Contemporary Philippine Music

CONTEMPORARY PHILIPPINE MUSIC
- According to National Artist Ramon Santos, PhD, “contemporary music in the Philippines refers to
compositions that have adopted ideas and elements from 20 th century art music in the west, as well as the
latest trends and musical styles in the entertainment industry.”
- The modern Filipino repertoire consists of musical pieces that have been written in 20th century idioms that
have evolved out of such stylistic movements as impressionism, expressionism, neo-classicism, as well as
avant garde and new music.
- New music are compositions which are improvisational works such as the early compositions of Dr. Ramon
Santos, Radyasyon and Quadrasyon; Josefino “Chino” Toledo’s Samut-Sari, Pintigan and Terminal
Lamentations, and Jonathan Baes’ Wala and Banwa.
20th CENTURY TRADITIONAL COMPOSERS
- With Spain and then America having colonized the Philippines from the early 1500s to the late 1800s, it was
unavoidable that Western compositional techniques found their way into the works of Filipino composers. Yet,
even 20th century Filipino composers have managed to retain some traditional elements in their assimilation of
Western techniques. In fact, they have become the strongest foundations of what we now know as Philippine
music.
Among the major Philippine contemporary composers are Francisco Buencamino Sr.,Francisco Santiago,
Nicanor Abelardo, Antonio Molina, Hilarion Rubio, Col. Antonino Buenaventura, Rodolfo Cornejo, Lucio San
Pedro, Rosendo Santos Jr., Alfredo Buenaventura, and Ryan Cayabyab.
Francisco Buencamino founded the Centro Escolar de Señoritas, Conservatory of Music. He also created the
Buencamino Music Academy in 1930. Nicanor Abelardo was one of his students. Expanding his career,
Buencamino also ventured into musical direction and scoring, composing music for Sampaguita Pictures, LVN,
and Excelsior. He also wrote several zarzuelas and kundiman. Francisco Santiago is known as the “Father of the
Kundiman” and belongs to the “Triumvirate of Filipino Composers.”
Nicanor Abelardo developed a style that combined European romanticism with chromaticism. He belongs to
the “Triumvirate of Filipino Composers” together with Francisco Santiago and Antonio Molina. The Tanghalang
Nicanor Abelardo (Main Theater) of the Cultural Center of the Philippines and the Abelardo Hall of the College
of Music, University of the Philippines are named after him. Antonio Molina came to be known as the “Father
of Philippine Impressionist Music,” while composer Lucio San
Pedro integrated indigenous musical forms, conventions, and instruments in his works in the modern
nationalistic style.
Hilarion Rubio was a Filipino composer, music teacher, conductor, and clarinetist. His name was closely
identified with his works for the orchestra, conductor for opera, ballet, dance recitals, and music for movies.
Col. Antonino Buenaventura promoted Philippine music by extensively using folk materials in his works. He
recorded folk and dance music around the country with Ramon Tolentino and National Artist for Dance
Francisca Reyes Aquino. Buenaventura composed the music and did the notations for the folk dances as
researched by Aquino.
Rodolfo S. Cornejo was considered “the first Filipino composer who received an honory degree from a
government recognized music school in the United States.” He was known for his “pianistic and compositional
talent” by extemporizing a piano composition at the spur of the moment. Felipe P. de Leon wrote piano
compositions, hymns, marches, art songs, chamber music, symphonic poems, overtures, band muSic, school
songs, orchestral works, operas, kundimans and zarsuelas. He was known as a nationalist composer who
expressed the Philippines' cultural identity through his compositions.
Lucio San Pedro is known as a “romantic nationalist.” He incorporated Philippine folk elements in his
compositions with Western forms and harmony. His chords have a rich expressive tonality, as represented in
his well-loved Sa Ugoy ng Duyan, a lullaby melody sung by his mother. Rosendo Santos Jr. is listed in the “New
Groves Dictionary of Music and Musicians.” A prolific composer, his works include concerti, sonatas,
symphonies, symphonic poems, five operas in Philippine dialect, numerous band overtures, and more than 200
marches. He wrote 50 masses in Latin and 20 in English. He has more than 1,000 musical compositions in the
library of the University of the Philippines.
Alfredo Buenaventura is among the few composers in the Philippines who composed five full-length operas.
He has his own set of ideas about music and composition. He created a combination of contemporary and
conventional, kept his melodies simple and understandable, but he used contemporary harmonies to suit the
intellectuals. Contemporary composer and conductor Ryan Cayabyab spans both popular and classical worlds
with his pop, ballads, operas, zarzuela, orchestral, and choral compositions.

Contemporary Philippine Music

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Contemporary Philippine Music

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CONTEMPORARY PHILIPPINE MUSIC

20th CENTURY TRADITIONAL COMPOSERS

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