This chapter follows modernity’s trajectory towards a consolidation of a national identity in the... more This chapter follows modernity’s trajectory towards a consolidation of a national identity in the Philippines. The chapter traces two strains of musical nationalism as it was articulated in the first Asian republic. First, the case of the first Tagalog opera—Pedro Paterno and Ladislao Bonus’s Sangdugong Panaguinip—and the complex polyphonic interaction in the contestations of the Philippine autonomy. The second case study focuses on the indigenised vernacular sarswela. By paying attention to sarswela’s resounding commercial success across the archipelago during its golden age (1900–1930) this chapter examines how the sarswela formed an incipient national public sphere. The chapter argues how the sarswela formed the national ‘acousteme’ within the dynamics of Manila as a US colonial capital city and the incipient Philippine’s commercial urban capital.
This chapter explores methodologies of ‘hearing history’ and the theoretical enquiries of acousti... more This chapter explores methodologies of ‘hearing history’ and the theoretical enquiries of acoustic epistemology, putting into question how modernity was heard in Manila and Asia Pacific. The chapter presents theoretical frameworks and methodologies to analyse sonic understandings of modernity in Manila and the Asia Pacific region. The overlapping issues of cultural sociology and economics in how modernity brought about (1) aesthetic autonomization, and (2) cultural commodification in the act of listening is presented here. By drawing from and synaesthetically comparing contemporary visual and performance theories with sound studies, this chapter proposes the conceptual framework Anthropology of Sound.
This chapter investigates the Manila cultural soundscape in the middle of the nineteenth century ... more This chapter investigates the Manila cultural soundscape in the middle of the nineteenth century a time during which European music theatre companies continued to arrive in Southeast Asia. The pattern of cultural consumption intensified in Manila and neighbouring cities, as the region was further integrated in the global theatre and music network—driven by the transcontinental steamship passages accelerated by the new Suez Canal route. Manila became an important cultural nexus and destination of travelling theatre and music companies that found an avid market for season subscription tickets, and an already modernising theatre infrastructure. In just over a decade Manila developed home-grown locally organised opera and zarzuela companies.
In listening to nineteenth-century modernity, we hear the recurring motives of modernity’s dual l... more In listening to nineteenth-century modernity, we hear the recurring motives of modernity’s dual logic in the simultaneous uniformization and fragmentation of economic systems, social institutions, cultural practices, and identity formations across the globe. In describing this process of uniformization, I refer to global historian C.A. Bayly’s discernment of the difference between homogeneity, and the pessimistic vision of a monoculturalisation of the world. Instead, I employ the notion of uniformization to observe the increased commonality in the practices and implementations of technologies and bodily practices across societies and cultures. In understanding the process of uniformization, I want to point to the inter-twining common aspirations for modernity by various societies across the world taking into account that the different interpretations of modernity bring about plural articulations and practices. This concomitant fragmentation of modernity into modernities is echoed in its replication, displacement, and diversification of economic systems, social institutions, cultural practices, and identity formations in various spaces and societies at the local and global level. In the next three chapters, this will further become clear as I investigate the inter-twined forces of nation-building and translocal migrations. Rather than a teleological exposition of a singular red thread, my research follows through junctures of modernity that brought about the increasing entanglement of the global histories of peoples, cultures, and ideas.
This chapter surveys the migrations of Manila musicians in different Asian cities in the final qu... more This chapter surveys the migrations of Manila musicians in different Asian cities in the final quarter of the nineteenth century and the early-twentieth century. The chapter pieces together biographies, articles from historical newspapers, and surviving archival documents to survey the movement of acoustic modernities through the migration of sounds and ideas instigated by the migrant Manila musicians in the Asia Pacific region.
Traversing the imperial and the national imaginary, military musicians are the focus of this chap... more Traversing the imperial and the national imaginary, military musicians are the focus of this chapter. Fin-de-siecle Manila was a nexus in modern reimagining of the collapsing archaic Spanish Empire, the US experiment on imperialism, and the embryonic Filipino republic. The chapter investigates how the Filipino military musicians’ performing bodies became sites of simultaneous claims and contestations of national, imperial, and global imaginings of modernity.
This chapter historicises Manila’s three centuries of intercultural relationship with Europe prov... more This chapter historicises Manila’s three centuries of intercultural relationship with Europe providing a context for the professionalization of music among the native Filipinos through the church and military. Tracing the genealogy of from the seventeenth-century intercultural engagements with its neighbouring cities and with Europe through the Spanish Empire, native musicians acquired their skills in popular music and their knowledge in the ‘modern’ entertainment labour system, which became advantageous for their employment in the early global music industry in the nineteenth century. The chapter also surveys the different social and cultural forces that helped in the reframing of music and performative practices into its early ‘modern’ contexts within cultural commerce and institutionalised ‘art’ practice.
This chapter follows modernity’s trajectory towards a consolidation of a national identity in the... more This chapter follows modernity’s trajectory towards a consolidation of a national identity in the Philippines. The chapter traces two strains of musical nationalism as it was articulated in the first Asian republic. First, the case of the first Tagalog opera—Pedro Paterno and Ladislao Bonus’s Sangdugong Panaguinip—and the complex polyphonic interaction in the contestations of the Philippine autonomy. The second case study focuses on the indigenised vernacular sarswela. By paying attention to sarswela’s resounding commercial success across the archipelago during its golden age (1900–1930) this chapter examines how the sarswela formed an incipient national public sphere. The chapter argues how the sarswela formed the national ‘acousteme’ within the dynamics of Manila as a US colonial capital city and the incipient Philippine’s commercial urban capital.
This chapter explores methodologies of ‘hearing history’ and the theoretical enquiries of acousti... more This chapter explores methodologies of ‘hearing history’ and the theoretical enquiries of acoustic epistemology, putting into question how modernity was heard in Manila and Asia Pacific. The chapter presents theoretical frameworks and methodologies to analyse sonic understandings of modernity in Manila and the Asia Pacific region. The overlapping issues of cultural sociology and economics in how modernity brought about (1) aesthetic autonomization, and (2) cultural commodification in the act of listening is presented here. By drawing from and synaesthetically comparing contemporary visual and performance theories with sound studies, this chapter proposes the conceptual framework Anthropology of Sound.
This chapter investigates the Manila cultural soundscape in the middle of the nineteenth century ... more This chapter investigates the Manila cultural soundscape in the middle of the nineteenth century a time during which European music theatre companies continued to arrive in Southeast Asia. The pattern of cultural consumption intensified in Manila and neighbouring cities, as the region was further integrated in the global theatre and music network—driven by the transcontinental steamship passages accelerated by the new Suez Canal route. Manila became an important cultural nexus and destination of travelling theatre and music companies that found an avid market for season subscription tickets, and an already modernising theatre infrastructure. In just over a decade Manila developed home-grown locally organised opera and zarzuela companies.
In listening to nineteenth-century modernity, we hear the recurring motives of modernity’s dual l... more In listening to nineteenth-century modernity, we hear the recurring motives of modernity’s dual logic in the simultaneous uniformization and fragmentation of economic systems, social institutions, cultural practices, and identity formations across the globe. In describing this process of uniformization, I refer to global historian C.A. Bayly’s discernment of the difference between homogeneity, and the pessimistic vision of a monoculturalisation of the world. Instead, I employ the notion of uniformization to observe the increased commonality in the practices and implementations of technologies and bodily practices across societies and cultures. In understanding the process of uniformization, I want to point to the inter-twining common aspirations for modernity by various societies across the world taking into account that the different interpretations of modernity bring about plural articulations and practices. This concomitant fragmentation of modernity into modernities is echoed in its replication, displacement, and diversification of economic systems, social institutions, cultural practices, and identity formations in various spaces and societies at the local and global level. In the next three chapters, this will further become clear as I investigate the inter-twined forces of nation-building and translocal migrations. Rather than a teleological exposition of a singular red thread, my research follows through junctures of modernity that brought about the increasing entanglement of the global histories of peoples, cultures, and ideas.
This chapter surveys the migrations of Manila musicians in different Asian cities in the final qu... more This chapter surveys the migrations of Manila musicians in different Asian cities in the final quarter of the nineteenth century and the early-twentieth century. The chapter pieces together biographies, articles from historical newspapers, and surviving archival documents to survey the movement of acoustic modernities through the migration of sounds and ideas instigated by the migrant Manila musicians in the Asia Pacific region.
Traversing the imperial and the national imaginary, military musicians are the focus of this chap... more Traversing the imperial and the national imaginary, military musicians are the focus of this chapter. Fin-de-siecle Manila was a nexus in modern reimagining of the collapsing archaic Spanish Empire, the US experiment on imperialism, and the embryonic Filipino republic. The chapter investigates how the Filipino military musicians’ performing bodies became sites of simultaneous claims and contestations of national, imperial, and global imaginings of modernity.
This chapter historicises Manila’s three centuries of intercultural relationship with Europe prov... more This chapter historicises Manila’s three centuries of intercultural relationship with Europe providing a context for the professionalization of music among the native Filipinos through the church and military. Tracing the genealogy of from the seventeenth-century intercultural engagements with its neighbouring cities and with Europe through the Spanish Empire, native musicians acquired their skills in popular music and their knowledge in the ‘modern’ entertainment labour system, which became advantageous for their employment in the early global music industry in the nineteenth century. The chapter also surveys the different social and cultural forces that helped in the reframing of music and performative practices into its early ‘modern’ contexts within cultural commerce and institutionalised ‘art’ practice.
Migrant Filipino entertainers are one of the key Philippine exports. Like other overseas workers,... more Migrant Filipino entertainers are one of the key Philippine exports. Like other overseas workers, they keep the country’s economy afloat through remittances. What is peculiar with migrant Filipino musicians is that throughout the twentieth-century, they perform “extra-national” identities for the global market. Practically every five-star hotels in Asia and the Middle-East, as well as luxury cruise-ships have in-house Filipino cover-band entertainers. The Latin Music boom in the 1950s saw Australia importing what to them are Latin-looking Filipinos who readily played the part. Casinos emulating Venice in Macau hired Filipinos as the most Italian-looking neighbor to sing barcaroles while rowing gondolas. Commercial Broadway and West-end theatres, and Walt Disney film productions and theme parks hire Filipinos as the ‘quintessential-looking Asians able to sing western musical idiom. For a nation still struggling with the ostensible task of cultural-identity building, its international distribution of ‘discrepant cosmopolitan’ entertainers is an aberrant case of transnational laborers.
This paper historicizes the Manila musicos of early globalization. Linking this to what Eric Hobsbawm (1987) and C.A. Bayly (2004) call the age of empire, when globalization of capitalist relations, the improvement of transcontinental travel and worldwide communication, and the tolerant political regimes allowed the ‘uniformization’ in the commodification of various cultural products and processes. Archival records reveal two concomitant development in the professionalization of indigenous cultural practices in 1880s colonial Manila. On one hand, a local musicians’ union has been established to service the influx of theatre, opera, and concert musicians in Manila with the opening of the Suez Canal. Conversely, we see the beginnings of the global circulation of the Manila musicos to various cities in Asia, Europe and the Americas. Through centuries of intercultural relationship with the Spain, native Filipinos trained in Western music through the church and colonial military bands, used these skills for employment in the early global cultural industry.
We now then ask: How does the process which Adam McKeown (2004) describes as the development of an “integrative economy [that] grew concurrently with political and cultural forces that favored fragmentation into nations, races, and perceptions of distinct cultural regions” prompted the uniformization of the understanding of ‘professionalization’ across culturally-specific cultural practices and processes? Sociologically, how does this phenomenon provide early models of transnational and transcultural labor theories in the cultural industry? At a socio-political level, what role did the ‘professional’ musicos play in providing “alternative visions of modernity” to colonial Southeast Asia?
"The core of the Memory Booth installation revolves around an archive of video registrations of t... more "The core of the Memory Booth installation revolves around an archive of video registrations of traditional dance forms. The installation has an interactive input interface, the Booth, and an output exhibition in another, public, space. When a user enters the Memory booth, he/she is welcomed by a screen that invites him/her to imitate a series of movements. Each time a countdown commences and the user will have to perform the movement. At the end of the game the user is asked to perform the whole series of movements in one dance and this series is recorded by a camera. This last performance is not an imitation from an on-screen video, but from (embodied) memory. Each new dance is consequently saved in the computer database. All series are projected on the walls of a separate publicly accessible space in tandem with the original archival videos, forming a constantly expanding exhibition.
The Memory Booth draws elements from three memory stimulating devices: the photo booth,the game ‘memory’ and Giulio Camillo’s ‘theatre of memory’. The aim of the project is to explore how technology and performance can interact in the process of remembering, specifically how performance functions as mnemonic device aided by technology. The installation serves as a venue and happening that allows both the creators and the users to explore the workings of personal embodied memory in relation to database storage and the performing of an archive, vis-à-vis the body as database.
The Memory Booth was launched at the Monash Academy of Performing Arts 2011 Season, Curatorial Talk by artistic director meLê yamomo and curator, Lonneke van Heugten during the ADSA Conference 2011."
The rise of Southeast Asia (SEA) as a region is inextricably linked to the birth of the Cold War.... more The rise of Southeast Asia (SEA) as a region is inextricably linked to the birth of the Cold War. Nowhere else was the Cold War felt the “hottest” as in the region. After the decolonization, SEA nation-states forming new national identities each found allegiances with the two Cold War powers: On one hand, nationalist-communist parties fuelled by rejectionist fervor against previous European colonial powers were supported by the ‘progressive’ Soviet philosophy and politics; on the other hand, pro- democratic capitalist states had their national economic and social development engineered by the CIA and implemented under the guise of American philanthropy.
This paper looks at how theatre performed the Cold War, and how the Cold War stage-managed the flow of cultural diplomatic exchanges in Southeast Asia. Particular focus will be on the Philippines between the 1950s-1980s. The Philippines all the way until the fall of the Marcos government in 1986, was a jumping board for American political, military and cultural presence and propaganda. During the Cold War, Marcos’ long reign also allowed him to juxtapose this US interest with that of Soviet Russia; thus both brought to Manila cultural groups, made pivotal with the Cultural Centre of the Philippines built by Imelda Romualdez Marcos in 1969. Concurrently, agit-prop theatre groups inspired by Communism in mainland China filled the streets of Manila with Maoist ideology.
In the second half of the nineteenth century, Manila and the rest of Southeast Asia opened its do... more In the second half of the nineteenth century, Manila and the rest of Southeast Asia opened its door to early globalization. With the arrival of steam ships and the opening of the Suez Canal it is now possible to travel between Western Europe and Manila in just one month. Trade between Europe and the region heightened in pace and volume, and so thus exchange of the performing arts and cultural materials. The steam ships that carried European pianos and musical instruments, as well as music scores of the latest operas and zarzuelas in Europe, also brought opera, operetta, zarzuela, and theatre companies and musical performers to Manila.
How do we characterize the distribution of cultural materials and forms between Europe and the colonies, and even within the colonies themselves? How did this effect the production and consumption of these cultural materials and forms? How did this cultural trade inform what Adam McKeown (2004) describes as the development of an “integrative economy [that] grew concurrently with political and cultural forces that favored fragmentation into nations, races, and perceptions of distinct cultural regions”?
This paper aims to investigate the nature of this trade route and trace the cultural exchange between Europe and Manila in the nineteenth century, and locate the position of Manila as an important node in what historians now call as the ‘first age of globalization’.
This book examines the intersection between sound and modernity in dramatic and musical performan... more This book examines the intersection between sound and modernity in dramatic and musical performance in Manila and the Asia-Pacific between 1869 and 1948. During this period, tolerant political regimes resulted in the globalization of capitalist relations and the improvement of transcontinental travel and worldwide communication. This allowed modern modes of theatre and music consumption to instigate the uniformization of cultural products and processes, while simultaneously fragmenting societies into distinct identities, institutions, and nascent nation-states. Taking the performing bodies of migrant musicians as the locus of sound, this book argues that the global movement of acoustic modernities was replicated and diversified through its multiple subjectivities within empire, nation, and individual agencies. It traces the arrival of European travelling music and theatre companies in Asia which re-casted listening into an act of modern cultural consumption, and follows the migration of Manila musicians as they engaged in the modernization project of the neighboring Asian cities.
the rise of South East Asia as a region is inextricably linked to the birth of the Cold War. In n... more the rise of South East Asia as a region is inextricably linked to the birth of the Cold War. In no other region did the Cold War feel quite so ‘hot’. After decolonization, South East Asian nation-states forming new national identities each found allegiances with one or other of the two Cold War powers: whilst on one hand, nationalist-communist parties fuelled by rejectionist fervour against previous European colonial powers were supported by the 'progressive' Soviet philosophy and politics, on the other, pro-democratic capitalist states had their national economic and social development engineered by the CIA and implemented under the guise of American philanthropy. This paper looks at the concomitant rise of the ostensible search for national culture and the accretion of cosmopolitan and global cultural practices in Cold War South East Asia. Borrowing Pascale Casanova’s concept of the ‘world republic of letters’ and extending this to the practice of theatre and dance in the period of the Cold War, we propose a theoretical logic as to how theatre and dance artists bestrode the concomitant rise of national culture-building and of a growing ‘world dance space’. We will place particular focus on the dance and theatre scene in the Philippines from the 1950s to the 1980s.
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This paper historicizes the Manila musicos of early globalization. Linking this to what Eric Hobsbawm (1987) and C.A. Bayly (2004) call the age of empire, when globalization of capitalist relations, the improvement of transcontinental travel and worldwide communication, and the tolerant political regimes allowed the ‘uniformization’ in the commodification of various cultural products and processes. Archival records reveal two concomitant development in the professionalization of indigenous cultural practices in 1880s colonial Manila. On one hand, a local musicians’ union has been established to service the influx of theatre, opera, and concert musicians in Manila with the opening of the Suez Canal. Conversely, we see the beginnings of the global circulation of the Manila musicos to various cities in Asia, Europe and the Americas. Through centuries of intercultural relationship with the Spain, native Filipinos trained in Western music through the church and colonial military bands, used these skills for employment in the early global cultural industry.
We now then ask: How does the process which Adam McKeown (2004) describes as the development of an “integrative economy [that] grew concurrently with political and cultural forces that favored fragmentation into nations, races, and perceptions of distinct cultural regions” prompted the uniformization of the understanding of ‘professionalization’ across culturally-specific cultural practices and processes? Sociologically, how does this phenomenon provide early models of transnational and transcultural labor theories in the cultural industry? At a socio-political level, what role did the ‘professional’ musicos play in providing “alternative visions of modernity” to colonial Southeast Asia?
The Memory Booth draws elements from three memory stimulating devices: the photo booth,the game ‘memory’ and Giulio Camillo’s ‘theatre of memory’. The aim of the project is to explore how technology and performance can interact in the process of remembering, specifically how performance functions as mnemonic device aided by technology. The installation serves as a venue and happening that allows both the creators and the users to explore the workings of personal embodied memory in relation to database storage and the performing of an archive, vis-à-vis the body as database.
The Memory Booth was launched at the Monash Academy of Performing Arts 2011 Season, Curatorial Talk by artistic director meLê yamomo and curator, Lonneke van Heugten during the ADSA Conference 2011."
This paper looks at how theatre performed the Cold War, and how the Cold War stage-managed the flow of cultural diplomatic exchanges in Southeast Asia. Particular focus will be on the Philippines between the 1950s-1980s. The Philippines all the way until the fall of the Marcos government in 1986, was a jumping board for American political, military and cultural presence and propaganda. During the Cold War, Marcos’ long reign also allowed him to juxtapose this US interest with that of Soviet Russia; thus both brought to Manila cultural groups, made pivotal with the Cultural Centre of the Philippines built by Imelda Romualdez Marcos in 1969. Concurrently, agit-prop theatre groups inspired by Communism in mainland China filled the streets of Manila with Maoist ideology.
How do we characterize the distribution of cultural materials and forms between Europe and the colonies, and even within the colonies themselves? How did this effect the production and consumption of these cultural materials and forms? How did this cultural trade inform what Adam McKeown (2004) describes as the development of an “integrative economy [that] grew concurrently with political and cultural forces that favored fragmentation into nations, races, and perceptions of distinct cultural regions”?
This paper aims to investigate the nature of this trade route and trace the cultural exchange between Europe and Manila in the nineteenth century, and locate the position of Manila as an important node in what historians now call as the ‘first age of globalization’.
Taking the performing bodies of migrant musicians as the locus of sound, this book argues that the global movement of acoustic modernities was replicated and diversified through its multiple subjectivities within empire, nation, and individual agencies. It traces the arrival of European travelling music and theatre companies in Asia which re-casted listening into an act of modern cultural consumption, and follows the migration of Manila musicians as they engaged in the modernization project of the neighboring Asian cities.