In line with the University of the Philippines Center for Ethnomusicology’s (UPCE) 16th Foundation Anniversary, slated on June 25 to July 26 is an exhibit at the University of the Philippines Vargas Museum entitled “Listen to My Music”. The exhibit will feature music compositions of National Artist Jose Maceda and materials that he gathered from the field during his 40 year-research called Ethnomusicological Survey of Music in the Philippines. It will be complimented by works done by contemporary sound artists and engineers.
The exhibit hopes to: promote the philosophies that Maceda contributed to the field of ethnomusicology, music composition and theory, and cultural studies; engage contemporary artists in exploring the rich ethnographic, musicological and creative traditions of the Filipinos; engage university engineer-scientists in exploring the multidisciplinarity of Filipinos socio-cultural traditions; and engage university students, faculty, researchers and general public in experiencing.
Maceda’s academic contributions are considered as a collective legacy of the, and for the, Filipino people.
The exhibit will have four sections.
Creation is a listening and viewing gallery that will feature recordings of Maceda compositions, media projections of his music scores, and video documentation of Rica Concepcion and Egai Navarro.
Connection is a listening and reading gallery that will feature comparative musical analysis of Maceda’s compositions and those that were written by composers who have worked with him in the past. Among the materials that will be featured are works by Ramon Santos, Jonas Baes and Verne dela Pena from the UP College of Music.
Context is an archive gallery where actual archival materials and facsimile will be displayed. Among the materials that will be displayed are photographs, field audio recordings, field notes of researchers, and research paraphernalia.
Meanwhile, Confluence is divided into two sections. First section will feature compositions of contemporary sound artists that are products of their research of the Maceda materials in the UPCE archives. Featured artists for this section are Erick Calilan, Tengal Drilon, Tad Ermitano, Jing Garcia, Paolo Garcia, Cris Garcimo, Malek Lopez, Armi Mallari and Arvin Nogueras (Caliph8), Jon Romero. Second section is an interactive set-up that will feature electronic and digital manipulation of ethnic instruments and sounds done by Dr. Ma. Christine Muyco of UP College of Music and another set done by Digital Signal Laboratory of the UP College of Engineering under the supervision of Dr. Rowena Guevarra.
There will also be a performance of Maceda’s composition entitled Dissemination a 38minutes orchestral piece under the baton of Maestro Josefino Chino Toledo during the opening program (25 June 5:00PM to 6:ooPM); a performance of participating sound artists (25 June 7:00PM to 10:00PM); and a lecture-conversation with the theme Interdisciplinarity of the Jose Maceda Collection on 4 July 4:00PM to 6:00PM.
Maceda Project coordinator is Loen Vitto; “Listen to my Music” exhibit curator Dayang Yraola; with sound director Mark Laccay.
