Santiago's Kundiman (Anak-Dalita)

By Ace Gangoso

May is a month worth celebrating! This month is Chamber Music Month AND Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month here in the United States. During this past season’s Origin Stories concerts, I was thrilled to explore and share my heritage through some of the music of the Philippines. One of the most fascinating and treasured musical genres of the country is called kundiman. On the surface, kundiman present as songs of longing, courtship, and love, but they have double meaning: the beloved represents not just one person as a love interest, but the Philippines itself and the pride and resilience of its native people. These creations were a means of coping with and challenging the oppressive Spanish colonial rule beginning in 1565 and lasting three centuries.

Chocolate Hills, Philippines. Photo by Jacky Lo.

There was an interesting dynamic of resistance, a phenomenon some refer to as “Filipinization”---in a way, a form of “reverse colonization”. Filipinos learned to embrace the educational, social, and cultural practices forced upon them, but utilized them for their own benefit, recreating their own native identity through these foreign mediums.  Kundiman songs illustrate this perfectly, adopting the musical idioms of Spanish dances, and scored music in the formal western classical tradition that university-trained musicians know well today.

​The earliest known iterations of kundiman date back to about 1800, evolving through the century to more broadly resemble art song compositions of Europe.  The composer Francisco Santiago (1889-1947) is often hailed as the “father of Kundiman Art Song,” and his 1917 song, simply titled “Kundiman” (sometimes subtitled “Cancion Filipina” or “Anak-Dalita”) is one of the most widely performed of the genre. The poem by Deogracias A. Rosario (1894-1936) is a serenade of one beckoning a love interest to come to the window to accept one’s pleas of love. It carries the characteristics most typical of kundiman: plaintive melodies, abundant tenuto and rubato, ascending tessitura, lush accompaniment, and modulation from minor to parallel major---a simple but effective way of symbolizing the journey from despair to hope.

This is the story of my ancestors, but I am sure that the feelings of loss and captivity have been ever-present to all of us this past year.  May this music be a beacon of light in the darkness for you as it has been to many.

Author

Tenor Ace Gangoso joined Fourth Coast Ensemble in 2019.  His various other musical affiliations, including the CSO and Grant Park Choruses, Chicago a cappella, the Archdiocese of Chicago, and the Chicago Black Catholics Choir, hint at his interests in different musical genres and styles.  He believes good songs are like onions: they come in various shapes, sizes, and colors, have many layers, and take on the unique flavors added by those entrusted to their care.