The Filipino Kundiman:

FRANCISCO BELTRAN
BUENCAMINO SR.
Raizza Neri
Ruth Cardona
Ebenezer Alvarez
Daryl Bulusan
BIOLOGICAL BACKGROUND
• Francisco Beltran Buencamino, Sr.
was born on the 5th day of November,
1883 in San Miguel de Mayumo,
Bulacan. He is the sixth of ten
children of his musically inclined
parents Fortunato Buencamino, his
father and Luisa Beltran, her mother.
PARENTS BACKGROUND
• His father was a church
organist and band master while
his mother is a singer. Since his
parents are musicians, he
adapted their passion in music.
EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND
• At the age of 14, Francisco was sent to
study at the Liceo de Manila wherein he
took up courses in composition and
harmony under Marcelo Adonay.
• He also took up pianoforte courses under a
Spanish music teacher. He did not finish
his education as he became interested in
sarswela.
MUSICAL BACKGROUND
• In the early 1900s, Francisco taught music at the
Ateneo de Manila and at the Centro Escolar de
Senoritas. At the latter, he founded the
Conservatory of Music and was its head until
1938.
• At the same time, he also handled music lessons
at the Liceo de Manila. He founded the
Buencamino Music Academy in 1930. It was
authorized by the Department of Public
Instruction to grant music degrees.
• For a time, Francisco frequently acted
on stage. He also collaborated on the
plays written and produced by Aurelio
Tolentino. The Philippine Music
Publishers, which Buencamino
established, undertook the printing of
his more important compositions, but
it was not a successful venture.
WORK AND COMPOSITIONS
• Francisco composed music for films produced by
Sampaguita Pictures, LVN and Excelsior.
• Some of the sarswelas he wrote are Marcela
(1994), Si Tio Celo (1904), and Yayang in 1905.
Francisco then turned to composing kundimans
since in 1908, the popularity of the sarswela
started to wane because of American repression
and the entry of silent movies.