Philippine music history

The kutiyapi is a 2-stringed boat lute. Among the Maranao (Meranaw) of Mindanao, Philippines, there are hardly any kutiyapi left. Without knowledge of traditional kutiyapi and without useful models, Maranao artisans have already forgotten the art of making these instruments in the traditional style. Instead, they have created a new "tradition" of purely decorative kutiyapi. These kutiyapi are non-functional and cannot be used for making music. They are intended only to be sold as decorative items. This short paper describes the differences between traditional and modern decorative kutiyapi and is intended to serve as a guide for people who are confronted with instruments offered to them as supposedly traditional "kutiyapi."

This paper is the most comprehensive introduction to the boat lutes of the Philippines currently available. It is essentially a summary of the same author's work-in-progress, "The Singing Crocodile - Boat Lutes in the Philippines". As this work progresses, there may also be occasional updates to this article here on Academia.edu. Parts of the paper were read at the 10th International Organology Congress "Blagodatov' Readings" at the Russian Institute of Art History, St. Petersburg, Russia, December 5-7, 2016. Subsequently, the paper was published in the conference proceedings, unfortunately under a false author's name, "H. Brandies". The present version (December 18, 2022) is a revision of the published article..

--- ABSTRACT:
Aside from the gong ensembles of northern Luzon using the flat gongs gangsa, and the kulintang ensembles of the southern islands Mindanao and Sulu using the bossed gong chimes kulintang, the big agung and other instruments, boat lutes are the most important traditional musical instruments of the Philippines. They show a broad range of construction features and differ from one ethnic group to the other. There are at least 25 different types of boat lutes used among 38 indigenous peoples on the islands of Mindanao and Palawan. They are usually referred to as “kudyapi,” as a generic term, but the names actually differ, depending on the place of origin and type of lute, e.g. kutiyapi, kusiyapi, kotapi, piyapi, faglung, fuglung, hegelung, kudlung, kuglung, or kudiyung. This article provides an overview of the most important aspects of Philippine boat lute traditions, presenting sections on the structure of the instruments, their construction, the origins of Southeast Asian boat lutes, indigenous terminology, distribution in the Philippines, a preliminary typological classification of Philippine boat lutes, symbolic meanings, playing techniques, and performance practices. The available data clearly show that boat lutes in the Philippines serve as “cultural identifiers” indicating the individual ethnic groups’ cultural identity and uniqueness, and, in the national Philippine context, their unity in diversity.

This article was written for and published in connection with the art exhibit "Golden Inheritance: The Gift of Mindanao Music as Heritage" of "Bing" Leonardo Rey S. Cariño shown at the Museo Dabawenyo in Davao City. The exhibition was opened on April 26, 2018.

The villancico was introduced to the Philippines in the 16th century, along with many other sacred and secular musical forms. Members of religious orders went out into the provinces from Manila, which was also the centre for the composition of music. The villancico gradually became an important part of musical tradition, with local theatrical elements being introduced. An account from 1626 by the historian Francisco de Santa Inés shows the importance of music at Christmas. Use of villancicos followed the practices of Spain and the Americas; many texts survive and can provide insight into performance practice. There is also evidence of continuous development of the villancico; the Central Library of the University of Santo Tomás contains manuscript and printed sources for late 19th-c. and early 20th-c. music. The combination of the Iberian genre with local customs created a generic usage that is unique to the region.

While countless keyboard instruments were made in the Philippine Islands or imported there during the Spanish colonial period (1565-1898), most of those which survive date from the nineteenth century. It should be noted, however, that keyboard music flourished in the Philippines from the early years of Spanish presence. Instruments began to arrive in the late-sixteenth century, and over the following two centuries, numerous organs were manufactured in mission schools throughout the archipelago. The final years of the eighteenth century were a high point in colonial instrument-building, moreover, with the arrival of the Recollect missionary and instrument-builder Diego Cera de la Virgen del Carmen in 1792 and the establishment of his workshop. While some evidence remains fragmentary, there is still a great deal of archival information to be pieced together, and a comprehensive survey of keyboard instruments and instrumentalists present in colonial Manila remains to be undertaken. This article attempts to address this lacuna in part, covering the period between 1581 and 1798.