The document summarizes the music of Palawan province in the Philippines. It describes the socio-historical context and geography of Palawan and its indigenous peoples, including the Batak, Palaweños, Palawano, and Tagbanwa. It outlines various vocal music genres practiced in Palawan, such as bagit, kulial, tultul (epic chant), and ulit (shamanic chant). Musical instruments used include the suling (flute), babarak (ring flute), basal (gong), aruding (jew's harp), kusyapi (lute), and pagang (bamboo zither). The document concludes that Palaw
2. Socio-Historical Contex
Lalawigan ng Palawan, is an island province of
the Philippines located in the Region 4. Its capital
is Puerto Princesa City, and it is the largest
province inthe country in terms of total area of
jurisdiction.
3. Geography of Palawan
Palawan is composed of the long and narrow Palawan
Island, plus a number of other smaller islands surrounding
the main island.
Palawan covers the Cuyo Islands in the Sulu Sea. The
disputed Spratly Islands, located a few hundred kilometers
to the west, are considered part of Palawan by the
Philippines, and is locally called the Kalayaan Group of
Islands.
4. People of Palawan
Palawan is the largest province in the Philippines, is home
toseveral indigenous ethnolinguistic groups:
Batak- which means "mountain people" in Cuyonon is a
group of indigenous Filipino people that resides in the
northeast portion of Palawan. These people believe in nature
spirits, with whom they communicate through a babaylan or
medium.
5. People of Palawan
Palaweños - Native-born lowland dwellers - They
are religious, disciplined and have a highly
developed community spirit - Language : Cuyonon
& Agutaynen.
6. People of Palawan
Palawano - also known as Palawan, is one of the
unique indigenous peoples of Palawan. They are
part of the large Manobo-based linguistic groups
of southern Philippines. They traditionally hunt
using soars and bamboo blowguns. - The Taawt
Bato means "people of the rock".
7. People of Palawan
Tagbanwa - or "people of the world," are found in central and
northern Palawan. They practice shifting cultivation of upland
rice, which is considered a divine gift, and are known for their
rice wine ritual called pagdiwata. Central Tagbanwas are found
in the western and eastern coastal areas of central Palawan.
They are concentrated in the municipalities of Aborlan,
Quezon, and Puerto Princesa.
8. Vocal Music of Palawan
Bagit,
Kulial (Songs)
Tultul (Epic chant)
Ulit (Shamanic chant)
9. Tultul (Epic chant)
To sing tultul is to be possessed by a Täw Tultultulän. These
“Epic Heroes” are a type of humanity who live in the median
space and intercede between people on this earth and Ämpuq.
They are a Benevolent Humanity protecting the “Real Men.”
Epics are always chanted at night, ending at daybreak; it is
forbidden to sing when the sun shines and during the day.
This prohibition links the epic to the night and a sacred world.
10. Ulit (Shamanic chant)
The shaman sings the difficult experience of the voyage
of his double, kuruduwa, by a specific chant, the
lumbaga, whose melody is in all points assimilable to any
epic melodic line. And it is precisely the ordeals that the
soul of the shaman overcomes in the course of his
voyage that constitute the shamanic chant.
12. Suling (banded flute)
Mostly, suling is made of 'tamiang'
bamboo a long tube bamboo
which has very thin surface. The
head of suling, near a small hole, is
circled with a thin-band made of
rattan or rotan to produce air
vibration.
14. Basal (gong)
The set of one or two big
gongs, agung, and a pair of small ringed
gongs, sanang, hang from the wall plates,
while the drum, gimbal, rests on the lateral
platform ready to be played, mainly at dusk
and at night time. This collective
ownership, enhances the consanguinal ties
and the solidarity binding the people
together.
16. Kusyapi (lute)
This instrument is significant to the
Museums collection as it is
representative of music making and
instrument making in the Philippines,
in Southeast Asia, as well as being an
example of the type of instrument
that traditional music is played on.
17. Pagang (bamboo zither)
The instrument is made of one whole
node of bamboo which is partly slit to
keep the node from splitting apart.
The slit serves as a resonator when
the "strings"-which are lifted out of
the bamboo "skin" and kept up by
wedges-are plucked.
18. Musical Context
The subtle threads between Mankind and Nature involve all our
senses and more particularly our auditive sensitivity. Capturing
tonalities, rhythms, and melodies, we can like a bird fly down
from the celestial vault to the Earth, dwelling-place of
Highlander-islanders known as the Palawan who live in the
southern part of the island by the same name.
19. Musical Context
This aural voyage will take us to the realm of
words, poetry, and music as human creations
which the Palawan uses to communicate in
order to live harmoniously in this world.