Is the Philippines capable of producing world class pianists apart from the present crop some of whom are in the United States? It is difficult to answer that given the circumstances we are in economically. All our attention seems to be on how to make both ends meet. But at the latest piano competition of the Piano Teachers Guild of the Philippines, Inc. or PTGP, over 36 students aged 8 to 18, of 21 piano teachers competed playing pieces of different musical styles of the 20th century. There we could see that we are not limited at all in terms of talents.
The PTGP was founded a few months after the declaration of martial law, on November 2, 1972. The president was Milagros de Ocampo together with Lucrecia Kasilag or Tita King as Honorary President, until her death on August 16, 2008. Tita King was truly a dedicated artist. She was also one of the founders of the Filipino Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers or Filscap which now runs after those establishments and institutions that play Philippine compositions to make them pay royalties for the composers.
Classical versus pop music
Now, what does it take to listen to classical piano music now when all around us are radios TV, and karaoke blaring pop music played by rock bands? It is really difficult to cultivate love for classical music under the circumstances we are in, especially when the favorite TV programs always play pop through song and dance. Luckily we still have DZFE a station that plays classical music, Euro-Amerocentric I must say, all the time.
But there are households where classical piano music is really the standard listening piece. These are where the parents themselves are appreciative of the music and the children imbibe their love for it. The home of former UP Prof. Carmencita Guanzon-Arambulo is one example. It is always buzzing with different kinds of piano music (and violin as her son, Ariel, is a violinist and teacher) because her school is located beside her home, the Children’s Talent Education Center which is geared towards cultivating musicians from toddlers’ age. At the competition, all 6 of her Suzuki method students won as finalists to the final competition to be held this month of September at the St. Scholastica’s College. They are Miguel Lorenzo Q. Panagsagan, Jannina Eliana G. Pena, Patrick Allen Q. Sy, and Warren Albert C. Garrido.
Okay supposing we are not musicians, and still we are interested in dealing with piano music, how should we start? First we must make our ears “acclimatize” to the keyboard which can play single notes, double notes, harmonized notes, and so forth and so on. We must be able to distinguish the music that the right and the left hands play. Then, we just allow our hearts to feel as we listen. Feelings? Are we capable of feeling while listening?
Feeling or non-feeling music?
Of course. A good musician is able to touch the heart and mind of the listener while playing. If not, then he or she is not a good musician. They could arouse feelings like being happy, sad, melancholy, angry, and blasé too, among others. Or they can instill moods like being serious, light, or comic, depending on the piece being played.
But at this competition, hardly could we distinguish the feelings or moods. Rather, the types of music exuded a rational and logical effect so that our attention was focused on the style of music, and the performance of the pianist. Twentieth century music is truly different from those of the romantic era like the compositions of Liszt and Chopin to which most of us are attuned I suppose. The kind of music of the last part of the century, and this millennium can hardly be called romantic, but rather avant-garde, (a term dropped to me by piano teacher Letty Sarte, thanks Letty), which is characterized by non-conformity to rules, unpredictability, and an expressiveness that is brought about by the composers’ feeling their way through every bar of the piece, meaning to say, they let their hearts lead the way to the end of the composition.
Beyond par performances
It is truly great that all of the participants, winners and non-winners were all able to perform their pieces credibly, as if they were speaking for the composers themselves. I guess that is another way of saying their interpreting the pieces of the composers. And so, what did we observe during their performances?
Fingers were caressing, pounding, slapping the keys. Their hands were either jumping or sliding on the notes, racing or sailing against each other. Sometimes the hands were running on top of each other. Another time, only the left hand’s forefinger and middle finger and the right hand’s thumb were playing seemingly without end. One pianist even made his fingers run from the lower to the higher notes as if ready to fly out of the piano itself.
Truly the contest pieces were very difficult to play but the young pianists imbibed the feeling of the composers, completely. They were able to interpret those non-melodious music which exhibit an overt desire to break its predictability. One piece sounded like revolutionary tones seething with anger, as if in a hurry to rise up for whatever cause. Another made me recall tinkling bells; and another time, sonorous gongs tolling for the burial of a corpse.
All the while, the performers played the 20th century music as if their own lives had been scored by the composers themselves. Why are these young people so attuned to this type of music? Is it possible that the games they play in the computer, if they are into such, have similar background music and so they could readily empathize with their piano pieces?
Also, I hope that their familiarity and ability to give life to these pieces do not make them forever too rational and logical, forgetting that emotions are important components of being human, also.
Good memory
Another thing that we have to credit the children is that no one forgot his or her piece. They were able to play from memory very easily. I found out that everyone prepared three pieces to play but at the venue, they were told to play only one. At this time where there are too many distractions for anyone to stay focused on anything, most of the pianists were able to hurdle all the barriers in order to deliver highly above average performances. We must credit all the teachers of these students for such great performance.
Objectivity to the hilt
Chairperson of the judges was Dean Erlinda Fule, of the University of Santo Tomas. She and her committee were inside an enclosed structure where they would not be able to see who was playing what piece. Then the competitors were called by numbers, not by their names in order to seal the objectivity of the contest. No favoritism, no nepotism, nothing at all, till the end. The winners were called by their numbers, not by their names. Not even the titles of the pieces were given in the souvenir program nor were they announced. Hence, the composers can forget being recognized at all save by those musicians who are fully in the know about the history of music. By the way, the pictures of the students in the program did not match their faces, as those were taken two years back.
Isn’t the PTGP taking the “objectivity standard” of the contest over seriously? Why couldn’t they name the winners, give the titles of the pieces, and then let every one hear them play their pieces again? In this manner, they would be educating the audience further and make them appreciate why these students deserved winning. Furthermore, the students who did not win could know why the winners won, their style of playing could be observed more closely and then they could pattern their performance, or make it better than these winners later on.
As the PTGP is a closed association – meaning “magkakakilala” then such procedures could have been instituted in order not to ruffle the feelings of those teachers whose students did not meet the criteria of the judges. But then, the whole point of a competition is to inculcate the idea that there are better performers. We must learn the distinction between good, better and best performances from truly human faces, or fingers, and not just numbers. Now the teachers should not feel aggrieved if the winners are named and not their proteges. By watching the winners in person play their pieces, their students would be able to see other techniques in playing the piano.
Not so spacious venue
The cool venue, the long auditorium of the Lyric Piano company, was freely given for the event with a piano de cola near the stage. The piano was beside other covered pianos with only two to three feet distance. Perhaps next time, the venue could be made more spacious, the other pianos removed and only one for the event to be placed there. I like the venue because it is accessible from my home. I was wondering though why the UP Abelardo Hall music administrators did not offer it for free, considering that PTGP is a child-nurturing institution. The government should not always be making money and provide such venues for free especially to non-government organizations like the PTGP.
Although piano music suffers very much from competition in the larger society against other genres, mainly rock, pop and R and B, still the parents and their relatives came and eagerly waited till the end of the event. Such belief in the talents of their children is just amazing; a father dutifully recorded his son’s performance on video; the other parents photographed theirs for documentation purposes.
Simple listening
Listening to piano music for non-musicians need not be burdensome. In fact, anyone who tries it, could just sit down, no matter how unfamiliar the pieces are to our ears. We could just run parallel natural scenes in our minds – when the notes are rushing, we could imagine traffic in the city; when high notes predominate, we can imagine small bells tinkling, or when one note after another note are played, up and down the keyboard, we can still imagine a kangaroo jumping up and down.
Hence, listening to music is all a matter of using our imagination. Later on, if we ever get the time to study the rudiments and theories of music, then we can probably all become “geeks,” listening to music for music’s sake and having a deeper love for the music of composers from Bach to Beatles. Hey Becky Demetillo, when will you have your concert again?
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