Exploring Music of Mindanao

Hello there dear learners! Are you ready for another fun learning lesson? Great! Let’s get it on. In this lesson, you will learn about the music of Mindanao (vocal and instrumental). Through the lessons, you will discover the socio-cultural influences and distinct religious beliefs of the people of Mindanao.

Directions: Identify the musical instruments pertained in column A by arranging the letters in column B. write the correct answer in the space provided in column B.

I. MORO / ISLAMIC MUSIC:

A. Vocal Music of Mindanao

The Islamic community of the Philippines consists of ethnolinguistic groups:

• The Maguindanao of Cotabato
• The Maranao of Lanao and Cotabato
• The Samal and Jama Mapun of the Sulu Islands of Sibutu and Cagayan
• The Tausug of the Sulu Islands of Jolo, Siasi, and Tawi-Tawi
• The Yakan of Basilan and Zamboanga

The uniqueness of the cultures and his/her musical practices that make up the larger Islamic society in Mindanao and Sulu belongs to one single tradition.

Similarities do exist in some vocal styles within the large society, but theoretical concepts, functions, aesthetics, and repertoires differ from culture to culture, and even from village to village belonging to one language group.

1. CHANTS – a lyrical rendition of different improvised text.

Yakans do his/her chantings through solo and counter or group singing. His/her three famous everyday style chants are the:

1. Lugu – chants that they use in reading his/her Qur’an and other books they use in his/her Islam religion
2. Kalangan – songs that they use for serenading his/her loved ones
3. Sa-il / Lunsey – an important chant to be sung by the wife-to-be during the ceremony that talks about married life Maranaos have an extensive vocal repertoire such as:

1. Dikker – sacred songs highlighted by quotations from the Qur’an
2. Bayok – semi-generic term for a lyrical rendition of different improvised

text

2. LULLABY – a chant-style or chant formula use in rocking a baby to sleep

a. Ya-ya – is a song of the Yakans to put the baby to sleep, sung in a relax / slow manner, soft and soothing while rocking the baby b. Bayok – is also a Maranao term for lullaby

B. Instrumental Music

1. Kulintang Ensemble – Gong-based ensemble used by the Maguindanao and Maranao of western Mindanao, the Tausug, the Yakan, and the SamaBajao of the Sulu Archipelago. They have varied functions but are mostly used for celebration / rituals and are mainly divided into two types.

• Kulintangan ( Manobo Cotabato )/Kwintangan – ensembles 0f 6-8 hanging melody gongs in a row, hung on ropes in pyramidal order, with the smaller and higher-pitched gongs near the top
• Tahunggo, Agung, Salmagi, BlowonSemagi – suspended gong ensembles (9-11 gongs, played a melody and drone player) in various names according to each tribe; ensemble maybe completed with 1 or 2 drums. 

• Kulintang – is an important social property. This instrument of the ensemble is a highly valued priceless heirloom that can command a high price as dowries. The ownership of these instruments indicates high social status and cultivated taste.

• Agung – a large, deep-rimmed gong, vertically suspended, hanged in wooden frames.

  2. Bamboo Ensemble – According to the Philippine legends, the first man and woman are born out of the bamboo. Bamboo is also considered among early Filipinos as a spiritual connection from our physical world to the spiritual. Many bamboo instruments were made for this purpose while some were also used for entertainment and personal expression. The different manners in playing bamboo instruments include: blowing(aerophones), shaking or hitting (idiophones), and plucking (chordophones).

  Gabbang – a native xylophone in Sulu, a bamboo keyboard on top, constructed out of wood. Ordinarily, its main body is shaped like a coffin; keys are struck with two mallets, each with a strip of rubber fastened to its underside.

  Seronggagandi – a guitar- like made of bamboo, cut before one nod and after next. Two cords are slit loose side by side from the outer skin fibers of the bamboo itself and these are given tension by means of bridges. A hole is then cut into the bamboojust under the 2 cords, to serve as resounding holes.

  Music Listening: Gabbang music

  Philippine music: music of the Mindanao Muslims Uwang Ahadas Gabbang http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AR0heXocsA

  3. Solo Instrument

  Kudyapi – is a 2-string plucked lute instrument made of wood which resembles and elongated guitar usually having 2 strings. It varies in sizes, but normally it is about one and a half meters long. It is held in the performer’s lap like a guitar, the left hand slides back and forth along the melody string between the frets; the middle finger of the right hand plucks both the melody and drone strings right hand plucks both the melody and drone strings with a rattan plectrum or kubit

II. NON-ISLAMIC

Migrants/Christians      –        the     people         who   migrated     from  Luzon         and

Visayas were mostly Christians. Most of these settlers from Luzon and

Visayas came to Mindanao during the Philippine Commonwealth under the Americans and in the 1950s and 1960s. While Moro and Lumad music are often featured in Mindanao cultural presentations, the people who migrated from Luzon and Visayas brought along his/her own culture. Even though they still have family ties to Luzon and Visayas, they are evolving into his/her own Mindanao identity.

For Christian music, Monsignor Rudy Villanueva of Cebu, Narcisa Fernandez of Davao City, Fr. Jose Maghinay who started his GSK songs (in the DOPIM area ( Dipolog, Ozamiz, Pagadian, Iligan, Marawi) and Fr. Lhem Naval (whose compositions are heavily influenced by the Jesuits ( who trained him in Vianney way back in the late 1990s ) have greatly contributed in liturgical music used in Mindanao. Chavacano music in Christian Zamboanga has also flourished through the years.

Lumad – a collective term for groups of indigenous people from Mindanao, which means “native.”

Out of the 6.5 million indigenous people in the Philippines, there are an estimate of 2.1 million Lumads in Mindanao. Some of them are Subanen, B’laan, Mandaya, Higaonon, Banwaon, Talaanding, Mansaka, Manguanan, Dibabawon, Tagakaolo, Bagobo, Ubo, Tiruray, T’boli, and Manobo.

Bagob

known as non-muslim and non-christians, the

orientation of his/her cultural developments appears to be toward the Muslim groups. In most cases, language is the only differentiating element in ethnic cultures, particularly among those which occupy adjacent and continuous territory.” Most of the indigenous cultural communities (ICC) in Mindanao speaks languages belonging to the Manobo family of languages, except the B’laan, T’boli, and Teduray.

Directions: Read the paragraph below. Based from the given selection,

Write down and analyze the musical elements and characteristics of

Islamic music, vocal music and also include the mentioned traditional instruments and their uses. Write your answers on the given spaces.

The musical practices of Mindanao reflect separate Islamic and non-Islamic cultural traditions. When we talk about music, Mindanao music is characterized by a highly subtle organization of melody and rhythm. is mainly homophonic, using a clear melody line over a subordinate chordal accompaniment, but counterpoint was by no means forgotten, especially later in the period. Melisma singing, song phrases, narrow singing, fluid singing, tremolo, strained voice, nasal enunciation, these are some of the characteristics of Islamic music.

We have the chants and lullabies under vocal music; the richness of his/her kulintang and bamboo ensemble, the popular solo instruments like the kudyapi, all of which are strongly influenced by Islam and its traditions. Then we have the traditions of the Christians, which now has a very wide range of ancient and modern Catholic/church music, and those non-Christians / non-Muslim’s groups’, the Lumad’s folk songs.

1. Vocal music ______________________________________________________
2. Elements of music

Rhythm______________________________________________________________

Texture______________________________________________________________

Form________________________________________________________________

3. Characteristics of Islamic music

___________________________________________________________________________

4. Musical instruments that strongly influenced by Islam and

traditions

_____________________________________________________________________

Now, It is your time to reflect with you learnings. Write down everything you have learned in this topic.

What I Have Learned

I have learned that

_____________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________