Naturalism - the Eighth Sense

Wednesday, June 25, 2025

Children and Nature - An Omnipotent Treaty

Children and Nature - An Omnipotent Treaty

“We must teach our children to smell the earth, to taste the rain, to touch the wind, to see things grow, to hear the sun rise and night fall – to care.” – John Cleal.

Wall Mural by Dr Abe V Rotor (7ft x 90ft)

"A thing of beauty is a boy forever." AVR wall mural at author's residence,

Barangay Greater Lagro, QC

Children and Nature - An Omnipotent Treaty

Dr AV Rotor , Living with Nature

Three young musketeers are set to conquer the world
away from the mall, home and school;
If Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn were real and alive today,
we wouldn't know who's genius, who's fool.

Who is the primitive, who is the civilized, oh brother!
when we prefer the city over the quaint village,
car for walking distance, processed over fresh food,
philosophy over instinctive knowledge.

Everything defined in rich vocabulary, but a rose is a rose
and nothing else, energy to matter and back,
universal cycles no genius will ever truly understand,
Homo sapiens! it is humility we lack.

Innocence in children, we make up for the falsehood
of the world of grownups and sages;
Einstein and Darwin never knew the whys of the world,
children have been asking for ages.

If genius is reborn in the innocence of children,
then knowledge into wisdom distilled,
compensated in old age for the young ones' sake:
'tis the fate of humanity in Nature sealed. ~

"We are all connected; to each other, biologically. To the earth, chemically. To the rest of the universe atomically."- Neil deGrasse Tyson

“When we are children we seldom think of the future. This innocence leaves us free to enjoy ourselves as few adults can. The day we fret about the future is the day we leave our childhood behind.” ― Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind

“I do not miss childhood, but I miss the way I took pleasure in small things, even as greater things crumbled. I could not control the world I was in, could not walk away from things or people or moments that hurt, but I took joy in the things that made me happy.” ― Neil Gaiman, The Ocean at the End of the Lane

“and when all the wars are over, a butterfly will still be beautiful.”
― Ruskin Bond, Scenes from a Writer's Life

"Those who dwell among the beauties and mysteries of the earth are never alone or weary of life." - Rachel Carson

Children and Nature “Because children grow up, we think a child's purpose is to grow up. But a child's purpose is to be a child. Nature doesn't disdain what lives only for a day. It pours the whole of itself into the each moment. We don't value the lily less for not being made of flint and built to last. Life's bounty is in its flow, later is too late. Where is the song when it's been sung? The dance when it's been danced?

It's only we humans who want to own the future, too. We persuade ourselves that the universe is modestly employed in unfolding our destination. We note the haphazard chaos of history by the day, by the hour, but there is something wrong with the picture. Where is the unity, the meaning, of nature's highest creation? Surely those millions of little streams of accident and willfulness have their correction in the vast underground river which, without a doubt, is carrying us to the place where we're expected! But there is no such place, that's why it's called utopia.

The death of a child has no more meaning than the death of armies, of nations. Was the child happy while he lived? That is a proper question, the only question. If we can't arrange our own happiness, it's a conceit beyond vulgarity to arrange the happiness of those who come after us.” ― Tom Stoppard, The Coast of Utopia

“Anybody who has survived his childhood has enough information about life to last him the rest of his days.” ― Flannery O'Connor, Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose

Perpetual Enchantment of Nature's Music

World Music Day June 21, 2025

Perpetual Enchantment of Nature's Music

"The earth has music for those who listen.": – George Santayana

No one tires with the rhythm of nature – the tides, waves, flowing rivulets, gusts of wind, bird songs, the fiddling of crickets, the shrill of cicada. In the recesses of a happy mind, one could hear the earth waking up in spring, laughing in summer, yawning in autumn and snoring in winter – and waking up again the next season, and so on ad infinitum.

Dr Abe V Rotor

Filipino Composers Nicanor Abelardo (Mutya ng Pasig); Antonio Molina (Hating Gabi)

Mozart and Beethoven are known for their compositions heavily influenced by Nature

There is more enchantment in ethnic music than in modern music.

Each kind of music has its own quality, but music being a universal language, definitely has commonalities. For example, the indigenous lullaby, quite often an impromptu, has a basic pattern with that of Brahms’s Lullaby and Lucio San Pedro’s Ugoy ng Duyan (Sweet Sound of the Cradle). The range of notes, beat, tone, expression - the naturalness of a mother half-singing, half-talking to her baby, all these create a wholesome effect that binds maternal relationship, brings peace and comfort, care and love.

Serenades from different parts the world have a common touch. Compare Tosselli’s Serenade with that of our Antonio Molina’s Hating Gabi (Midnight) and you will find similarities in pattern and structure, exuding the effect that enhances the mood of lovers. This quality is more appreciated in listening to the Kundiman (Kung Hindi Man, which means, If It Can’t Be). Kundiman is a trademark of classical Filipino composers, the greatest of them, Nicanor Abelardo. His famous compositions are

· Bituin Marikit (Beautiful Star)

· Nasaan Ka Irog (Where are You My Love)

· Mutya ng Pasig (Muse of the River Pasig)

· Pakiusap (I beg to Say)

War drums on the other hand, build passion, heighten courage, and prepare the mind and body to face the challenge. It is said that Napoleon Bonaparte taught only the beat of forward, and never that of retreat, to the legendary Drummer Boy.

Lucrecia Kasilag, foremost Filipino ethno-musicologist

Classical music is patterned after natural music.

The greatest composers are nature lovers – Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Chopin, Rachmaninoff, and our own Abelardo, Molina, Santiago, and San Pedro. Beethoven, the greatest naturalist among the world’s composers was always passionately fond of nature, spending many long holidays in the country. Always with a notebook in his pocket, he scribbled down ideas, melodies or anything he observed. It was this love of the countryside that inspired him to write his famous Pastoral Symphony. If you listen to it carefully, you can hear the singing of birds, a tumbling waterfall and gamboling lambs. Even if you are casually listening you cannot miss the magnificent thunderstorm when it comes in the fourth movement.

Lately the medical world took notice of Mozart music and found out that the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart music can enhance brain power. In a test conducted, a student who listened to the Sonata in D major for Two Pianos performed better in spatial reason. Mozart music was also found to reduce the frequency of seizure among coma patients, improved the interaction of autistic children, and is a great help to people who are suffering of Alzheimer’s disease. The proponents of Mozart’s music call this therapeutic power Mozart Effect.

What really is this special effect?

A closer look at it shows similar therapeutic effect with many sounds like the noise of the surf breaking on the shore, rustling of leaves in the breeze, syncopated movement of a pendulum, cantabile of hammock, and even in the silence of a cumulus cloud building in the sky.

Lucio San Pedro (composer of Ugoy ng Duyan,

an indigenous lullaby)

It is the same way Mozart repeated his melodies, turning upside down and inside out which the brain loves such a pattern, often repeated regularly every 20 to 20 seconds.

This is about the same length of time as brain-wave patterns and those that govern regular bodily functions such as breathing and walking. It is this frequency of patterns in Mozart music that moderates irregular patterns of epilepsy patients, tension-building hormones, and unpleasant thoughts.

No one tires with the rhythm of nature – the tides, waves, flowing rivulets, gusts of wind, bird songs, the fiddling of crickets, and the shrill of cicada. In the recesses of a happy mind, one could hear the earth waking up in spring, laughing in summer, yawning in autumn and snoring in winter – and waking up again the next year, and so on ad infinitum. ~

"Nature has its own music, own song, if only we have time to listen and a heart to understand.": – Debasish Mridha

Tuesday, June 24, 2025

World Music Day June 21, 2025: "Folk music takes us back to the roots of our culture."

"Folk music takes us back to the roots of our culture."- Tulsi Kumar

Original title: Ethnic music makes a wholesome life; it is therapy*

Famous Filipino composers

Music is closely associated with everyday life among village folks more than it is to us living in the city.

Dr Abe V Rotor

Lucrecia Kasilag and Lucio San Pedro, famous Filipino composers,
and ethnic musicologists

Have you ever noticed village folks singing or humming as th ey attend to their chores? They have songs when rowing the boat, songs when planting, songs of praise at sunrise, songs while walking up and down the trail, etc. Seldom is there an activity without music. Even the sounds of nature to them are music.

According to researcher Leonora Nacorda Collantes, of the UST graduate school, music influences the limbic system, called the “seat of emotions” and causes emotional response and mood change. Musical rhythms synchronize body rhythms, mediate within the sphere of the autonomous nervous and endocrine systems, and change the heart and respiratory rate. Music reduces anxiety and pain, induces relaxation, thus promoting the overall sense of well being of the individual.

Music is closely associated with everyday life among village folks more than it is to us living in the city.

Philippine native songs are associated with rural life. Countryside scene by national artist Fernando Amorsolo

The natives find content and relaxation beside a waterfall, on the riverbank, under the trees, in fact there is to them music in silence under the stars, on the meadow, at sunset, at dawn. Breeze, crickets, running water, make a repetitious melody that induces sleep. Humming indicates that one likes his or her work, and can go on for hours without getting tired at it. Boat songs make rowing synchronized. Planting songs make the deities of the field happy, so they believe; and songs at harvest are thanksgiving. Indeed the natives are a happy lot.

Philippine Ethnic Music

Filipinos already had a rich and unique musical tradition long before westerners set foot on our native land. Music was present in every stage of our ancestors’ lives — from birth to death, in blissful or tragic times.

Ethnic musical instruments

Ethnic music continues to thrive in the Philippines, particularly among indigenous people who comprise 10 percent of the country’s population and represented by more than 100 language groups from the mountains of northern Luzon as well as from Mindanao, Sulu, Palawan, and Mindoro in southern and western Philippines.

Such instruments as flat gongs, bamboo buzzers, clappers, quill-shaped percussion tubes, and brass Jew’s harps are often seen in the north. Meanwhile, bossed gongs, ring flutes, log drums, xylophones, single-stringed violins, and suspended beams are commonly used in the south.

These musical instruments are used in various rituals, festivities, and other activities. For instance, the paldong or kaldong, the lip-valley flute of the Kalinga, is a favorite instrument for serenading.

Vocal forms, performed either responsorial (viz., leader-chorus) or solo, are also used for different purposes. They follow the sequence of natural events and human activities, from the personal to social, from the economic to the political, from the spiritual to the cosmic.

The Ibaloy ba-diw, an example of responsorial singing, is used in ceremonies for the dead called du-udyeng or ta-tamiya. In weddings, epic songs, which may be sung for one or more nights, may also be chanted to entertain guests or villagers themselves. Meanwhile songs, performed by a soloist may be accompanied by instruments and/or dancing.

Among indigenous Filipinos, one important function of music is to celebrate or commemorate important events in the human life cycle. Examples are the Kalinga dopdopit, which is sung the first time a child is bathed outside the family’s house; and the dinnayan, dawak, and paliwat, also of the Kalinga, which are sung during a ritual celebrating the rite of passage from boyhood to manhood.

The variety of musical forms, styles, repertoires, and traditions that exist mirror the rich diversity in Filipino culture. Fortunately, until today, these rich indigenous musical traditions live on. They serve as a reminder of the Filipinos’ long history of musical talent and ingenuity.

Rondalla - Philippine counterpart

of the Western orchestra

Sources:

Hila, Antonio A. Musika: an Essay on Philippine Ethnic Music. Manila: Sentrong Pangkultura ng Pilipinas, 1992.
Santos, R.P. “The Ethnic Tradition,” CCP Encyclopedia of Philippine Art, volume VI: Philippine Music. Manila: Cultural Center of the Philippines, 1994.

* Living with Nature School on Blog [avrotor.blogspot.com]

Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid (People's School-on-Air) with Ms Melly C Tenorio 738 DZRB AM Band, 8 to 9 evening class Monday to Friday

ANNEX

Composers in the Philippines

From Sources across the Web

AI Overview/Internet

Acknowledgement with gratitude

Several prominent Filipino composers have significantly contributed to Philippine music, spanning classical, popular, and folk genres. Some notable figures include Ryan Cayabyab, Levi Celerio, Nicanor Abelardo, Lucio San Pedro, Francisco Santiago, and Antonio Molina. These composers, among others, have enriched the cultural landscape with their diverse musical creations. Here's a more detailed look at some of these composers:

Levi Celerio:

Known for writing over 4,000 songs and recognized as a National Artist for Music and Literature, Celerio was also famous for playing music using leaves.

Nicanor Abelardo:

A highly regarded composer, Abelardo elevated the Kundiman, a Filipino love song, to a western art-song form.

Francisco Santiago:

Known as the "Father of the Kundiman," Santiago's music blended Western forms and techniques with Filipino folk materials.

Lucio San Pedro:

A master composer and conductor, San Pedro's works often evoked the folk elements of Filipino heritage.

Ryan Cayabyab:

A contemporary composer, Cayabyab is known for his versatility across popular and classical genres, including choral works and film scores.

Antonio Molina:

One of the early 20th-century composers, Molina continued the nationalistic movement in Philippine music.

Julian Felipe:

He composed the Philippine national anthem, "Lupang Hinirang".

Antonino Buenaventura:

A composer and educator, Buenaventura incorporated Philippine folk music into his compositions.

Jose Mari Chan:

A popular singer-songwriter, Chan is known for his Christmas songs and love songs.

-Felipe Padilla de Leon:

A composer, conductor, and scholar, de Leon's works often reflect Filipino identity.

Lucrecia Roces Kasilag:

A composer, educator, and cultural leader, Kasilag was instrumental in developing Filipino music.

Ernani Cuenco:

A composer, film scorer, and musical director, Cuenco's works embody Filipino musicality.

Other Notable Filipino Composers:

Ramón Pagayon Santos (born 25 February 1941) is a Filipino composer, ethnomusicologist, and educator known for being the Philippines' foremost living exponent of contemporary Filipino classical music, for work that expounds on "the aesthetic frameworks of Philippine and Southeast Asian artistic traditions," and for finding new uses of indigenous Philippine instruments. A University Professor Emeritus of the composition and theory department at the College of Music of the University of the Philippines Diliman, he was proclaimed National Artist of the Philippines for music in 2014. Internet

Jose Mari Chan: A singer-songwriter, he is known for his Christmas songs that are frequently played during the holiday season.

George Canseco: A composer known for his popular songs and film scores. .

Joey Ayala: Known for his fusion of indigenous music and contemporary styles, and for his fusion of traditional Filipino music with contemporary styles. Ayala was recently guest of TATAKalikasan AdMU with the author as one of the radio program hosts.

Freddie Aguilar: Known for his socially conscious and folk-inspired song, and his patriotic song "Bayan Ko"

UP Center of Ethnomusicology founded by Jose Montserrat Maceda

These composers mentioned, among many others, have made significant contributions to Philippine music, shaping its rich and diverse landscape. ~

Sunday, June 22, 2025

Creative Photography: Nature's Art in the Garden

Creative Photography:

Nature's Art in the Garden*

Living with Nature Center

San Vicente, Ilocos Sur

Dr Abe V Rotor

"Nature is not only all that is visible to the eye... it also includes the inner pictures of the soul." - Edvard Munch

Nangka or jackfruit seedlings growing with waterfall mural background

Come see and hear the waterfall,

seedlings growing, sunlight and all.

* Nature art encompasses a wide range of artistic expressions inspired by the natural world. It includes both visual representations of natural elements and artworks that utilize natural materials. AI Overview

“If you truly love nature, you will find beauty everywhere.”

–Vincent van Gogh