Visayan Performing Arts
By Gwendalene
Ting |
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Rarely can a Visayan be found, "unless he is sick, who ceases to
sing except when he is asleep"- thus remarked 17th century Jesuit
chronicler Francisco Alzina on the prodigious activity of Visayans
in the field of music. He noted, with much amazement, not only the
fact that Visayans seemed to be singing all the time but that they
played musical instruments with such dexterity, they could-by just
playing such instruments as the kudyapi (guitar of lute) and korlong
(fiddle)- "speak and make love to one another" (Alzina 1668, III:64,
678-69).
The field of Visayan and Cebuano music is vast. This is indicated by
the array of native musical instruments in the Visayas, which
include percussion tubes called bayog and karatong, drums called
guimbal and tugo, ribbon reeds called pasyok and turutot, lutes or
buktot, violins or litguit, jew's harp or subing, clarinets or
lantoy, flutes of tulali (Takacs 1975:126-27).
Ubiquitous too was vocal music since songs called ambahan, awit, or
biyao were sung for many purposes and occasions. Songs included
saloma (sailor songs), hila, hele, holo, and hia (work songs),
dayhuan (drinking songs), kandu (epic songs), kanogon (dirges),
tirana (debate songs), the balitao romansada (song form of the
balitao) as well as religious chants, courtship and wedding songs,
lullabies and children's songs, and songs that accompanied various
types of dances ad performances. Note an excerpt from a saloma
(trans. by Simeon Dumdum Jr.):
Tapat ako magsakay
Nga dili sa dagat nga malinaw
Kay unos dili ako malunod
Malunod ako sa mga kamingaw.
I'd rather ride the waves
Than the calm of the sea
Because no storm can sink me
More surely than solitude.
Spanish colonial rule exposed Visayans to Western music traditions.
Alzina (1668, III: 66) notes
that in the 17th century Visayans could already play Spanish musical
instruments with "notable skill." The Spanish guitar called sista in
Cebuano, superseded indigenous string instruments akin to it and
became so popular that the Visayas, particularly Cebu, has acquired
a reputation not only for guitar players but for the manufacture of
fine guitars. Other instruments, like the alpa (harp), also became
widely diffused in the Visayas. The Spaniards also introduced the
Christmas carol called dayegon and a more Latin touch to the
serenade or harana. Below is a representative of the Cebuano harana
(trans. by Erlinda K. Alburo):
Jazmin preciosa
Ning kasingkasing
Nga ginapaniba sa kalanggaman
Ginadugok kay bulak mga mahumot
Uban sa hinuyuhoy
Ning tun-og sa kagabihion.
Precious jasmine
Of this heart
Supped by the birds
Whose fragrance attracts many
Wafted by the breeze
In the cool night.
Catholic liturgical music and associated religious songs also became
an important part of the music tradition of the Visayas. Little is
now known of Cebuano composers of early liturgical music and no
adequate study has been undertaken on the adaptation of this music
to the Visayas or of its influence on secular music in the region.
While there was a tendency towards rigidification in liturgical
practices in the Spanish period, artistic cross-fertilization
undoubtedly took place. After all, the early missionary accounts
themselves frequently cite how the Spanish missionaries appropriated
native songs and reformed their content to facilitate the
communication of new messages. At the very least, Catholic liturgy-
with the important role played in it by songs and chants- nourished
the native passion for music. American rule also introduced new
musical influence into the Visayas, particularly through the public
schools, the stage (as in case of vaudeville or bodabil), the
phonograph, movies and radio.
The first half of the 20th century saw a flowering of Cebuano music
composition. A major factor was the rise of Cebuano theater in the
early 1900s, with the sarswela or musical play as the most popular
dramatic form. Hence, there was a demand for music-and-song
performances. Teatro Junquera (later Oriente) in Cebu City showed
Cebuano sarswela and Spanish zarzuelas, Italian opera, and
American-style bodabil in the early 1900s. Plays by Buenaventura
Rodriguez and Florentino Borromeo were staged with a complement of
as large as a 32-member orchestra. Off-theater, there were open-air
plays staged in Visayan villages as well as neighborhood
performances of the Cebuano balitao. Then, one must also consider
that, beginning with the Spanish period, the social calendar was
filled with religious festivities that created occasions for musical
performances. Hence, it was a standard for a town, and even many
barrios, to have a local orchestra or band. In later years, Cebuano
movies and radio programs also stimulated the creativity of
composers and performers.
The 20th century saw the advent of the music recording industry in
the Philippines. In the 1920s and 1930s, Cebuano songs and singers
were recorded on phonograph discs. In 1929 for instance, the premier
Cebuano singer of the time, Conception Cananea, had already cut 27
songs for Disko Odeon while her husband, composer Manuel Velez, had
12 songs recorded. (Velez also owned at this time the Santa Cecilia
music Store in Cebu City, which sold musical intruments, sheets, and
phonographs). In 1931 there was an Odeon Palace in Cebu City selling
phonograph records of compositions by Velez, Brigido, Lakandazon,
Piux Kabahar, Hermenegildo Solon, Rafael Gandiongco, Ben Zubiri,
Domingo Lopez, and Tomas Villaflor. Lakandazon, a Tagalog who
married a Cebuana and settled down in Carcar, Cebu, was an all-round
music man who played several instruments, acted as local bandmaster
and music teacher, and composed music for Cebuano sarswela. Songs
composed during this period included "Sa Kabukiran" (In the
Mountains) by M. Velez, with lyrics by Jose Galicano, "Rosas Pandan"
and "Kamingaw sa Payag" (Loneliness of the Heart) by Domingo Lopez,
"Salilang" and "Dalagang Pilipinhon" (Filipino Lady) by Celestino
Rodriguez, "Wasaywasay" by Piux Kabahar, "Aruy-aruy" by Tomas
Villaflor, "Garbosong Bukid" by Hermenegildo Solon, and "Mutya sa
Buhat" (Pearl of Labor) by Rafael Gandiongco. The prolific character
of the prewar and immediate postwar period can be inferred from the
large number of Cebuano composers: Vicente Rubi, Emiliano Gabuya, S.
Alvarez Villarino, Diosdado Alferez, Manual Villareal, Dondoy
Villalon, Vicente Kiyamko, Estanislao Tenchavez, Ramon Abellana, and
the Cabase brothers (Siux, Sencio, Narding, and Mane). In addition,
Cebu produced excellent performers and singers: the couple Manuel
and Concepcion Cananea-Velez and their daughter, Lilian Velez,
Eulalia Hernandez, Teodora Siloria, Presing Dakoykoy, Pablo
Virtuoso, and Pilita Corrales.
In time, the growing dominance of Western music and the promotion of
Tagalog music (favored by the fact that Manila is the capital art
and entertainment) eclipsed Cebuano music composition. Musical
activity, however, has remained active in Cebu through the work of
such composers, teachers, and performers as Pilar B. Sala, Rodolfo
E. Villanueva, Ingrid Sala-Santamaria, and the Cebu Symphony
Orchestra. Promotional activities by such groups as the Cebu Arts
Council, Cultural and Historical Affairs Commission, Cebu Arts
Foundation, Cebu Popular Music Festival which has done notable work
in encouraging Cebuano composition of popular songs, and local music
schools and radio stations have encouraged composition and
performance in Cebu. There are indications that Cebuano music
composition may again be entering a new energetic phase in its
history.
Cebuano dances are varied. This variety features the colorful
surtido Cebuano of Bantayan, the
maligonoy of Consolacion, the la berde and the ohong-ohong of Carcar,
the sampaguita of San
Fernando, as well as the pasa doble. In Sibalon, Negros Oriental,
San Antonio of Padua is honored with the gapnod dance; and in Cebu
the sinulog and Pit Senyor is performed by devotees before the image
of the Santo Nino. Children dance and sing the yuletide pastores, a
portrayal of the shepherd's adoration of the Child Jesus. The
Cebuano penchant for mime is demonstrated in the mananagat, a dance
about fisher folk at work, and the dalagang gamay or "little maiden"
in which a girl, singing and dancing with a handkerchief, plays at
being a lady. More unique are the la berde wherein a boy dances not
with one but two girls, and the maramyon, another pantomime which is
accompanied by the singing of dancers or the audience. The
ohong-ohong dance of farmers similarly invokes audience
participation. Performers of these dances are costumed as in other
Visayan dances; the women in patadyong, camisa, and panuelo, and the
men in barong tagalog. Generally, the outward flings and extravagant
movements in Cebuano dances manifest the carefree and fun-loving
outlook of the Cebuano.
The traditional Cebuano dances have been preserved even if their
popularity has declined. though the balitao was a prewar favorite
popularized by Pedro Alfafara and Nicolasa Caniban, and later, by
Antonio and Pacing Bohol, it is rarely performed today because of
the general preference for Western dance. There are hopeful signs,
however, that traditional dances like the balitao and sinulog will
not only be preserved but creatively adapted by contemporary Cebuano
choreographers and dancers. Opportunities are provided by
festivities like the Sinulog Festival in Cebu City and the work of
school-based dance groups, like those at the University of San
Carlos, Southwestern University, University of Cebu, and University
of the Visayas.
There are as well groups dedicated to the promotion of modern dance
forms. The Cebu Ballet
Center, established by Fe Sala-Villarica in Cebu City in1951, was
the first institution outside Manila to promote training in
classical ballet and has produced such artists as Noordin Jumalon
and Nicolas Pacana.
The indigenous matrix of Cebuano drama is formed by a host of
dramatic and quasidramatic
performances associated with religious rituals, like the paganito or
pagdiwata ceremonial worship, as well as festive occasions, like the
pamalaye and kulisisi debates and the pangasi drinking sessions.
Such survivals of precolonial practices as the sinulog, the Cebuano
dance of worship, and the balitao, the song-and-dance debate,
contain mimetic elements of rudimentary drama. Formal teacher had
its start in the Spanish period. Early plays include a comedia,
written by Jesuit Francisco Vicente Puche, presented in the Cebu
Cathedral on the occasion of the inauguration of a Jesuit grammar
school in 1598 and a Bohol play, presumably in Cebuano and thus the
first recorded Western-style vernacular play in the Philippines, on
the life of Santa Barbara in 1609. The Catholic religion, with the
celebration of the Mass and the rich array of church-related
pageants and performances, inspired theatrical activity in the
Visayas and elsewhere in the Philippines. There were then twin
streams of theater in the region, one associated with indigenous
practices and the other tied to Catholic religious life.
Secular theater in the modern manner did not become significant
until the 19th century. The
moro-moro or komedya, or what came to be called linambay in Cebuano,
an elaborate costume
play dramatizing plots drawn from European metrical romances, began
to take root in Cebu, first in the Cebu port area and later in
surrounding towns and villages. It reached the height of popularity
in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The last two decades of the 19th century are particularly important.
The komedya flourished with
the works of such turn-of-the-century playwrights as Salvador
Gantuangco, Rafael Regis, and Benigno Ubas, and others working in
various parts of Cebu and the Central Visayas. Religious plays were
staged, such as Augustinian Antolin Frias' one-act Spanish play, La
Conquista de Cebu (The Conquest of Cebu), 1890. Later, Cebuano
priests Juan Alcoseba, Ismael Paras, and others also wrote and
staged religious and doctrinal plays. The sinakulo, a dramatization
of the Passion and death of Christ, did not become as popular in
Cebu as it did in the Tagalog provinces. Nevertheless Cebu's Lenten
and other Catholic rituals have never lacked dramatic flair. In
performing the kalbaryo, devotees climb Ditta, Talamban, as though
following Christ's path up Calvary. A spectacular procession in
Bantayan Island highlights the semana santa. Sugat (meeting)
dramatizes the reunion of the resurrected Christ and the Blessed
Mother, an integral part of the Easter Day celebration in
Minglanilla. Nativity plays called tambola and pastora are staged
during the Christmas season, at the end of which the Los Tres Reyes
pageant graces the feast of the Three Magi. In the 1880s, the
Spanish zarzuela was introduced into Cebu, performed first by
visiting Spanish troupes from Manila and later by local aficionados.
Such Manila-based zarzuela companies as those of Navarro and
Balzofiori performed in Cebu in the 1890s. From Cebu City, the
sarswela spread to other places like Carcar and Barili in southern
Cebu. In the early 1900s events of the sarswela were incorporated
into the minoros or opereta bisaya, a shortened and localized form
of the komedya. An important event was the establishment in 1895 of
Cebu's first permanent playhouse, Teatro Junquera on Colon St. Later
called Oriente, this theater became a focus of theatrical activity.
It was here that Vicente Sotto staged his Ang Paghigugma sa Yutang
Natawhan (Love for the Native Land), the first Cebuano language play
in the modern, realistic manner, on 1 Jan 1902. Sotto went on to
write other plays and his example was quickly followed by other
Cebuano playwrights, creating a period of intense dramatic activity
in Cebu and other places in the region.
Playwrights of the "golden period" of Cebuano theater from 1900 to
1930 included Buenaventura Rodriguez, Piux Kabahar, Florentino
Borromeo, Celestino Rodriguez, Vicente Alcoseba, Alberto Ylaya,
Silverio Alaura, Jose Galicano, Francisco Labrador, Jose Sanchez,
Zacarias Solon, and Victorino Abellanosa. Composers, actors and
other theater artists included Sabas Veloso, Sebastian Lignatong,
Antonio Kiyamko, Eulalia Hernandez, Concepcion Cananea, Manuel
Velez, Isabelo and Jose Rosales. Plays were staged in makeshift,
open-air stages, cockpits, warehouses and city playhouses. There
were also attempts to organize theater artists into professional
groups, the earliest attempt perhaps being Vicente Sotto's Compania
de Aficionados Filipinos, 1902, and troupes that went on giving
Cebuano playwrights exposure over a large geographical area. Cebuano
theater artists also played an important role in early attempts in
the prewar period to produce Cebuano movies. They also supplied
talent to the making of soap operas and musical variety programs in
Cebu's radio stations in the postwar period. However, the advent of
these new forms of mass entertainment-movies and radio- also led to
the eclipse of Cebuano theater. The postwar period failed to
recapture the high creativity of the early 20th century. Old plays
continued to be staged, paricularly during town fiestas; new
playwrights emerged; and some of the older artists, like Emiliano
Gabuya and Leox Juezan, continued pursuing the art by bringing their
companies of performers to towns and villages in the southern
provinces. There continued to be avid audiences in the towns to the
plays of writers like Diosdado Alferez, Lorenzo Alerre, Galileo
Varga, and Anatalio Saballa. The linambay lived on, albeit fitfully,
in the rural areas. Yet, there was a slackening of theatrical
activity as plays in Cebuano lost the prestige of the days of
Buenaventura Rodriguez and Piux Kabahar.
Today, theater has become an occasional activity, kept minimally
alive by colleges and universities staging annual plays, by local
art associations, and by dedicated theater persons. These urban
institutions and individuals have also played a role in presenting
to local audiences modern Western plays in English, such as those by
Tennessee Williams, Bertolt Brecht, or Neil Simon. Cebuano theater
still has to fully break out of its postwar stagnation. There are
interesting signs, however, beginning with the 1970s and 1980s, of
renewed interest in Cebuano-language with the revival of Cebuano
sarswela by university theater guilds, the efforts of playwrights
and theater artists like Rodolfo Villanueva, Delia Villacastin,
Claudio Evangelio, Allan Jayme Rabaya, and Orlando Magno, and the
work of nationalist cultural organizations linked to other groups in
the country dedicated to the promotion of a "national theater
movement."
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