https://en.wikipedia.

org/wiki/Philippine_folk_music
The traditional music of the Philippines, like the folk music of other
countries, reflects the life of common, mostly rural Filipinos. Like
their counterparts in Asia, many traditional songs from the
Philippines have a strong connection with nature. However, much
of it[vague] employs the diatonic scale rather than the "more
Asian" pentatonic scale, with the exception of indigenous people
ritual music.[editorializing]

Classification[edit]
Traditional Filipino music is reflective of the country's history as a
melting pot of different cultures. Among the dominant cultural
strains noticeable today are Hispanic, American and to some
extent Chinese, Indian and Islamic. It is thus difficult to strictly
classify the whole corpus of Philippine music as either western or
eastern.
A frequently used system is to classify it according to ethno-
linguistic or cultural divisions: for example, traditional Tagalog
music, which is somewhat more Hispanic in flavour, differs
from Ifugao music and Maranao kulintang music.

Vocal music[edit]
A commonality is that vocal music is of significant import to
every ethnic group in the country. Although there is some music
intended for dance, the best-preserved form of traditional music is
that intended for the voice, with chanting epic poetry as having
been the earliest form and later augmented by instrumental
accompaniment. Regarded to have a wide range, as most of them
stretch more than an octave, they are still considered within the
capacity of even an average singer.
Linguistics of traditional music[edit]
Borromeo also noted that one interesting feature of Western-
influenced traditional music is that a tune is not bound to a
particular language or dialect.
Many songs in the different Philippine languages, however, share
the same tune, such as the Tagalog Magtanim ay 'Di
Biro, Kapampangan Deting Tanaman Pale and the Gaddang So
Payao. Another example is the Visayan song Ako Ining Kailu,
which has the same melody as the Ibanag Melogo y Aya and
Kapampangan Ing Manai.

Filipina girls playing Philippine folk music

The largest body of songs are those using the
various vernacular languages, especially the eight major
languages in the country. Many of the collected traditional songs
have a translation in Filipino, the national language, but most
scholars tend to ignore its existence.
Songs from the various minority languages rank second in
recognition, while those in Spanish rank third. This does not
include the closest local language to Spanish, called Chavacano,
which has a degree of mutual intelligibility with Castilian. The
most famous songs in this classification are perhaps No Te
Vayas de Zamboanga and Viva! Señor Sto. Niño.
Dance music[edit]
After vocal music, dance music is the next most important form of
traditional Philippine music. As mentioned above, the best form of
preserved music are those with lyrics, and this is also true for
music intended to accompany a dance. According to Francisca
Reyes-Aquino, known for her voluminous collection of folk
dances, people watching the dance sing the songs in the same
way that cheerers chant in a game. This is very evident especially
in songs where interjections Ay!, Aruy-Aruy!, Uy! and Hmp! are
present, such as Paru-parong Bukid.
Music falling under this category may be classified as those
belonging to Christianised Groups, Muslim Groups, and the
other Ethnic Groups.
Christianised groups[edit]
As Christianity was introduced to the Philippines, Dance Music
classified as belonging to the Christianised Groups are somewhat
related to Western music as well. Dance Music falling under this
category may also be
called Habanera, Jota, Fandango, Polka, Curacha, etc. and has
the same characteristics as each namesakes in the Western
Hemisphere.
However, there are also indigenous forms like
the Balitao, Tinikling and Cariñosa (the national dance). In a study
by National Artist for Music Dr. Antonio Molina, the Balitao,
famous in Tagalog and Visayan regions, employs a 3/4 time
signature with a "crotchet-quaver-quaver-crotchet" beat. Others
use the "crotchet-minim" scheme, while others use the
"dotted quaver-semiquaver-crotchet-quaver-quaver" scheme.
This type of music is generally recreational and, like traditional
music from the West, is used for socialising.
Southern groups[edit]
See also: kulintang and Sagayan
The court and folk dance music of the Muslim-Filipino groups
have somewhat preserved ancient Southeast Asian musical
instruments, modes and repertoires lost to Hispanicised islands
further north. It is important to note that stricter interpretations of
Islam do not condone musical entertainment, and thus the
musical genres among the Muslimised Filipinos cannot be
considered "Islamic".

Kulintang ensemble of the Mindanao people.

Genres shares characteristics with other Southeast-Asian court
and folk music: Indonesian Gamelan, Thai Piphat,
Malay Caklempong, Okinawan Min'yō and to a lesser extent,
through cultural transference through the rest of Southeast Asia,
is comparable even to the music of the remote Indian Sub-
Continent.
Generally, music falling under this category tells a story. An
example is the Singkil, which relates an episode from
the Darangen (the Maranao version of the ancient Indian epic,
the Ramayana). The dance recounts the story of Putri Gandingan
(Sita) as she was saved by Rajahmuda Bantugan (Rama) from
crashing rocks, represented by bamboo poles. The Singkil is
considered the most famous in the Philippines under this category
for its perceived elegance, and is also performed by Filipinos from
other ethnic groups throughout the country.
Music is related in war in some regions in the country, as it is a
way to show the emotions of victory and defeat, as well as the
resolution of conflict. Philippine music also depends on the
biographical factors: in cooler regions such as the Cordilleras, the
beat of the music is so slower, while in warmer areas it is quite
fast.
Indigenous groups[edit]

Bagobo people with their instruments at the Kadayawan Festival.

Like secular songs from the same group, this form of music has a
sort of beat, even though it is hard to put it in a form of time
signature. Percussions are mainly used for these type
of music and sometimes, a gong is enough.
As closeness to Nature is a main feature of these ethnic groups,
one can expect that dance steps falling under this category are a
mimicry of the movements of plants and animals of a certain
locality. Some music is simply called the 'Monkey Dance' or the
'Robin Dance' for identification.
Some of the music falling under this category is ritual music: thus
there are dances used for marriage, worship, and even
preparation for a war.

Popularity[edit]

Video compact discs of some popular Ilocano folk songs.

Unlike folk music in Ireland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and
neighbouring Malaysia, traditional music in the Philippines has
never reached contemporary popularity. Perhaps, it is partly due
to the fact every region of the Philippines has its own language,
and several decades of Americanisation.
Though some groups tried to collect songs from the different
ethnolinguistic groups, none has so far succeeded in making
traditional music a part of the national identity, much more
a national symbol. It is rarely taught in Elementary school, as
in Ireland, aside from Children's songs. This results in a mentality
that traditional songs are children's songs.
The decline was accelerated with the entry of television,
making popular culture from Europe and the United States easily
accessible to a common Filipino. Though most Europeans would
say that Filipinos are music-loving people, traditional music is
always at risk of being left in oblivion.
Attempts have been made to collect and preserve Traditional
Philippine Music but most of them focus only on the Vocal form.
Under centuries of Spanish colonization of the Philippines, no
collection of the traditional music was ever made. There are
however studies made regarding this subject in the late 19th
century, when the Romanticists of Europe began to find the value
of folk songs.
Even during the American Era, attempts to collect traditional
music came rather late. Perhaps the first collection was in 1919
by Fr. Morice Vanoverberg, which is focused on the traditional
music of the Lepanto Igorots of the north. Unfortunately, only the
words and not the tunes are included in the collection.
The collection entitled 'Filipino Folk Songs' by Emilia Cavan is
considered to be the earliest collection with tunes, published in
1924. Perhaps, the most important collection of Folk Songs is the
'Philippine Progressive Music Series' by Norberto Romualdez
published in the late 1920s.
Unfortunately, the collectors who worked with Romualdez did not
present the songs in their original languages but rather translated
them into English and Filipino. This collection also included some
songs aimed to promote National Identity, like the National
Anthem of the Philippines, Philippines Our Native Land and
even Philippines the Beautiful (an adaptation of America the
Beautiful). The collection also included some folk songs from
other countries.
For a period of time, Romualdez's collection became the textbook
for teaching music in the Primary School. It also ensured that folk
tunes from every part of the country is preserved and will be
passed to the next generation of Filipinos. Until now, this
collection remains to be the most important collection of traditional
music from the Philippines, since a copy of it is still available in
major Municipal and Provincial Libraries in the country.
Other collections like the 'Filipino Folk Songs' by Emilia Reysio-
Cruz caters to the so- called 'Eight Major Languages' of the
country and according to some, the collection is the best
representation of the songs from these ethnolinguistic groups.
Dr. Jose Maceda, former chair of the Department of Asian Music
Research of the College of Music of the University of the
Philippines, also did some collection which began in 1953 and
lasted until 1972. This was followed by collections from his
students as well.
During the last years of the 20th century until the early 21st
century, Raul Sunico, Dean of the Conservatory of Music of
the University of Santo Tomas, published his own collection. He
began with publishing a collection of lullabies, followed by love
songs, then by work songs. Finally, he published a collection of
songs about Filipino women, a major topic of traditional songs
from all the ethnolinguistic groups. All these collections were
arranged for the piano and the words are given in their original
languages. A translation is also supplied, not to mention a brief
backgrounder about the culture of the specific ethnic groups.
Forms
It has the:

 Strophic/unitary form
 Binary form
 Ternary form
 Rondo form
With regard to traditional dance music, the seven volume
collection of Francisca Reyes-Aquino is still the most important
collection. None has yet followed her lead until now.
Commercial use[edit]
Some Philippine rock icons from the 1970s tried to record folk
songs. Florante, Freddie Aguilar, Heber Bartolome, Joey
Ayala and the group Asin propagated Filipino folk songs akin to
the phenomenon in the United States.
Many serious musicians have also recorded folk songs but none
yet have made a folk song so successful that it would penetrate
the commercial charts. Nowadays, popular musicians tend to
overlook this genre. Its continuity is now deferred mostly to
musicians in the academic sphere.

References[edit]
 Philippine Literature: Folk Music by Mauricia Borromeo
 Philippine Progressive Music Series by Norberto
Romualdez.
 The Encyclopedia of Philippine Art, Volume 6: Philippine
Music by the Cultural Centre of the Philippines
 Himig: A Collection of Traditional Songs from the
Philippines by Raul Sunico
 Filipino Folk Songs

https://folkways-
media.si.edu/liner_notes/folkways/FW04536.pdf

THE MUSIC OF THE MAGINDANAO IN THE PHILIPPINES·

Recorded a nd Annotat:::d by Jose Mac eda, University of the
Philippines
Asian music is practiced in the Philippines by only a few groups
of peoples. They probably con tit ute about 100;0 of the
population. To t he greater majority of the country's
population, the y having come under the influence of Spain for
a bout four hundred years, Asian music is a tradition almost
entirely forgotten. Oilly a western style of music is known to
this majority: fol k s ong s and dance tunes, generally in major
and min or tonalities, and in duple or triple mc te r , with
melodies strongly reminiscent of Spanish or Mexican airs, some
also of nineteenth century popular Italian tunes. Contrary to
popular belie"! that "the native m e lody and r hythm were
gradually influenced by E urope an s tyle" (Philippine
Progressive /lus ic Serie s 1950 : 285). tlwre is no eviden c e that
in t he Ch r istianized parts of the islands t here is a distinct and
gradual transition from native Asi an music to Europeanized
folk music --from the use of indigenous pentatonic to d i a tonic
s cales, from the range of the fourth int2 rval to abbut twice
that expanse, or from t he playing of g ongs and bamboo
percussion to thp. str um m ing of the guitar and the banduria.
"f' e upper tetrachord of a harmonic minor scale without the
second half-step may be similar to a tetrachord of the pelog
scale, but there are no songs which showa conscious relation s
hip of these two intervallic structure s . European music was
absorbed by the Western - i zed Filipinos; and from this latter
group ffierged a new musical culture built on the completely n
ew and entir ely different culture t!'om Europe rather than on
the foundations of a ge - ol d n a tive traditions. A parallel may
be found in Central and South America, although t here the
situation is somewhat differ- ~nL There was a considerable
immigration of E U,l'Op eaIl :3 in Central and South America, a
nd their descendants cultivated European music, adding to this
touches of local color. In the Philippines, it was the Filipinos
themselves that absorbed the new music. A similar
phenomenon exists today in both Goa and Celebes whe r e
Portuguese music left a decided imprint on n ative folk music.
One mig ht ~hink that the assimilation of Western idioms
among the Hispanicized groups m ay not have made possible a
genuine musical expression. The fact is that native simplicity
and sincerity is achieved even with the use of European musical
tools. Charac - t eristic moods of gaiety and melancholy can be
perceived and explained by.the melodic flow, harmony, and
rhythm. There is also a . subtle diffe ren e e in the style of a
foreign d~va and that of a country girl singing a SImple
kundiman, a difference observable in the quality and expression
of the voice the us(' of cresccndo and decrescendo, a~d th('
pronunciation of the texts. Today, the musical styles of pre-
Spanish musical cultures in the Philippines can still be studied in
relatively isolated groups of people s on Mindanao, Palawan,
Mindoro, northe r n Luzon, and other islands where indigenous
C'ultures haVf~ had little or no contac1 with Spain or America.
While northern Luzon and the centrally-located islands of
Mindoro and Palawan offer interesting group a nd solo si!lging
and a variet y of instruments widely used in Malaysia, it is on
Mindanao where old Malay music and a later music of Hindu
and Moslem influences co-exist. Simple singing within a limited
range, usually in a tetra chordal scale , and the use of bamboo
idiochor d s a nd bamboo flute s indicate p ractices c ommon
and very old in Malaysia; the chanting of long, melismatic
melodies and the employment of a drone tone also s how
Indian or Islamic influences. The presence, mostly among the
Moslem groups on Mindanao and Sulu, of horizontallyplayed
gongs with bosses relates these islands not only to Indone sia,
but also to Laos, Thailand and Burma. These s outhe r n
Philippine islands are thus a focal point where Asian m u sical
cultures meet and diffuse. Because of proximity with Southeast
Asia, they have had a more continuous contact with Asian
civilizations than the northern parts of the Philippines which
have either been isolated from the Asian cultural community or
have lived under a complete Spanish control. The Magindanao
a r e a g roup of Moslems, popularly referred to in the P
hilippines as "Moros", a term fir st used by Spain in her conta
cts with the Islamic civilizations of North Africa. They live on the
island of l\Un - danao which is the biggest island (36,806 2 A
Magindanao kudyapi has smoother lines and a head in the
shape of a long-billed bird. square m ile s, about the size of the
state of Indiana) in the southern part of the Philippines. They
inhabit the southwestern part of the island, a t the mouth and
up the Cotabato or Pulangi r iver of Cotabato province. This
river overflows almost yearly, and inundates large tra cks of
coconut plantations, forests, clea r ings, fa r m land, and
swamps. There are a ltogether eight groups of Moslems on Min
- d anao and the adjacent Sulu archipelago totalling about 3.7
per cent of the entire Philippine population. The Magindanao
alone number about 155,162. GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE
MUSIC: T he musical instruments of the Magindanao a re
gongs, boat lutes, drums, ring and lipvalley flutes, jew's harps,
bamboo zithers, suspended percussion beams, scrapers, and
slit drum s . Vocal music is made up of epics. religious c hants,
love songs, lullabies, child v~ndor's t unes, and a virtuoso type
of whistling. The gong - melody (kulintang) is based on a
pelogtype pentatonic scale and played in mainly three diffe r
ent kinds of rhythms called rhythmic modes. Its !u u::;ical form
progresse s in grad - uated ascending steps of sound-cells, and
ends with a rapid descent fr om the top gongs. Rhythmic
variations based on the three modes and played on one gong
(babandil) are rather complex. The boat lute uses two types of
scales (the pentatonic with and without half- steps), a duple
rhythm, and a musical form similar to the gong-melody. The
ring-type flute has five fundamental tones (3 plus h holes)
within the range of an octave, and uses a tetrachord with a
half-step. Its melody however exceeds that of an octave, is
rhythmically free, and follow s a descent formula with certain
notes as important key points. The lip-valley flute's scale is
similar to the first type of flute, but there is no half-step. The
two musical examples in the r~cording vary in form. The first
has long tones which act as a pivot around which revolve the
melody, while the second uses a characte,ristic rhythmic figure
between pairs of notes. Both have a free tempo. The drum
(tambul) has interesting cross-rhythms played with one gong
(babandil). Another type of drum (dabakan) is played with the
gong-melody and t he whole gong-ensemble . The jew's harp
examples present an analytical recording of two s peech
phrases in fast and slow rendition, showing how they are
sounde d to carry their message. The recordings of bamboo
zithers and percussion beams a r e played by Tirurai, not
Magindanao musicians . Howeve r, these instruments are
practically identical with thos e used by the Magindanao. Both
instruments are played by two performers, two women in the
bamboo zithers, and one man and a woman in the percussion
beams; one of the pla ye rs play the melody, and the othe r the
drone. I do not have recorded examples of scrape r s and the
slit drum. The epic chants are sung in Magindanao in a genera
lly melismatic style, using tones of the Chinese scale. The
religious chants, sung in Arabic, are also melismatic, and are
based mostly on the diatonic scale with passages in penta and
tetrachordal settings. Love chants in Magindanao with Maranao
loan words are two types--t he melismatic and "coloristic"
known as sindil, and the syllabic and tetrachordal known as
bayok. Lullabies are similar to the latter in for m. Singers of epic
and religious chants are semi- professionals, while bayok and
lullaby singe rs c ome from the general run of the people. Only
one type of a child vendor's tune was able to be recorded. The
whistling tunes are done by a virtuoso who is known for his
whistling
T HE RECORDINGS: SIDE ONE I. INSTRUMENT AL MUSIC . T he
Gong Ensemble (Basalan). There a re five instruments in this
ensemble, namely: t he babandil, a small gong; dabakan, a d
rum. and the only instrument that is n ot a g ong; g andi gan , a
set of four large gongs; agung, a pah of wide-r immed gongs;
and the kulintang; a Bet of e ight gongs arranged h orizontally.
and the only one with a melody (fig'>. 1 and 2 ). Eve ry musical
piece playe d on this ensemble is based essentially on three
rhythmic modes known as duyug , sinulug, and tidtu. The
babandil gene rally starts t he piece, and announces the ·mode ,
while the others follow in the sequence of instruments
enumerated above . Rhythmic variations to the se modes
occur , mostly with the duyug mode on the babandil, and a re
exemplified in the following ten numbers.