F. AGUILAR: Manang Biday (Reflections On A Folk Song): N.ABELARDO Bituing Marikit (Beautiful Star): TRAD:
Oasioas / Pandango Sa Ilaw (Dance Of The Lights),M.VELARDE: Minamahal Kita (I Am Loving You):
ANON: Lulay - Folk Song, N.ABELARDO : Nasaan Ka Irog (Where Are You My Love), C.GUZMAN :Babalik Ka Rin
(Return To Me),F.BENITEZ: Labis (Too Much Of Suffering), TRAD: Binasuan (Dance Of The Glass Wine), ANON: Pagkagarboso Sa Bukid (Proud Country), F.BUENCAMICO:Hibik Ng Diwa (My Soul's Lament),A.MOLINA: Hating-Gabi (Midnight),SAN PEDRO: Sa Ugoy Ng Duyan (Rocking Of The Hammock),M.DE LEON:Kapilas Na Giting
Ric Ickard
Naxos: 8 – 557759
Well, I don’t know about all you readers out there, but if you had asked me to name a guitar composer from the Philippines before receiving this album, I would have had no idea. As it is now, apart from the composers called ‘Trad’, and ‘Anon’, almost none of these composers’ names mean anything to me, which really has given me a blank canvas on which to experience this album!
After Aguilar’s opening and vaguely Spanish styled piece, we get Abelardo’s Beautiful Star which has a lovely melody and some warm , emotive harmonies that really stand out .Then we get a traditional pair of pieces which are warm and friendly , if not particularly different from, again, a kind of Spanish flavour that travels through the work. Velarde’s I Am Loving You has a pleasant melody and some nice harmonies in what is quite a pleasing piece. After this we get Lulay, a folk song that has some interesting moments before changing rhythm completely and unexpectedly in the middle. Then a further piece from Abelardo , Where Are You My Love, which has a similar warm , emotive feeling to his previous piece and is another lovely piece., as is Guzman’s Return to Me, sad , reflective and with a slight dance rhythm to it, and some very jazzy harmony work too. A Nice piece! Benitez’s Too Much of Suffering is another sad, reflective and pleasant piece that, by now, was beginning to sound a little bit like a lot of the other pieces in this album, for it struck me about here, that none of the pieces had a very individual sound to them, as if they were mostly written by one composer! The traditional piece, Dance of the Glass Wine, was very much in the same vein, namely pleasant, slightly Spanish or Latin in sound and not particularly individual in style either. The Anon piece that follows, Proud Country is very much a tremolo piece in style and again, could have been Spanish, maybe Tarrega in its inspiration? Buencamico’s piece My Soul’s Lament is definitely very Latin inspired, particularly in its rhythm, a gentle Tango feel being the end result. Molina’s piece Midnight has a similar feel and rhythm if a little bit slower and therefore more relaxed in sound. San Pedro’s Rocking of the Hammock feels like a lullaby and is a sad, warm little piece that does stand out a little from the other pieces, and even has a slow tremolo section at one part, followed by a harmonic-driven melody. The final work, by De Leon, Kapilas Na Giting has a few different sections and melodies, and yet still managed to sound very similar in harmonic feel to many of the other tracks on this recording.
I don’t wish to be too negative about this album, because it was all nicely played, but very few of these pieces stood out to me, and I have no desire to hunt out the music for them, if they were available, because playing them again myself, didn’t seem like anything I would actually want to do. They were nice, friendly and pleasant but nothing too outstanding in my opinion, but you might think entirely differently to me!
Chris Dumigan
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