Music in the Philippines

Music of the Philippines (Filipino: Musika ng Pilipinas; Spanish: Música de Filipinas) include musical performance arts in the Philippines or by Filipinos composed in various genres and styles. The compositions are often a mixture of different Asian, Spanish, Latin American, American, and indigenous influences.

A series of recordings made on music played on the spot is primal music. It does not have to be repeated and has to be performed only once.

Notable folk song composers include the National Artist for Music Lucio San Pedro, who composed the famous "Sa Ugoy ng Duyan" that recalls about the loving touch of mother to her child. Another great composer who's known as patriotic composer, Antonio Buenaventura.

Philippine gong music can be divided into two types: the flat gong commonly known as gangsà and played by the groups in the Cordillera region of the bossed gongs played among the Islam and animist groups in the southern Philippines.

Kulintang refers to a racked gong chime instrument played in the southern islands of the Philippines, along with its varied accompanying ensembles. Different groups have different ways of playing the kulintang. Two major groups seem to stand-out in kulintang music. These are the Maguindanaon and the Maranaw. The kulintang instrument itself could be traced to either the introduction of gongs to Southeast Asia from India before the 10th century CE, or more likely, to the introduction of bossed gong chimes from Java via India in the 15th century. Nevertheless, the kulintang ensemble is the most advanced form of music from before the late 16th century and the legacy of the Europeans in the Philippine archipelago.

The tradition of kulintang ensemble music itself is regional, predating the establishment of present-day Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia. It transcends religion, with Buddhist, Hindu Animist, and Christian ethnic groups in Borneo, Flores and Sulawesi playing kulintangan; and Muslim groups playing the same genre of music in Mindanao, Palawan and the Sulu archipelago. It is distantly related to the gamelan ensembles of Java and Bali, as well as the musical forms in Mainland Southeast Asia, mainly because of the usage for the same bossed racked gong chimes that play both melodic and percussive.

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