Skip to main content

SANTA CLARANG PINUNG-PINO - Philippine Folk Song (Tagalog)

Annually, Obando town in Bulacan honors three saints – Santa Clara (the most famous of the three), La Virgen de Salambao, and San Pascual Baylon. Each saint has a feast day set aside where they are moved in a procession accompanied by dancing through the narrow streets of the town. The women devotee-dancers are dressed in bright baro’t saya or balintawak with matching flowered hat, waving buri fans which are similarly decorated with flowers and colorful ribbons. Men sport camisa de chinos of old while others use contemporary flowered shirts.

Each saint is prayed to for specific favors sought – Santa Clara for a female mate, San Pascual for a male mate and the Virgen de Salambao, for a child. Different saints for different favors cause devotees to pray to a different saint for a different favor in a merry mix-up confusion. The sure-fire solution was to pray to all three in one kneeling. In fact, Santa Clara is always inadvertently approached by barren couples for a child.

The Obando triumvirate of saints hold such strong influence on the devotees that dances of fertility and for other intentions were popularized. People from far and near come to pray, dance, make merry and get high. This feeling of highness is what is brought back home and shared with families and townmates.

The music of this song is the most popular accompaniment to a throng of devotees dancing on the streets of Obando in a native dance called Pandanggo Santa Clara or simply Sayaw sa Obando. The music is traditionally played by a brass band or the native musikong bumbong, a local band with instruments made entirely of bamboo.

In nearby Malabon and Navotas devotees who missed performing their annual pilgrimage to Obando, await with great eagerness the return of their townmates from Obando. A brass band or the unique musikong bumbong (bamboo orchestra) provide welcome music playing the same tune and other popular 3/4 time pieces to which the devotees swing and sway lining up in a procession while carrying estandartes or large cloth frames with pictures of saints. Their intention is to duplicate Obando’s magical enchantment and the high that the devotees achieve. Dance for San Pascual Baylon, “magbayluhan tayo!”

The song can be translated: The finest Saint Claire (of Assisi)/ My vow is this: / If I reach Obando (for my pilgrimage)/ I will dance the pandanggo. // Aruray, araruray, I will fulfill my vow/ Aruray, araruray, I will fulfill my vow. 




Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

INDAW SA BALITAW - Philippine Folk Song (Tagalog)

This old song might have been very famous during the late part of the 19th century. Its music appeared in many scores around that time, say for example, in Manuel Walls y Merino' s La Musica Popular de Filipinas  its music was presented as El Balitao. Merino's short description of this balitaw  (dance-song) is very interesting, and is here quoted in its entirety as translated to English: " This dance is the most popular in the Philippines. It is generally played more than it is danced, and its figures come to be a specie of jota, although without the variety and elegance of this. It is usually played by bands or orchestras, or simply by guitars. This dance is so popular and the Indios have so much affection to it, that it is often said that as an indigenous person hears the balitaw, even if his father has died, he begins to dance it. "   During the America era, this song again appeared in the "Philippine Music Horizons" as the " Kettle Song " or th...
Post a Comment
Read more

ILI-ILI TULOG ANAY - Philippine Folk Song (Hiligaynon)

  Ili-ili Tulog Anay is probably the most popular Filipino lullaby. Thanks to Prof. Prisicilla Venturanza Magdamo who was able to record this gem-of-a-song from a certain Maria Abitang in Bañga, Aklan. It was later published in her Philippine Folk Songs: Songs of the Visayas Vol. 1 (with piano accompaniment), Vol II (fakesheet style), and in Vol. III for chorus.  And the rest is history. The short soothing song simply means: Ili-ili (a crooning word for babies) sleep awhile/ Your mother is not here,/ She went to the store to buy bread/ Ili-ili sleep awhile. The notation below was taken from a learning module available online.
Post a Comment
Read more