Popular and Classical Expressions Wagner, Camille Saint-Saens, Peter

Tohrokovsky, and Giacomo Puccini

 During the early twentieth century, Filipino composers  Writing in the late nineteenth-century
continued to write music for theater, particularly for the European classical music style were the
Filipino sarsuwelas succeeding Philippine composers
o These works featured short overtures, light arias, namely:
and interludes based in popuar dance rhythm  Antonio Buenaventura
(balse, danza, balitaw) with simple harmonic o Wrote the tone
progression. poems “By the
o Examples of Tagalog Sarsuwelas Hillside” (1941) and
 Luha at Dugo “Youth” (1946)
 Bonifacio Abdon  Hilarion Rubio
 Minda Mora o “Pilipinas kong
 Juan Hernandez Mahal”
 Ang Kiri  Rodolfo Cornejo
 Leon Ignacio o “The Allies”
 Walang Sugat  Ramon Tapales
 Fulgencio Tolentino o “Philippine Suite”
o As the Filipino sarsuwela slowly faded away by (1937)
the end of the American period, some of its arias o “Ave Liberator”
survived and later evolved into kundiman  Honored
 Kundiman the
liberation
 Lighter type of song for radio,
of the
cinema, and phonograph
Philippin
 These were songs in classical
es in
Tagalog poetry, with simple
1945
melodies similar to folk
 Lucino Sacramento
songs, and with rhythms
o “Maharlika”
patterned from the balse,
o “Ang Bituin”
tango, balitaw, danza, and
foxtrot  In the semi-classical genre, band music as musical medium
grew in popularity during the American period.
 Composers like Jose Canseco
o Civilian as well as school-based bands, rose in
Jr., Francisco Santiago,
number and the Philippine band formation
Francisco Buencamino, and
(originating from the Spanish regimental band)
Ramon Corpuz made lighter
became a prominent feature in many regions
versions of the kundiman
 These bands played an expansive
 The repertoire of Philippine music widened with the coming
repertoire which ranged from marches,
of Jazz music, which uses syncopation, polyrhythms and
medlies of popular tunes, folk songs
swing notes
arrangements, patriotic pieces, concert
o In the 1930s, the bodabil or vaudeville became
overtures, to symphonic compositions
popular.
 Dalagang Bukid
 These were entertainment productions
o Was a favorite neoclassic subject of patriarchy
comprised of solo, band, or orchestral
o In the performing arts, she was depicted in a
performances, magic, circus, dance and
saruwela by Hemogenes Ilagan which revolved
acrobatics
around a story between a country maiden and a
 In the classical music genre, works of Filipino composers in
wealthy man
the Western firms and idioms grew
o The production however, indirectly extolled the
o This is due to the establishment professional
natural wealth of the country and expressed pain
music schools in the American period, thus
of a foreign culture damaging one’s own
Filipino musicians received better training and
o In 19199, Jose Nepomuceno created it as the first
their compositions expanded to the major forms
Filipino silent film
such as the concerto, symphony, opera, sonata,
o There are also sarsuwela traditions in Ilocos,
concerto overture, and symphonic poem
known to have been advocated in the early 1900s
o Among the first group of art music composers
by Mena Pecson Crisologo who wrote Noble
were Juan S. Hernandez, Nicanor Abelardo,
Rivalidad and Maysa a Candidato
Francisco Buencamino, and Antonio Molina
 Their works were influenced by the
music of the European romantic
composers such as Robert Schumann,
Franz Liszt, Guiseppe Verdi, Richard