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Philippine Composers
Here are some of the best-known composers in the Philippines:
Alfredo S. Buenaventura
-was born in Sta. Maria, Bulacan on October 14, 1929. At an early age in
grade school, he became a member of a band that marched the town
because of his fascination with trumpets and trombones. During the prewar, he became one of the twenty boy sopranos of Tiples at Sto. Domingo
Church. They were given first class musical training. At that time, he also
wrote his first composition which was a Danza.
Bueneventura also had formal music lessons. At the age of 12 to 13, he
already arranged and conducted band in his hometown. He was an official
organist of the Manila Cathedral from 1960. He also became a member of
the League of Filipino Composers and received numerous outstanding
awards in music industry such as the Republic Cultural Heritage Awards
that he won twice.
He is among the few composers in the Philippines who composed five fulllength operas. He has his own set of ideas about music and composition.
Francisco Beltran Buencamino
- was born on November 5, 1883 in Bulacan, he performed as concert
pianist during the American colonial period. Buencamino, Sr. is a son of a
musically inclined couple, Fortunato Buencamino, a church organist and a
band master Luisa Beltran, a singer.
He studied music composition and harmony at Liceo de Manila which
unfortunately, he was not able to finish. He also taught at the Ateneo de
Manila and Centro Escolar de Señoritas. At Centro Escolar de Señoritas, he
founded its Conservatory of Music. He also created the Buencamino Music
Academy in 1930. Nicanor Abelardo was one of his students. Expanding
his career, he also ventured into musical direction and scoring, composing
music for Sampaguita Pictures, LVN, and Excelsior. He also wrote several
sarswela and kundiman. He died on October 16, 1952.
Lucio D. San Pedro
- known as the composer of the popular lullaby Sa Ugoy ng Duyan (in
collaboration with Levi Celerio) and the symphonic poem Lahing
Kayumanggi. He was born in Angono, Rizal on February 11, 1913. His
father also taught him the solfeggio lessons and on how to play the
clarinet and saxophone. He was also exposed to other instruments. He
bacame the director of the Angono Church Choir in his late teens. He
made his first composition when he was in Grade VII, In 1938, he
completed a Teacher's Diploma in Composition and Conducting at
the UP Conservatory of Music. He became band instructor at the Ateneo
de Manila and in 1940 an assistant instructor at the UP. During the war
years, he was assistant conductor and became conductor of the Musical
Philippines Philharmonic Orchestra and also the musical director of
Dramatic Philippines. In 1943 to 1944, he headed the Composition
Department of Centro Escolar University. He composed original
background music for several motion pictures with Fernando Poe Sr
Productions. President Corazon C. Aquino proclaimed Lucio D. San Pedro
a National Artist of the Philippines for Music in May 9, 1991.
Antonio J. Molina
- was the first violincellist of pre-war times, a composer, conductor,
pedagogue, and music administrator. Molina was born into a musical
family in Quiapo, Manila on December 26, 1894. His first formal music
lessons was violin and solfeggio under Celestino de Vera, then a member of
his father's orchestra. He did a professional work, as concert soloist,
composer, and conductor in Hanoi, French Indochina (now North Vietnam).
Back in the Philippines, he was appointed to teach harmony, composition,
music history, and violincello at the UP Conservatory of Music. He was also
the first Filipino composer who was invited to perform his works
to Malacañang. From being a consultant in music education at the Bureau of
Public Schools, he also became the dean of the Centro Escolar Conservatory
of Music. He also founded the first chamber music group, the CEU String
Quartet which was professionally organized and financed by its music
school. He died on January 29, 1980 at age 86 and was honored with a state
funeral befitting a Philippine National Artist.
Francisco F. Feliciano
- was born on February 19, 1942 in Morong, Rizal. He started his music
career in the high school band where he had played cymbals and the
clarinet. He completed a Teacher's Diploma in Composition and
Conducting at the University of the Philippines and, afterwards, a
Bachelor of Music degree, major in Composition. He became the choir
conductor and instructor in music fundamentals at St. Andrews
Seminary. He also became an instructor at the UP for courses in theory
and composition. He also conducted the UP Symphony Orchestra and
was a musical director of groups.He was also the musical director of the
movie "Ang Bukas ay Atin" and has provided orchestration for many
musical productions such as the musical of Broadway "My Fair Lady",
Philippine productions.
Lucino T. Sacramento
- was born in Licab, Nueva Ecija on June 30, 1908. At the age of seven, he
could play all the instruments with the help of their band members. He
made his first composition before he graduated in elementary which
titled The Ateneo Seventh Grade March. This composition was played by a
small school orchestra during programs and other activities. Back in Nueva
Ecija, he learned to play American jazz. Since he could play all the
instruments he became a member of The Nueva Ecija Provincial High
School orchestra. He also composed a "kundiman" entitled "Dapit-Hapon"
which was also his first published composition.
He started college in Ateneo and took up Preparatory Medicine but later
shifted to UP Conservatory of Music as a piano major. He was convinced
by Nicanor Abelardo to shift to composition and he graduated with this
major.
Felipe P. de Leon
- was born in Peñaranda, Nueva Ecija on May 1, 1912. He was known best
for translating the lyrics of the Philippine National Anthem from the
original Spanish to Tagalog. He was named National Artist of the
Philippines for music in 1997. He was educated in Manila and the United
States. He taught in various schools in the capital city. De Leon wrote his
famous piece "Payapang Daigdig" the morning after he woke up to the
destruction of the city of Manila during World War II.He also wrote the
classic songs Bulaklak, Alitaptap, Mutya ng Lahi and the kundiman Sarong
Banggi. He also composed the first full-length Filipino opera, Noli Me
Tangere, and subsequently El Filibusterismo. He established the Filipino
Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, Inc. (FILSCAP) and united
all the bands of the Philippines with Pambansang Samahan ng mga
Bandas sa Pilipinas (PASAMBAP). De Leon received the National
Artist Award for music by President Fidel V. Ramos .
Nicanor Abelardo
- was born on February 7, 1893 and died on March 21, 1934. He was a preWorld War II Filipino composer known for his kundimans. He used musical
influences from other countries to write songs for and about
the Philippines. He started showing signs of musicality at a young age. At
age five, he learned the solfeggio and how to play the banduria from his
father.
When he was eight years old, Abelardo composed a waltz, entitled "Ang
Unang Buko", which he dedicated to his grandmother.
In 1916, Nicanor began studying music at the UP Conservatory of Music.
Eight years later, he was appointed to be the head of the composition
department of the same school. Belardo also composed the melody of
"U.P. Naming Mahal", the official anthem of the University of the
Philippines System. The hymn is played in Palma Hall (formerly the College
of Arts and Sciences) regularly at seven in the morning, and is usually sung
at the end of programs held in the university.
The College of Music in UP Diliman (Abelardo Hall) was named after him.
Lucrecia R. Kasilag
- was born on August 31, 1918 was a noted composer, educator, cultural
and arts administrator, and performing artist. She was named National
Artist in Music in 1989. In 1939 she received a diploma in music teaching
at St. Scholastica’s College, In 1950, she completed her graduate studies at
the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York under a Fulbright
Travel Grant. In 1953 she became dean of the PWU College of Music and
Fine Arts in 1953. She established in 1957 the Bayanihan Folk Arts
Center to research Philippine music. Through her efforts she
made Bayanihan Philippine Dance Company the primary artistic and
cultural ensemble of the country. Kasilag died from pneumonia on August
16, 2008 at the age of 89.
Ernani J. Cuenco
- a composer, film scorer, musical director and music teacher. His works
embodied a Filipino sense of musicality. Hailed national artist for music in
1999. He composed songs for various Filipino films like “Bato sa Buhangin
and “Gaano Kita Kamahal” - this is the song he made for his wife, Madalena
“Nena” Marcial.
Ryan Cayabyab
(born Raymundo Cipriano Pujante Cayabyab but affectionately known as
Mr. C) - was born on May 4, 1954 in Manila, Philippines. He is a
renowned Filipino musician and the current Executive and Artistic Director
of the San Miguel Foundation for the Performing Arts. His works range
from commissioned full-length ballets, theater musicals, choral pieces, a
Mass set to unaccompanied chorus, and orchestral pieces, to commercial
recordings of popular music, film scores and television specials.
Ryan was the first Filipino Grand Prize Winner in the 1st Metro Manila
Popular Song Festival in 1977.
Cayabyab later graduated from the UP College of Music earning a Bachelor
of Music, Major in Composition degree. After that, he became a full time
professor for the Department of Composition and Music Theory in the UP
Diliman for almost two decades. As music director, conductor and
accompanist, he has performed with leading Philippine music personalities
at Avery Fisher Hall in the Lincoln Center in New York City; Carnegie Hall
(both the Main and Recital halls) in New York; the Kennedy Center and the
Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C.; the Shrine in Los
Angeles;the Orpheum in Vancouver; even at the Circus Maximus of the
Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas.