A year of all-Filipino concerts from San Miguel orchestra, chorale
March 8, 2004 | 12:00am
Composer Ryan Cayabyab is undertaking the difficult task of conceptualizing and presenting a yearlong concert series for the San Miguel Philharmonic Orchestra (SMPO) and the San Miguel Master Chorale (SMMC) that is devoted solely to Philippine and Asian classical music. Cayabyab, who is executive and artistic director of the San Miguel Foundation for the Performing Arts, which manages the SMPO and SMMC, says the endeavor will hopefully achieve two things: Honor Filipino and Asian composers by performing works that are often ignored in orchestral concerts in the country, and create a niche for the orchestra and choir.
"We want to develop a very Filipino and Asian choir and orchestra," he says. "That is the only way you can tell them apart from other orchestras and choirs in the country. That way, we will be creating our own niche."
Finding an audience for these concerts, he admits, will be the biggest challenge the SMPO and SMMC will be facing. Their first concert, Kayumanggi, to be staged on March 13 at the Main Theater of the Cultural Center of the Philippines, will be a test case of sorts.
Kayumanggi features a program of a cappella and accompanied pieces for choir, to be conducted by guest conductor Eudenice Palaruan. The program features a selection of sacred classical compositions based mostly on Asian and Philippine folk music, a full performance of Cayabyab’s Onassis Prize-winning Misa 2000 and a selection of Cayabyab’s OPM hits. The sacred theme was devised in time with the Lenten season.
Palaruan admits that many casual concertgoers might think this concert to be a tough one. Except for the OPM numbers, the rest of the evening will be devoted to classical compositions.
"Usually, I present my concerts in the form of a lecture-demonstration," says the conductor. "There is a short portion before every song where I explain to my audience the piece they will be hearing. For this concert, I will have none of that. I wish I could have done it this way, too."
Some concertgoers might not easily warm up to the music, but he thinks the choice of the CCP as a venue could also pose a problem to some concert goers.
"For many, the CCP still has an atmosphere of being a venue for really serious concerts," he tells. "Some people might think that only high brow stuff get performed there, but the music we are presenting are not at all high brow."
He points out that the sacred nature of the a cappella pieces should make them accessible to the audience.
The sonic demands of many of the pieces should prove to be interesting even to first-time concertgoers. One number utilizes the Balinese pentatonic mode, which may sound off-key to ears used to the Western musical scale, while one song is patterned after an Indian chant. The compositions from the Philippines also sets special demands on the performers since many are set in languages other than Tagalog, such as Diangan from Mindanao, Cebuano and Ilocano.
Cayabyab himself has one song in the a cappella portion of the concert, the world premiere of his setting of the prayer of St. Francis, but set in the original Italian. The section ends with Jerry Dadap’s Alleluia, a challenging piece for its extreme vocal range and polymetrical rhythm.
The highlight of the concert is a performance of Cayabyab’s Misa 2000, which won for him the joint second prize in the 2001 Onassis International Cultural Competition Prizes. In contrast with his earlier Misa for unaccompanied choir, the newer composition incorporates a number of indigenous Filipino musical forms into its musical fabric. It also requires a male soprano to sound like a nose flute, a tenor to sing in kundiman fashion and a mezzo soloist to chant like a Muslim imam.
"It represents the different moods, rhythms and dances in the Philippines," says Palaruan. "Any music student can easily identity the region in the country where a part of the music comes from."
This concert of pieces that are grounded on multi-cultural Asian influences represents the strength of many Filipino choirs that have competed and won in many choral competitions abroad. Their ability to produce a heterogeneous sound has served them in good stead in these international events.
"If you listen to a foreign choir, they would more or less sound the same. If you listen to a German choir, it would sound the same as any other German choir. But if a Filipino or Asian choir sings, we have an advantage. With our 88 languages in the country and our exposure to MTV, our choirs can produce so many different sounds that the Europeans cannot," he adds.
A further proof of the viability of Filipino choirs abroad is the invitation the SMMC recently received to participate in the Seventh World Symposium on Choral Music to be held in Kyoto, Japan next year. The SMMC was chosen from hundreds of choir aspirants based on a submitted proposed program and audio samples. For the symposium, it will be presenting a selection of pieces by Cayabyab, Palaruan, Francisco Feliciano and Dyzon Pesquera.
This early, Cayabyab is preparing the SMMC and SMPO’s next special concert in June, which will feature a selection of his own compositions, just in time for his 50th birthday. Another concert in October plans to tap an Asian conductor to lead the joint ensemble.
Cayabyab is quick to dismiss any talk of transforming the SMPO and SMMC as venues for his works.
"I don’t really like to program my works, but if I perform it with them, they pay no royalties. They are waived," he declares. "These are the realities of running an orchestra and choir. There is no funding for our concerts and there is no audience, too. We cannot mount a regular season like other orchestras because we have no permanent venue."
To drum up further interest in the orchestra, Cayabyab has also recorded a compilation of popular Filipino love songs in new arrangements that present the range of the SMPO. This initial album is just the first in a series of compact discs that hopefully will catalog the prolific output of the country’s composers. The first album includes kundimans and songs by popular composers of the ’60s and ’70s, like Ernani Cuenco, while another planned disc will focus on the compositions of today’s writers, like George Canseco and Willy Cruz.
"More than the performances, the recordings are geared towards a wider audience that have no opportunity to come to our concerts," he says. "We are giving back to the people, which is in line with the corporate and social vision of the foundation."
While the SMMC has no problems when it comes to material, the SMPO faces a dearth of quality modern and contemporary compositions to mine for its concerts.
Cayabyab plans to correct this by launching soon an orchestral and choral composition contest, where the winners will work in tandem with the San Miguel forces, under his mentorship.
"I would be offering workshops that will help the writers develop a unique Filipino sound," he says. "I have no idea yet what that would sound like, but I hope that I will be able to prick their souls and that they react to this by creating according to their own styles and feelings. I hope they would be creating something different."
If he finds the funding for this contest, he hopes to unveil the new works by 2006. Hopefully, by that time, the SMPO and SMMC will have received recognition for its efforts in promoting Filipino and Asian music.
BrandSpace Articles
<
>
