MUSIC AS HEALER

Everyday, I listen to music -- all sorts, from classical to standard, to pop, to rock, and lullabye. I don't discriminate because my mind has that bent to analyze every phrase, every lyric which makes listening interesting for me in a way. I learned how to analyze from Tita King, or Lucrecia Kasilag, the National Artist for Music. She was not yet one when I met her and when I was taking lessons under her. When she became one, we still continued our ties, she as my erstwhile mentor, ever so giving, nurturing and humorous, while I was a student so eager to absorb everything and anything about music, as my late ambition come fulfilled.

So when Anjie Oquendo, member of the Liturgikon Vocal Ensemble (LVE) from UST invited me to attend their program, Pax and Friends, even if it was only hours before the start, I readily acceded. How that experience of watching them perform really struck me from the outset. LVE is composed of music students and that is very evident from the very start of their singing. the blending of the voices was fabulous, not a single off-key tone did I hear; the harmony was terrific, whether the singing was slow or fast; and even if there was not much choreography of the pieces, they were a sight to behold. I feasted my eyes on them, those youthful students whose voices exuded worshipful thoughts in every piece.

They sang Exultate Deo by Alessandro Scarlatti, Ave Maria by Tomas L. de Victoria and I Will Sing Forever by M. Francisco, S.J. The pieces are not ordinary choir songs. One piece required one voice singing the melody and another running against it or contrapuntal. Another thing, all the pieces required singing in harmony' but this is hard because sopranos or any of the other voices could find it hard sticking to their melodies while having to listen to other voices at the same time. Also, the lines of the songs are quite long thereby imposing breathing requirements. A singer cannot just breathe at will but has to look for that particular comma or pause whereby it would be proper to breathe without destroying or cutting the thought. Otherwise, the singing would appear amateurish and disturbing.

Anyway, other choirs were present like the UST Chorus of Arts and Letters and the Accountancy Chamber Singers during this concert. I counted the singers and there were a lot -- both male and female voices. the LVE had more than 40 members, the UST Chorus, 23, and the ACS 16 with almost equal participation of the sexes. So here we can see that young people are always drawn to music and expressing themselves through it which is a key to how development is viewed by them, after all. Life should not all be purely for materialistic but rather cultural pursuits as well.

A few suggestions will suffice here:
1. Conductors must dress well, especially when the singers are in their best attire. They must also be conscious of how their backs look like while conducting. Sometimes, these backs can distract the attention of the audience instead of being able to concentrate on listening to the music.
2. When singers of a choir joins another choir to augment the voices on the latter, it is necessary for their costumes to blend with the group.
3. Programs should contain the names of the choir members. It is a document of the students' experiences in school.
4. I like the inclusion of programme notes. However, they should also contain the years the pieces were composed for historical accuracy and also to inculcate in the audience the need to appreciate the past.
5. Above all, the singers must know how to enunciate so that the audience can hear the lyrics, and appreciate the meaning that the composer wants to impart. Unfortunately, some conductors do not emphasize this so much so that listening to choral singing becomes just a melodic appreciation hour, and no longer literary as well.
6. After the Accountancy singers had left the stage, the sounds technicians replayed a line from one of the songs which was deliberately made to make the audience hear it: :"tila ako'y nababaliw...' which is rather crass, and a sign of making the cultural exercise a political one. I am sure that the technician had been told to do that by someone in the audience out to disgrace a political critic also watching.
7. Then after the concert, the garbage janitor was there outside the hall collecting all the wastes of the college of education building in all galore. What a stupid ending for an ethereal experience. I am sure that was also deliberately done -- to make the audience see the plastic bags of garbage, in effect making a statement that all your cultural events are just a waste of time.

Calling the dean of music, Dr. Raul Sunico. Make the administration respect musicians and audience please. Delete political harassers forever from cultural language AND REALITY.