This column celebrates the vibrant literary culture and heritage of Dumaguete City, in anticipation of its bid to be designated as UNESCO City of Literature under the Creative Cities Network. It is produced by the Buglas Writers Guild, a network of literary artists from Negros Oriental, Negros Occidental, and Siquijor. Each week, we will focus on the work of one local writer. For this month, the guest editor is Dumaguete fictionist Ian Rosales Casocot.
Whenever her name comes up, there is always bound to be someone who will make the remark: “She should already be a National Artist for Music!” One such person was a National Artist for Music herself, Lucrecia Roces Kasilag. In 2002, during a concert at the Claire Isabel McGill Luce Auditorium that was dedicated to her, the renowned composer and pianist was given a standing ovation by a very receptive Dumaguete audience—and in turn she gave an impromptu speech, first thanking the crowd, and then delivering this acknowledgment: “If there is someone in the audience right now who deserves the title of National Artist for Music, it should be Priscilla Magdamo.”
And yet, such national honor continues to elude someone of her calibre. There is not even an entry written about her and her contributions to music in the Cultural Center of the Philippines Encyclopedia of Philippine Arts. What gives?
Priscilla Magdamo-Abraham is a pioneer in Philippine ethnomusicology, and the most extensive collection of Visayan folk songs exists today due to her vision and initiative. At the behest of her mentor William Pfeiffer at Silliman University, where she studied, she was designated to carry out The Folk Song Project in the 1950s, the goal of which was to “collect, transcribe, publish, and perform” folk songs from all over the Visayas, which at that time remained largely uncollected and unstudied. In her research, she was able to collect, often for the first time, what are now timeless classics, including “Ili Ili Tulog Anay,” which she stumbled upon while doing field work in Banga, Aklan in 1956. Her efforts were published in Folk Songs: Songs of the Visayas, published in 1957. Even after this initial project, she continued on with her ethnomusicological research, later able to collect “’Day, Baling Mingawa,” a folk song from the hills of Valencia town in Negros Oriental. Its simple lyrics—which alude to women living in the foothills of Cuernos de Negros calling to each other over significant distances, their voices echoing in the mountains—goes this way:
‘Day, baling mingawa!
Ako bay muanha, ikaw bay muanhi? Ouy!
‘Day, ngano man gimingaw ka?
Wa man akoy mahimo, anhi magasulti ta.
Unsa man atong isulti?
Anhi lang, dalì. Di ka ba maluuy? Aduy!
Translation:
‘Day, how lonesome it is!
Should I go over there or will you come here?
Ouy!
‘Day, why are you lonely?
I have nothing to do, come let us talk.
What shall we talk about?
Just come over. Don’t you pity me? Aduy!
This folk song, significantly arranged, has become a staple in choral music.
When she started her research, ethnomusicology was virtually an unknown field in the Philippines, and systematic training in the techniques of field work was unavailable. Nevertheless, Priscilla and brother Leonardo (her electrical engineer-recording technician-chaperon), supported by a Rockefeller Foundation grant, set out in 1956 to record these Visayan folk songs. When asked why she embarked on the project, she’d reply: “Nobody else was doing it.”
The Folk Song Project resulted in a compilation of some 400 recorded songs, and transcribed selected samples published in six slim volumes. These songs were performed throughout the Visayas and Mindanao by the Silliman Folk Arts Ensemble, a first of its kind in the Philippines, giving free concerts in areas where the songs had been collected. Their aim was to demonstrate the beauty, importance, and value of their songs, ending the project with success beyond their highest expectations.
By 1959, with a Smith-Mundt/Fulbright grant in hand, Magdamo formally studied ethnomusicology at Indiana University, and worked in its Archives of Folk and Primitive Music, rerecording field tapes from all over the world.
On a break from The Folk Song Project, she stumbled on the music of an ethnic group in Mindanao and for the first time, heard indigenous Filipino music, sensational, intricate and intriguing, often akin to the traditional music she listened to in the Archives. Over the years, she would return to the Philippines and visit other tribes to record music and learn about their culture.
Considering herself a singer first, she enrolled in the renowned vocal program of Indiana University’s School of Music, completing a Master’s degree with concentrations in vocal performance and ethnomusicology. In the world of the professional musician, as soloist or chorister, she easily became a valued member of all groups she joined. “Here was someone who had the complete package: a beautiful, classically-trained voice, with flawless sense of style, and the skills of a highly experienced sensitive musician,” singer, teacher, and conductor Lisa Jablow once said of her.
Of all the many professional groups she’s worked with, The Gregg Smith Singers, known as champions of contemporary music and winner of five recording awards, stands out. In 1985, joined by two other traditional music specialists Mauricia Borromeo, Frank Englis, and psychologist Frederick Abraham (her husband), she formed Ilian, which toured six Asian countries presenting Philippine music. Four years later, she ran the Workshop for the Exchange of Asian Traditional Music, in collaboration with The United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia. Twelve leaders in traditional music from seven Asian countries assembled in Bali, Indonesia, to make music, learn, and exchange ideas.
Although she has retained her Filipino citizenship, Magdamo has been listed on the Vermont Touring Artist Register, and has presented “Philippine Music, Myths and Folk Tales” all over the U.S. After earning a certification to teach techniques in healthy singing, she returned to the Philippines to teach singing again and do free vocal workshops for classroom teachers, church choirs, choruses, and students in public schools in Negros Oriental, Cebu, Siquijor, and Mindanao. To remedy the scarcity of Visayan folk song material suitable for amateur choruses, she has created and published arrangements, which were distributed to many schools.
In 2002, she was recipient of the Outstanding Sillimanian Award in Ethnomusicology. This is so far the only honor of its kind accorded to her in her homeland—and she deserves better.
