keyboard instrument with softly padded mallets which strike thick, wire-covered strings. The timbres produced by one does not resemble the other. Technique for playing is also different and so are the idioms and styles that have developed. The piano keys are played with the fingers of both hands while the kulintang player grasps two sticks lightly with each hand. Thus, the pianist can play more than two piano keys simultaneously to produce full chords, which the kulintang player can- not'do, But the kulintang player may play rolls with sticks, which the pianist cannot. The movements required of the body in each case necessitate a different approach onthe part of the players. In.KIntang, Santos is not attempting to transcribe a kulintang improvisa- tion onto the piano, or make the pianist play a traditional kulintang melody. He is trying to evoke in our minds the sound qualities of the instrument the kulintang's color and timbre, He is also expressing what he feels is the essential character of its melodies and rhythms. Santos's unconventional approach to the piano as an instrument shows that he is more concerned with conveying the idea of kulintang as sound medium than he is with simply transcribing a kulintang melody onto the piano. When a student sits down to his first kulintang lesson with Butocan, one ‘of the first instructions is to hold the sticks lightly, playing each note with an alter nate stick, One must also try to keep one’s movements smooth so that the melody will flow uninterruptedly, The composer's notes to KIntang found at the end of the piece state, “Absolutely no accent in B, Tempo and rhythm must be kept strictly. The sounds: must float...Figures in C must be played fast but with exact rhythmic proportions,” The thythm of the piece is fluid; strong downbeats or syncopations by the player 166arediscouraged, Furthermore, the player must play each 16th note-alternately on the left and right hands. This is an uncommon practice in piano technique and the performer must learn to perform this unidiomatic motion smoothly to play the piece well, The sense of a fluid, unaccented melodic line and smooth, running alternate motion of the hands found in the piece is clearly inspired by kulintang techniques. A second interesting feature of KIntang is the use of dissonances and tone clusters that may sound painful to listeners brought up in Western musical systems. Many of us have grown up to the sounds of the triad - chords, or simultaneously sounded tones built on intervals called thirds, But in K/ntang, the most frequently sounded combination of tones is based on the interval of the second, in which the two or more sounds played are immediate neighbors on the scale. In the Csection particularly, whole clusters of seconds are played before each phrase. Santos uses the second to “defocus” the pitches of the piano and give ita timbre closer to that of the brass gong. Piano tonesare finely focused, each funda- mental pitch dominating a set of comparatively weak overtones. Gong tones are much richer inicomparison, with numerous overtones that are oftenon the same dynamic level as the fundamental. To create the rich color.of the gong that the piano does not possess, Santos has the piano play several closely spaced tones at the same time. This provides the piece with a gong-like color. For the light, high kulintang pitches, the composer employs simple seconds, while for the deeper pitches of the gandingan, thicker clusters of five tones are used. It is not necessary for Santos to write traditional kilintang melodies into, the piece. For he is trying to extract the concepts, approaches, and ideas found in kulintang playing and project them into a vastly different instrument — the piano. MIRASOL Joey Ayala In the 1960s, America’s student population brought about a revival of interest in the traditional folk song. The “folk movement” of the youth began asa reaction, to the relatively empty, juvenile “pop” music being churned out by the recording industry-at the time. At first, the songs:consisted of old ballads passed down through oral tradition by anonymous singers and artists. But as the move- ment grew, young writers, using traditional folk styles, began composing their own, songs dealing with contemporary concerns. The musical language of the “new” folk song was the traditional folk idiom, butits texts dealt with issues such as alien- ation, racism, war, the generation gap, and other social issues of the time As the American folk song penetrated the mass media, it grew to have a strong influence.on the student movement in the Philippines in the 1960sand 70s. The guitar-based style and the intense but sophisticated lyrics of such artists as Bob 167Dylan and Simon and Garfunkle attracted young intellectuals, many of whom learned to sing the songs and play the guitar in the “country western” style. Most of these had never formally trained in either traditional Philippine music or in the formal music schools, but learned through experience in listening, constant expo- sure; and practice. Such is the case of Joey Ayala, a Davao-based artist whose songs reflect the influence of the folk song movement of the 1960s. Ayala’s guitar-picking and strumming styles and his chord progressions are the typical patterns of the Ameri- can folk musician, Likewise, one of the most attractive features of his songs is the gemlike, sensitively crafted text, dealing with contemporary social issues - neo- colonialism, militarization, and the destruction of both the environment and the national heritage by foreign powers. But because he is both Filipino and aware of the destructive influences of Western cultural imperialism, he faces a dilemma - the form of his music does not match the spirit of his texts. It is incongruous to protest against American imperialism and Western corporate business interests using the American country western style. While he remains based on Western music practice, many contradic- tions between text and music are unresolved. To achieve unity of word and sound, he must attempt to and successfully forge a musical language based on Filipino traditions. Upon listening to Ayala’s songs, one becomes aware of a conscious effort on the part of the composer to discover a musical vocabulary that is traditionally Philippine. This he tries to achieve through the use of indigenous instruments from his home in Mindanao. Mirasol, from Panganay ng Umaga, is a typical example of this effort. This first album was a song cycle which describes a trip taken through the island of Mindanao. In the course of this spiritual journey, from his home in the heartlands of the island to the boat that will lead him to Luzon, the singer meets the many people and places that comprise the land. He realizes in the end that he is not travelling alone - all are travelling together towards a common goal, Mirasol is one of those he meets. The title of the song is a woman's name, but it also refers to one who looks at the sun. The singer marvels that she can look with steady eyes at the brilliant stin as it rises in the east. He, in contrast, is in darkness, still longing for the faint glimmer of the morning, Mirasol has witnessed the trials he has undergone as a result of his Past journey facing west, She has not taken part in this and has chosen to see everything in the clear light from the east. He acknowledges the wisdom of her choice, but tells het that they have a common aspiration - to see the light. He, who is still in the darkness, has come to ask her to Point outthe direction from which he may see the first light of the morning. 168Thus, the singer asks the mountain woman, who has never surrendered to the West and has kept her Asian heritage, to lead him away from his darkness into the light of his own true identity. The music reveals the composer grappling with the same problem in sound. At base, we know that he still faces West. Mirasol is essentially a simple country- style song with a refrain. The guitar that accompanies the singer uses a style that closely resembles the playing of Paul Simon. But Ayala adds a second instrument -a hegalong, a two-stringed T’boli boat lute. The instrument plays a melody over the guitar arpeggios, giving the piece an unusual, exotic color. It is not played in the traditional T’boli manner. For example, only the hegalong’s melody string is used. The second string which plays a single note and functions as a drone is not heard in Mirasol. Ayala seems to be aware, however, that the drone concept is important in T’boli music. His guitar part in the A section of the song, for instance, consists of a single, unchanging chord which serves to take the place of the traditional drone. Thus, although the refrain has a chordal progression of sorts in the Western fash- ion, the feeling of a constantly repeated sound exists in the song. The composer's experiments with indigenous Philippine music do not have the systematic and scholarly character of Ramon Santos's works. His handling of sound is probably based on listening to the music in its setting, knowing and being friends with the people who make it, and attempting to perform his music on traditional instruments which make their own demands to him as a technician and artist. As he progresses, however, one can sense a growing familiarity with the instruments. Talambuhay, a song from the album Magkabilaan, features a hegalong accompanying the singer alone, without the support of any other instrument. The T’boli sound is stronger and the non-Western flavor of the music is much more pronounced. Even the singing, in which Ayala attempts to use a different vocal style with its many Asian-sounding ornaments, shows more assurance on the part of an artist, seeking to emphasize an Eastern side of his heritage. doey Ayala’s work has the quality of a journey. Like the singer in Panganay ng Umaga, he is moving towards a goal. It is hoped that the direction he faces would take him to the edge of the morning. (E. R. M) 169