Reviving Ethnic Philippine Songs

 Reviving Ethnic Philippine Songs

Ethnic Music reduces anxiety and pain, induces relaxation, thus promoting the overall sense of well being of the individual. 

Dr Abe V Rotor 
LIVING with NATURE CENTER
San Vicente, Ilocos Sur

Have you ever noticed village folks singing or humming as they attend to their chores? 

Fernando Amorsolo's paintings such as this, provide the ideal backdrop of Philippine ethnic music. 

Music is closely associated with everyday life among village folks more than it is to us living in the city. 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. Seldom is there an activity without music. The sound of nature to them is 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.

Ethnic music has greatly influenced folk music that we know today, such as the following. These are songs about   

1. rowing the boat (Talindaw)
2. planting rice (Magtanim Hindi Biro);
3. a happy, simple home (Bahay Kubo), 
4. wedding (Diona)  
5. the butterfly (Paruparong Bukid)
6. a tiny bird (Ang Pipit)
7. lullaby (uyayi, hele, Ugoy ng Duyan)
8. love's pleading (Kundiman)
9. serenade (Harana)
10. countryside living (Sa Libis ng Nayon)
11. a light or star (O Ilaw, Aking Bituin)
12. wooden clog (Bakya Mo Neneng)
13. exulting the young Filipina (Dalagang Pilipina
14. early love, "The Love of a Girl" (Ti Ayat ti Maysa nga Ubing Ilk)
15. a broken clay pot (Nabasag ang Banga)

 Typical Filipina on the countryside (Ang Dalagang Pilipina),

painting by Fernando Amorsolo

Here is an example of an indigenous song, Uyayi or hele (Lullaby).  Note how natural and spontaneous it is. The lyrics were invented to fit varied melodies. You can make your own, too.   

Matulog ka na, bunso
Sleep now, youngest one

Ang ina mo ay malayo
Your mother is far away

at hindi ka masundo
and she can't come for you

May putik, may balaho 

                                                There's mud, there's a swamp 

Among the Filipino musicologists who have contributed much to the revival and conservation of traditional Philippine music are  

1.  Fr. Morice Vanoverberg, who focused on the traditional music of the Lepanto Igorots of the north. 

2. Emilia Cavan, for her collection of  Filipino Folk Songs  published in 1924. 

3. Norberto Romualdez , for his collection of Folk Songs in the 'Philippine Progressive Music Series' published in the late 1920s.  The series became the textbook for teaching music in the Primary School.  It 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.

 4. Emilia Reysio-Cruz, for her collection of 'Filipino Folk Songs' that caters to the so- called 'Eight Major Languages' of the country.  The collection is perhaps the best representation of the songs from these ethnolinguistic groups.

5. 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.

6. Prof. Raul Sunico, currently the 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.

A Gulliver's Adventure on a Wall Mural

"Everything's so small, I'm Gulliver of Lilliput." avr

Mural paintings by Dr Abe V Rotor 

LIVING with NATURE CENTER

San Vicente, Ilocos Sur

Everything's so small, I'm Gulliver
of Lilliput, so goes the legend;
every once in a while we are giants,
but never, never to the end.  

 

Touch the treetops, the rising clouds,

catch the doves flying free;

the fate of a boat in your hands,

but only in imagery. 

NOTE:. Article inspired by Gulliver's Travels, particularly the first part and most popular of the four - Gulliver of Lilliput, a prose satire by Irish writer and clergyman Jonathan Swift, that is both a satire on human nature and a literary sub-genre.

A Touch of Kindness

A Touch of Kindness
By: Genevieve V. Andrada

Every page a whimsical fantasy

Words and phrases come alive freely

An orchestra’s crescendo escalates in one’s mind

Becoming a magical dream never to be left behind.

Colourful sceneries and thoughts so fanciful

Present a life s vivid, true and meaningful.

A field of flowers being kissed by the sun

Moonlight in the stream, the light if dawn

Memories of moments spent with a friend

Cherishing relationships that will never end.

Sharing laughs, hugs and smiles

Tender feelings travelling through miles.

With every line and verse

Arching wounds it will nurse

Bringing light to someone’s darkness

By weaving a touch of kindness.

Drawing by the author's granddaughter Mackie 7 (a self portrait with her brother Markus 4)

About Miss Genevieve V. Andrada

She was a Dean’s Lister, an active campus leader and writer at St. Paul College. She says that writing to her is “more than a hobby, it is a communication tool,” a piece of herself that she shares unselfishly to others. Viva as she is fondly called was a student in Humanities under the author as professor She published a book, Light of Dawn, on the occasion of her 18th birthday The author provided the paintings and illustrations of the book.

A Visit to a Nature Gallery

A Visit to a Nature Gallery 

How do artists re-create a scene?

it's all in the mind, talent and will,

and an unseen hand moving,

'til the wind and sea become still.

Paintings by Dr Abe V Rotor

Living with Nature Center

San Vicente, Ilocos Sur

A young artist, simple in taste and beauty,

came to .visit our home gallery;

She's also a teacher and sports enthusiast.

a standout among the millennials.

Wonder not what the world would be with us

 grownups and the generations past.  

Make-believe scenes of nature on the wall,

faithful to those before the biblical Fall;

artists challenge viewers into action 

and warn them of the Armageddon.

How do artists re-create a scene?

it's all in the mind, talent and will,

and an unseen hand moving,

'til the wind and sea become still.

Culture and Sustainability - Guiding our children to the Good Life in a changing environment (20 scenarios)

Culture and Sustainability: Guiding our children to the Good Life in a changing environment  (20 scenarios)

Postmodernism may do more harm than good for our children in a runaway technology and culture. They cannot and will not be able to keep with the pace and direction of change. Is this true?

Dr Abe V Rotor

 
Dr Rotor receives certificate of appreciation as Plenary Speaker, from Dr.Teresa R Perez, president of Philippine Society for Educational Research and Evaluaion during the 20th annual conference of PSERE at JB Lacson Foundation Maritime University. Arevalo, Iloilo.

1. Our children’s development depends largely on interrelated factors and stages:

• genetic (inherited)
• fetal (in the womb)
• childhood (environment & training)
• lifestyle (influence of society)

Like a house these are the 4 posts –pillars of our children’s personality and well-being.

2. Our children are likely to affected by "Your head is in the cloud" syndrome. - Inundated by more information than they can possibly hold in their heads, they’re increasingly handing off the job of remembering to search engines and smart phones.

Never mind memorizing the multiplication table, or Mendeleev's Periodic Table of Elements. Spelling of a word, its homonym, antonym? Check it out on the computer. Assignment? Search, download, print, submit - just don't forget to place your name. Psychologists proposed a new term - transactive memory, a prelude to blending natural and artificial intelligence.

3. Our children are becoming more and more transient in domicile where work may require, and for personal reasons, and when given the choice and opportunity in a global perspective.

“Citizen of the world” is a person without a specific country. He is rootless, baseless, transient. Compared, humans since creation live together under a specific culture.

4. Our children face more frequent, and deeper, forms of stress. People with higher levels of education and in higher status occupations and higher income are experiencing higher levels of stressors. ¨

Success can make life harder if you are driven, work-devoted that high status persons tend to be. Mental and physical health benefits associated with greater affluence fade away. It is harder to cope with stress when you have reached the top of your career.

5. Our children face – more than we do today - the consequences of loss of privacy and secrecy. “There is no place you can remain with comfortable anonymity.”

Wikileak unveiled classified information about the Iraq and Afghanistan war. DNA test proves real parental lineage. Bank secrecy laws and safeguards are changing. Citizens claim their right to access to hidden financial transactions.

6. Our children will face deprivation of natural beauty and bounty with the unabated shrinking wildlife, conversion of farms and pastures into settlements, and destruction of natural habitats and ecosystems. The challenge to restore nature will be placed in their care.

“Canned Nature” (delata) – pseudo Nature Centers. Gubat sa Siyudad, Fantasyland, Ocean Park, Disneyland, Eco Village, zoos, botanical gardens.

7. Our children are at the front line and center of people’s revolution spreading worldwide.

Arab Spring is sweeping North Africa and the Middle East, so with the escalating unrest questioning the present world order. All over US the young are angry at the inability of government and capitalism to narrow down economic inequity. Occupy Wall Street! is the battle cry. Syria is sitting on social volcano. Greece, Italy, Spain, once world powers in their own time are undergoing a similar revolution.

8. Our children will be part of devolution of power, decentralization of authority, and will be part of a new breed of more dedicated leaders.

Children hold the key to change. It’s the Little Prince that changed and saved the pilot in an ill-fated plane crash in Sahara.

9. Our children face acculturation and inter racial marriages. Mélange of races is on the rise – Eurasian, Afro-American, Afro-Asian, etc. – a homogenization process that reduces as a consequence, the diversity and vigor, of gene pools.

The benefits – economic, cultural and scientific - may not hold in the long run. Homogenization leads to narrowing down of the gene pool, and may threaten races and ultimately the species.
.
10. Our children may find themselves in a new norm of living alone. Solitary living is spreading all over the world, the biggest social change that has been long undermined.

Living solo is highest in Sweden (47%), followed by Britain (37%), Japan, Italy, US, Canada, Russia, South Africa, Kenya, and Brazil (10%). Living alone may help people pursue modern values - individual freedom, and self realization – but detrimental to health and happiness, and in the long run, to the community and nation. It could lead to more, and deeper, gender problems mainly on homosexuality.

11. Our children may find themselves among the increasing rank of the Nones - people who have no religious affiliation, rejecting organized religion as being rigid and dogmatic - hoping to eventually find the right religious home.

It is a kind of freedom to feel more devoted to God, of moving away from the problems of the church, and money-making religions. However, this could lead to deeper consequences since such loss may include loss of faith in other institutions.

12. Recycling the Suburbs. Environmentalists will celebrate the demise of sprawling suburbs, which left nations addicted to cars. Infrastructures will be converted in favor of "green", town centers, public libraries, museums, sports centers, parks.

More and more countries are imposing regulation to green the cities, from sidewalks to rooftops. Hanging Gardens of Babylon, anyone? If this was one of the wonders of the ancient world, why certainly we can make a replicate - perhaps a bigger one - given all our modern technology and enormous available capital.

13. Our children face the age of singularity whereby human and artificial intelligence are integrated. Robotics robs human of his rights and freedom – new realm of curtailment and suppression. (2045 – The Year Man Becomes Immortal – Time Magazine). This is falsehood!

14. Our children will continue looking for the missing links of science, history, religion, astronomy etc., among them the source of life itself and its link with the physical world.

Linking of disciplines, narrowing down the gaps of specializations, is vital in the making of a new culture.

15. Our children will witness in their time the beginning of a post-capitalism order, environmental revolution, rise of growth centers and shift in economic dominance and order, more green technologies, and space exploration.

Success of China, Singapore, Malaysia, Germany, Vietnam, has opened other post-capitalism models.

16. Our children, as they grow old, will be living in an aging society, and learn to age gracefully themselves. They will find , and become part of the Aging Niche.

Longevity is increasing all over the world: the average age of a Japanese is 78 years, the American 75 or 76 years. We are quite close to China with at least 70 years.¨Niche communities are where people as they advance in age opt to grow old alongside others who share a specific interest.

17. Our children will carry on a lifestyle "Handprints, not Footprints“. They will carry on this way of caring the Earth which we started.

They will reduce the impact of living against the environment - less CO2, less CFC, less non-biodegradables and other synthetics, less pesticides, etc. On the other side of the equation would be the number of trees they plant, their savings on electricity and water. Lesser pollutants, if not arresting pollution itself - and the like. Our children will clean the land, water and air we the generation before littered. They will heal the earth we defaced, damaged.

18. Our children will fit into any society where racism and apartheid had once divided people because of the color of their skin and region of origin.

Today colored athletes dominate many sports, many are great leaders of states and movements. Kopi Annan, an African, served the UN for many years, Kenyan Wangari planted millions of trees. Both are Nobel Prize recipients. President Obama of the US, and the living hero of South Africa, Nelson Mandela are the world’s most popular leaders today. Man is created equal beneath their skin, and in fact, by circumstance, the colored races have proved superiority over the non-colored: in schools, scientific discoveries, business, technology - name it and you have a colored standing out.

19. Our children will realize and enjoy the benefits that jobs are assets. A sampling of fast-growing occupations - Actuaries, financial analyst, computer programmer, fitness trainer, biophysicists, translators, manicurists, marriage counselors, radiologists.

Need a design for your product? Give it to an IT graduate with a background in design. Need a kind of product or service not found in the mall or supermarket, search the Internet. Entrepreneurs have taken over much of the functions of big business.

20. Finally, postmodernism may do more harm than good for our children in a runaway technology and culture. They cannot and will not be able to keep with the pace and direction of change.

This is not true. “I am the master of my fate, I’s the captain of my soul.” And this is what we want our children to become – but only when they are CHILDREN OF NATURE. ~

The Incredible Bromeliad

Bromeliaceae is a family of monocot flowering plants of 51 genera and around 3475 known species. Bromeliads are naturally growing in the tropics.  

Dr Abe V Rotor

LIVING with NATURE CENTER

San Vicente, Ilocos Sur

Pineapple (Ananas comosus) is the only commercially edible species belonging to
Family Bromeliaceae. It fact pineapple is one of the top ten fruits in the world market. Its uses are varied from fresh fruit and juice to ingredients in various recipes. The fresh fruit is rich in calories, vitamins, minerals and high digestible fiber. Philippines is among the world's top producers of pineapple on the backyard, as intercrop with coconut and orchard trees, and on plantations.

 

Bromeliads are raised as ornamental plants in gardens, greenhouses, and indoors. They are treasured by florists and gardeners for their colorful false flowers which vary in shades and hues as influenced by local environmental conditions. Bromeliads require a lot of water; other than this, they are easy to grow and maintain.

 

Miniature pond in the heart of the bromeliad is nursery and home of many organisms, including frogs and fish. It is Nature's pond in the sky where bromeliads live as epiphytes. It constitutes a complete ecosystem.

A seedling of a fig grows from the dead heart of a bromeliad and develops into a monstrous tree monster - the strangler's fig or balete, which will eventually colonize and kill the host tree and all its symbionts. ~