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MENC: The National Association for Music Education

Asian Music in EducationAuthor(s): Lucrecia KasilagSource: Music Educators Journal, Vol. 53, No. 9 (May, 1967), pp. 71-73Published by: MENC: The National Association for Music EducationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3391066

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* Many people who have beenbrought up in the traditions ofWestern music accept in generalthe common dictum that music is auniversal language. Hence, we reactreadily to sonatas and symphonies,operas and zarzuelas, art songs andarias as naturally as if these Euro-pean-based musical forms were partand parcel of our own culture. Butwhen we are confronted with thevarying traditional musics of East-ern countries such as those ofChina, Java, or Japan, or even thatof our brother Muslims of theSouth, we shake our heads in utterloss of understanding. At this point,music apparently is no longer theuniversal language that we knowit to be. The universality of appealbecomes conditioned with mixedfeelings of embarrassment at times,or with boredom, to be sure. It isnot unusual therefore to regard theexotic musics of the East as strange,if not inferior.

Early writers of musical historyhave written rather disparaginglyabout the music of the Orient.Krause wrote that "in Antiquity,which is the childhood of music (!),only simple, unadorned melody wasknown, as in the case today with

The author is Dean, College of Mu-sic and Fine Arts, PhilippineWomen'sUniversity, Taft Avenue, Manila. Thearticle is reprinted with permissionfrom The University magazine (Ma-nila), Volume 1, Number 3 (February1966), p. 4.

such peoples as the Hindus, Chi-nese, Persians, and Arabs, whohave not yet progressed beyond thechildhood age (!)"1What could befurther from the truth. The ex-tremely complex, highly ornamen-ted singing of the Arabs, Persians,and the Hindus has no counterpartin the, rigid, simple songs of theWest. And yet another report fromHullah's history of moder musicsaid that "the orientals have had amusic of their own; this music, as

1Curt Sachs, The Wellsprings of Music(The Hague, 1962).

ASIANM U S I C

Lucreciaasilag . .

practiced at present, has no charmor meaning for us. The Europeansystem, though the exigencies ofpractice prevent its being absolutelytrue, is nearer the truth than anyother."2But look at how a Chineseaudience was reported to have re-acted to the nineteenth-centurymusic of Schubert, saying thatwhile it had a nice play of notes, ithardly touched the heart!3In judging non-European music,Western critical values hardlyapply, since structure and expres-sion are essentially different. Clarityof form and time is of less impor-tance in Eastern music wherein themusician rhythmically improviseson set patterns and repeats themendlessly without seeking anyclimax or development.In the light of contemporary aes-thetics, the apparent divergence be-tween Western and Eastern musicshould appear less, since they havea common heritage. Western musicdeveloped from older forms identi-fied with the East, where musicaltraditions have enjoyed a long andancient history. Music in Asia was,2Sachs.S"Ancient and Oriental Music," NewOxford History of Music (London, 1960),Vol. I.

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Another popular instrument ofmuch use in Java is the angklungbamboo shake which produces arich, clucking, and mellow tone.As many as a dozen to three hun-dred performers make up the ang-klung orchestra.Asian music is still practiced inthe Philippines, in the isolatedareas of northern Luzon, Zambales,Mindoro, Palawan, and Mindanaoand Sulu, where there are varietiesof musical instruments also foundin kindred systems in Malaysia, In-donesia, Burma, and Thailand. Mel-ismatic chants of Arabic influenceare used in southern rituals; longepics about native folklore are sungduring weeklong festivals.Displaying a rich Indo-Malayanheritage, the Muslim Filipinosoffer probably the most colorfulsegment of our cultural heritagetoday. They have an assortment ofgongs of different shapes andsizes with characteristic protrudingknobs. The principal melody-gongis the kulintang, a set of eight grad-uated gongs played horizontallylike a xylophone. The four-set largegandingan gongs with narrow rims,the big kettle-shaped agong, thesmaller babandil gong, and an up-right drum with goat skin covercalled dabakan complete the Mus-lim gamelan ensemble, not far re-moved from the well-developedJavanese or Balinese gamelan.Other instruments are the bambooxylophone gabbang, similar to theIndonesian gambang, and the insior suling bamboo flute, with a coun-terpart in Java. Now becoming rareis the long boat-shaped kudyapiguitar with two strings. Endlessimprovisations and rhythmic synco-pations are underlying characteris-tics of Muslim gamelan music.The gangsa gongs of northernLuzon are smaller and flat-surfaced,of Chinese origin. These are playedwith the palms of the hand or withsticks or rubber-covered beaters.Of course there is the now well-known nose flute called balinging,of Gemma Cruz fame, blown withone nostril, and strictly inadvisablefor running noses. Regarded assacred is the long-bodied solibawdrum, usually played in pairs.Common to both regions of thePhilippines is the jew's or jaw'sharp, so called, probably because itis the cheapest harp one can hope topossess! It is known as subing in

the north, kubing in the south, andcomes by other names elsewhere.This small bamboo instrument iswidely used in courtship, by whichlovers communicate with eachother.

History tells us that our fore-bears carried trade with the Asiaticpeoples long before the Spaniardscame. The migrating Indonesians,Malays, and Hindu Malayans camein several waves to settle in thearchipelago and brought with themtheir own cultures. Chinese tradersalso left their imprints on our cul-ture. After 400 years of Christianityimplanted by the Spaniards, andafter a half century of democraticeducation taught by the Americans,the exposure to Western civilizationall but annihilated our native cul-tural roots, even as the Filipinosadapted European and Americaninfluences into their way of life.With its rich, cultural, mosaicbackground of Eastern-Westerncomplexion, indeed the Philippines,which is so well-situated in thePacific and so dually civilized, pre-sents an ideally centrical place foran ambivalent training in East-West musical cultures. Our local

audience could get used to concertsfeaturing the juxtaposition of Occi-dental and Oriental repertory asperformed on varied instrumentspeculiar to the international musi-cal systems of both worlds. A stringquartet beside an Asian chambergroup consisting of the p'i-p'a bal-loon guitar, the erh-hsien violinand the hsiao flute playing classicalChinese music, or a Javanese game-lan orchestra or a Japanese gagakuensemble pitted with a pastoralsymphony are possibilities for anenriched and interesting culturalfare. The sooner the re-orientationof our musical outlook to study andget exposed to the musics of Asiancountries, the greater the benefitsand the more realistic and challeng-ing shall the results be in engend-ering the appreciation of mutualcultures on the newer, broaderbases of humanity.In our search for national iden-tity, while we keep on with ourintense diggings into the past todiscover the ties that bind us toour forefathers, let us strengthen,through music, the links of heritagewith which we share common des-tiny with the rest of Asia. A

MENC Meetinga t t h eN a t i o n a l EducationAssociationConvention

Minneapolis,MinnesotaJuly 4, 1967

2:00p.m.LeamingtonHotelTwin Cities Room

Program"The Sounds and Sights of Music forChildren in Elementary Classrooms"Demonstration Lecture.In charge: Georgia E. Garlid,Consultant in Music Education,Minneapolis Public Schools. Localarrangementshave been made by C.Wesley Andersen, Consultant inMusic Education, MinneapolisPublic Schools.This program is sponsored by theMinnesota Music EducatorsAssociation,MENC FederatedState Unit. Presidingwill be Willard H. Budnick, President,Minnesota Music Educators Association,Wayzata, Minnesota.

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