JOSE

MACEDA
 BIOGRAPHY
José Montserrat Maceda
Born: 31 January 1917, Manila
Died: 5 May 2004, Quezon City
Education: École Normale de Musique de Paris in
France & University of California, Los Angeles (1961–
1963), Columbia University
Genre: Avant-Garde, Classical
Styles: Modern Composition, Choral, Orchestral
Albums: Drone and Melody, Gongs and Bamboos
Awards: Guggenheim Fellowship for Humanities, Latin
America & Caribbean
Maceda was born in Manila,
Philippines, and studied piano,
composition and musical analysis
at École Normale de Musique de
Paris in France. After returning to
the Philippines, he became a
professional pianist, and later
studied musicology at Columbia
University, and anthropology at
Northwestern University.
 Maceda’s Musical Style:
– 1953, changed when he encountered the music of the
indigenous tribes of Mindoro.

– Understanding and preservation of Filipino traditional music.

– Collection of recorded music taken from the remote

mountain villages and far-flung inland communities.

– Compositional approach Western style.

– Combined sounds of the environment with ethnic

instruments.
 • Compositions were usually for large groups of musicians.

• Among his works are:

– Ugma-Ugma (1963), a work for voice and ethnic

instruments
– Agungan (1975), a piece for six gong families
– Pagsamba (1968), a musical ritual for a circular
auditorium using several ethnic percussion
instruments
– Cassettes 100 (1971), a composition for 100
cassette tape recorders
– Ugnayan (1974), an ethnic piece played at the
same time over several radio stations.
 FACTS:
First Filipino avant garde composer.
1958, worked at a recording studio in Paris,
specialized in musique concrète.
He met Pierre Boulez, Karlheinz Stockhausen,
and Iannis Xenakis, considered the musical giants
of this musical genre.
1952 to 1990, Professor of Piano and Musicology
at the College of Music, University of the
Philippines.