02

Sacred Music
of Luzon
Lesson 2
Music 7
 Vocal Form
✓ For over three centuries, Spanish music influenced
the liturgical and devotional music of the Philippines,
particulary in the lowlands of Luzon.

Effects :
a.These influences affected the different religious
practices of the Filipino people.
b.The locals maintan cultural traditions through the
Hispanic-influenced music that varies according to
places or town.
 Mass
Catholic faith was preached to the natives through the
introduction of the liturgical mass in Latin text.
It is in the Western style.
Parts of the Liturgical mass:
a. Kyrie (Panginoon, Maawa ka)

b. Gloria(Papuri)

c. Alleluia(Aleluya)

d. Credo(Sumasampalataya)

e. Santus(Santo)

f. Pater Noster(Ama Namin)

g. Agnus Dei(Kordero ng Diyos)

✓ Majority of occasions and festivals give
honor to the patron saints of their particular
town.
✓ They also preserve our Filipino cultural
heritage in the form of devotional musical
traditions.
✓ Music is used in accompanying festivals and
rituals.
Pastores
is a Christmas
song performed in
honor of the child
Jesus in a manger
who was visited by
sheperds.
Moro-moro
✓ portrays the battle between the
Christians and the Muslims
✓ Adaptations of legends about
princesses and knight-errants.
✓ The triumphant entry or exit of
the conqueror and the downfall
of the vanquished were
supplemental by Spanish music
✓ One of the most famous
theatrical plays during the
Spanish period.
Pabasang
Pasyon
✓ Is a verse narrative on the life
and sufferings of Jesus Christ
✓ It is written in the quintilla
verse in almost all major
Philippine languages.
✓ It has a five-stanza lines
✓ Performed on homes,chapels,
and even in outdoor
improvised outhouses created
for the purpose.
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 Senakulo
✓ came from the Spanish cenaculo—a
Lenten play that describes events from
the Old and New Testaments related
to the life,suffering, and death of
Christ.
✓ It is the Philipine version of the
Passion drama.
✓ Traditionally performed on a stage
with creative decorations made from
colored papers and backdrops.
Performed for at least eight nights
during Palm Sunday to Easter
Sunday.
✓ It can be accompanied by a recorded
music or live playing of musicians.
Salubong
✓ Easter Sunday
✓ Held early morning in the plaza before the
dawn mass.
✓ About the reenactment of the meeting
between the Virgin Mary and her newly
risen Son.
✓ There are angels accompanying the
celebrations by singing “alleluia” while the
church bells are being played to proclaim
the end of the Lenten season.
✓ The Celebrations in honoring Mary and
other saints of a town are usually done
during May and April.
✓ Processions of saints that are accompanied
by marching bands.
✓ It may also include the Santacruzan and
flores de mayo.
Flores de
Mayo
Celebrated in honor of the
✓
Virgin Mary.
✓ The people offer flowers to
Virgin Mary once they arrive
at the church after the
procession.
✓ Held during the month of
May, and it is said to be a mix
of Catholic and Aligpayan
festivals.
Santacruzan
✓ A devotion honoring St.
Helena(known as Reyna
Elena)and emperor
Constantine finding the True
Cross in Jerusalem.
✓ It happens during the last day
of the Flores de Mayo
✓ A novena to the Virgin Mary is
enacted for a month under the
sponsorship of a hermana
and is accompanied by a
marching band.
 Tiples
✓ Are young chorus boy sopranos
who are trained and sustained
by important parishes such as
the Las Piñas and Sto. Domingo
churches.
✓ Marcelo Adonay of Pakil Laguna
excelled in writing religious
music in the Western tradition.
✓ He served as a church boy in
San Agustin Church when he
was eight years old and later
joined the Colegio de Niños
Tiples.
Instrumental Music
The Bamboo
Organ of Las
Piñas
✓ An important
landmark of
Philippine history
and culture.
✓ It is the pride of the
town of Las Piñas
✓ Located at St. Joseph Parish Church in
Las Piñas City.
✓ A nineteenth-century church organ with
unique organ pipes made almost entirely
of bamboo.
✓ Father Diego Cera de la Virgen del
Carmen , a young Spanish priest of the
Order of Augustinian Recollects,
conceived the idea of building the bambo
organ.
✓ Oldest and most unique musical
instrument in the Philippines.
✓ Lasted for more than 160 years while mo
organs last only for 15 years.
✓ Declared a National Cultural Treasure in
the Philippines in 2003.
03 Secular Music
of Luzon
 Folk Song
✓ Folk song is one of the vocal traditional music of the
Filipino people.
✓ It expresses the people’s everyday activities, customs,
and beliefs which are put together as music.
✓ “voice of the people”
✓ It is written in many forms : lullaby, kundiman, balitaw,
polka, waltz, valse,pandango, ballad, and danza.
✓ It is passed on orally
Examples:
1. Santa Clara- used by
childless couples and other believers
as accompaniment when they sing and
dance during the festival in honor of
Santa Clara, the patroness of Obando,
Bulacan.
 Other parts of the Philippines, like
Visayas, have folk song that depicts the
people’s everyday activities.

2. Pilemon
3. Harana- A Filipino word for serenade, is a
traditional practice of courtship in which a
young man woos a maiden through a song.

4. Polka- a type of dance written in duple time.

✓ It is the national dance of the Czech Republic.

✓ Many Philippine folk songs and dances are

formed into this structure, such as “Leron-

Leron Sinta”, “Magtanim ay di biro”,
“Pamulinawen”, and “Sitsiritsit”. Its name
varies from place to place.
5. Kumintang- a war song that became famous for the Batanagenos.
✓ It was the kundiman that gave inspiration among Filipinos who
were involved in the continuing fight for freedom.
✓ “Jocelynang Baliwang”known as “Kundiman ng Himagsikan”, was
most popular during the Revolution of 1896.
✓ Constancio de Guzman , a music composer, used this song form in
1928 when he set into music Huseng Balute’s patriotic poem
“Bayan Ko”.

6. Kundiman-a traditional Filipino song that expresses the lofty

sentiment of love and even heroism, in a passionate but melancholic
mood.
✓ It is said to be a contraction of kung hindi man “though I am not
worthy”. Many kundiman are sung in the harana or Filipino
serenade.
Instrumental
Music of Luzon
 The creativity of the Filipinos is
recognized in the creation of the
instrumental ensemble. Bamboos,
wood,metal, copper, and brass are some of
the materials used in the instruments; each
produced a unique and distinguishable
sound quality.
 Known as comparsa
Rondalla ✓

✓ An instrumental music peformed

by a brass band or a native-
stringed band.
✓ Both were musical groups
popularized during the American
colonial period.
✓ Had its beginning during the latter
part of the Spanish colonial period,
but proliferated only during the
American Period.
✓ Is of Spanish origin, its function,
repertoire, and orchestration is
Instruments of Rondalla
✓ The rondalia instruments have
commonalities in terms of physical
appearance. The banduria, laud, and
octavina have the same number of strings.
✓ They consist of six sets of strings with a
total of fourteen, each with one,two, or
three string/s tuned in intervals of fourths.
Banduria
✓ A pear-shaped
plucked instrument
with a round sound
hole at the center.
Tuning:
SET: 1 2 3 4 5 6
Tuned G D A E B F#
Laud
✓ A plectrum-pucked
instrument.
✓ It plays the second voice
and is tuned an octave
lower than the banduria.
✓ The design is similar to
banduria,but it has a large
neck and two f-holes.
Octavina
✓ Like a small guitar with a
shorter neck. It supplements
the rondalla music by giving
passages or counterpoint for
harmonic effects.
Tuning:
✓ Same tuning of laud. One

octave lower than the banduria

Guitar
✓ Six strings with a long fretted neck.
✓ It has flat back and curved at the
sides.
✓ The fingerboard has from 18 to 20
frets separated by metal transverse
strips.
✓ The frets’ function is for the finger
placements of the player.
✓ Both a solo ang harmonizing
instrument
✓ The guitar can play staccato to
produce dampened or muffled
sounds.
Bajo de unas
✓ “double
bass/bassviol/contrabass”, the
largest rondalla instrument”.
✓ Its shape is similar to violin
with f-sound holes.
✓ Produces the fundamental
ground tones to the music . It
has four strings.
✓ Tuning:
✓ SET: 1 2 3 4
✓ Tuned :G D A E