Background

The legacy of José Montserrat Maceda, artist, scholar, philosopher and humanist, covers a wide breadth of human endeavors, interests and aspirations, with special significance to the musical cultures of the Philippines and Southeast Asia vis a vis the Asian civilization at large, as well as the rest of the world.  It reaches out to discover and express through modern methods of inquiry, reflection, and creative work, theories, philosophies and deeper human understanding and perception of the musical cultures, social and physical environments, metaphysical realities and cosmologies of Asian life, that are distinctly unique in their significance and magnitude.  In the last decade of his life, José Maceda vigorously pursued his vision of a renaissance in the musics of Asia in his intellectual and artistic work and productions.

Maceda’s music derives its categorical distinction from its antithetical posture to the very principles of aesthetic cognition on which western music, if not the entire mode of conduct of western civilization itself, is founded and deeply rooted.

Today, Maceda’s creative legacy lies in its search for alternative directions in modern musical expression. He searched for the semanticity and practical meaning of such structures as drone and melody, repetition, timbres, durations, and the phenomenon of un-tempered intervals and interlocking rhythms. He metaphorized them into either visual objects such as “curtains”, “clouds”, “waves”, “fogs”,  and “screens”,  or  interpreted their syntactic organism according to modes of social enterprise that characterize village life such as human cooperation and shared labor, and the importance of spatial configuration in human communication.

The entire creative output of José Maceda reveals a continuous search for answers to questions about music and beyond its boundaries.  In the process of expanding his perceptual field, he discovered grey areas and gaps in orthodox musical understanding, which he sought to address in the context of wider philosophical and aesthetic domain. Taking a cue from this perspective, Maceda turned to the aesthetic and structural parameters of non-western musical practice, most specifically Southeast Asian village traditions, where he found natural answers and solutions to his quest of breaking through the frontiers that shackled conventional musical understanding.

Project Description

Maceda 100 is a series of special events in celebration of Jose Maceda’s 100^th birth year which will feature an international symposium, musical performances of his compositions, sound art exhibits, and research activities scattered throughout the year of 2017 with an official kick-off on January 31, 2017 (his 100^th birthday). Maceda 100 will close with a Philippine premier of two of his latest compositions, Sujeichon (2004) and Accordion and Mandolin with a Special Orchestra (2003).

The International Symposium will be conducted in the form of round-table discussion, where each participant will be asked to prepare a ten-minute presentation on one of the themes, which will include ethnomusicology, composition, and other musical and extra-musical topics. It will be attended by experts in the field of musicology, ethnomusicology, music performance and composition, as well as contemporaries and guests from related fields.

Most of the featured Maceda compositions in Maceda 100 will be performed as part of the International symposium set for September 25-27 2017. A special performance of Pagsamba on the 31st of January, 2017 will serve as the kick-off for the year long series of events as well as the opening ritual for the Diliman Arts Month (February). Meanwhile, Cassettes 100 will have its own re-staging on February 2, 2017 at the Vargas Museum at the University of the Philippines Diliman, and a  second re-staging on the second day of the symposium on September 26, 2017 at the Main Theater Lobby of the Cultural Center of the Philippines.

Ms. Dayang Yraola will curate an exhibit which will be presented in two versions: first, a smaller window to the main work, will be launched as “reading Maceda, Prelude” in January 31, 2017 at the Bulwagan ng Dangal in UP Diliman; which will later on grow into its full version, “Attitude of the Mind”, in August 30, 2017 in the Main Gallery of the Cultural Center of the Philippines.

The symposium, performances, and exhibits intend to showcase artists and scholars who are students and alumni of the University of the Philippines. On the other hand, the event is of international scope and will encourage exchange and linkages with other educational and artistic institutions. The target audience for symposium is 100; for concerts, 200. Audiences are expected to be invited ethnomusicologists, musicologists, researchers, musicians, teachers, students, and cultural workers from the Philippines and abroad.  All performances and exhibits are free admission.

Adjunct research-related events include the Maceda Field School, Repatriation and ReCollection, and publications like the DigiManual and Maceda Reader. The Maceda Field School started as a workshop for students of Musicology, Music Education and teachers from the College of Music Extension Program Continuing Education for Music Teachers. With the success of the first one in 2013, succeeding Field Schools were organized every 1 to 2 years. The Repatriation and ReCollection project came to be after the completion of the digitization of the field recordings of Maceda and his team of researchers from the 1950s to 1990s. Knowing that these recordings will be helpful not only to the communities to get in touch with their roots but also in support of the mother-tongue approach and K to 12 curriculum, copies of chosen recordings were provided to the schools and public libraries in Sagada, Bontoc, and Kabayan in the Cordillera Autonomous Region. As an output of the digitization of analogue audio materials in the Center and to compile the many writings of Maceda in one book, two publications are slated for release, the DigiManual and Maceda Reader.

One of the auspicious events for the Maceda 100 year is the inauguration of the Maceda Hall. Included in the construction of new physical facilities in the UP College of Music in 2017, the hall is a music resource center which will house the UP Center for Ethnomusicology in its second floor.

Featured Events

“reading Maceda, PRELUDE” is an exhibit that attempts to summarize some of the key theories used by Maceda in his compositions  — technology, nature/environment, space/atmosphere and time. Text from Maceda’s writings, composition analysis by National Artist for Music Ramon P. Santos, images, scores, audio files and music instruments are to be used to illustrate these  theories. This exhibit also serves as a framework for participating artists, composers and scholars in creating their work for the main exhibit later in 2017, titled “ATTITUDE of the MIND”.
Curator: MS. DAYANG MNT YRAOLA
Consultants: DR. VERNE DE LA PEÑA and
NATIONAL ARTIST DR. RAMON P. SANTOS

Jose Maceda’s monumental piece Pagsamba (1968) sets the Tagalog text of the Mass in a ritualistic atmosphere. The work requires more than 200 singers and instrumentalists playing Philippine gongs and bamboo instruments. Written for a circular space, Pagsamba will be restaged at the very chapel for which the work was intended by the composer.
Music Director: PROF. JOSEFINO CHINO TOLEDO
Performers: GRUPO 20/21, UP COLLEGE OF MUSIC  STUDENTS AND FACULTY and FRIENDS
Parish Priest: FR. HENRY E. FERRERAS

The Jose Maceda Fellowship Program aims to attract the brightest local and foreign scholars, artists and experts to mount research or creative projects at the UP Center for Ethnomusicology and share their output with the academic community. Grantees are also expected to teach or mentor students in the university.
Launch: THE VICE-PRESIDENT FOR ACADEMIC AFFAIRS,
DR. VERNE DE LA PEÑA, and the HEIRS OF DR. JOSE MACEDA

In 1971, Cassettes 100 was performed at the lobby of the Cultural Center of the Philippines, where one hundred ‘musicians’ weaved their way through an ‘audience’ strolling around, each carrying a cassette player playing one of the hundred pre-recorded tracks of various Philippine instruments. This restaging is a collaborative effort between the UP College of Music and the UP College of Engineering.
Artistic Director: DR. JONAS BAES
Technical Planning: DR. FRANZ DE LEON and PROF. DAVID DINO GUADALUPE
Invited Visual Artist: MR. JUN YEE
Movements: MR. MARVEEN LOZANO and MR. JOEL EUGENIO
Performers: 100 VOLUNTEERS

The Maceda Hall is part of the new structures being built in a major facelift of the UP College of Music. It will house the UP Music Library and the UP Center for Ethnomusicology. The latter was established by Maceda in 1997 and houses the Maceda Collection which was inscribed in the UNESCO Memory of the World Register in 2007.
Inauguration: HON. DANILO CONCEPCION,  THE CHANCELLOR OF UP DILIMAN, THE UP DILIMAN VICE CHANCELLOR FOR RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT , THE DEAN OF THE UP COLLEGE OF MUSIC, NATIONAL ARTIST DR. RAMON P. SANTOS, and the HEIRS OF DR. JOSE MACEDA

The Digitized and Digital Archives Manual (DigiManual) documents in detail the procedures implemented by the UP Center for Ethnomusicology in its digitization project to serve as a guide and standard protocol for future data preservation and restoration operations. The manual is intended as a resource material for archives, libraries, and other agencies that manage at-risk
collections and are planning or undergoing digitization projects.
Manuscript: DIGITIZATION STAFF OF THE UP CENTER FOR ETHNOMUSICOLOGY
Illustrations: MR. RG RIANO SALAZAR
Launch: THE UP DILIMAN VICE CHANCELLOR FOR RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

The Jose Maceda Field School is the fourth offering of the JM Project Series. Focusing on Dr. Maceda as an ethnomusicologist, the UPCE will hold an intensive training on field music data gathering in situ for graduate and undergraduate students of Asian Music, Musicology, Music Education, as well as educators and cultural workers. The Maceda Field School is held annually, the most recent being at Kabayan, Benguet, in 2016. This year’s targeted site Northern Mindanao.
Target Participants: UP COLLEGE OF MUSIC –  FIELD METHODS and CONTINUING EDUCATION FOR  MUSIC TEACHERS (CEMT) STUDENTS

The ReCollection Project is a field research and repatriation activity of the UP Center for Ethnomusicology. Since 2014, the Center has been distributing copies of field recordings to the communities where they were recorded decades ago by Dr. Jose Maceda, Dr. Ramon Santos, and other field researchers who have contributed these recordings to the collection of the Center. These recordings are produced in very special edition CDs exclusively for the use of the community. The project is an occasion for recalling musical memories, thus the term ‘recollection’. At the same time, UPCE does field research in the community to update and add new data to their collection, which gives a second meaning to the project title ‘re-collection’. Recordings have already been repatriated to Sagada and Bontoc, Mountain Province, and Kabayan, Benguet.
Senior Researchers: DR. VERNE DE LA PEÑA and NATIONAL ARTIST DR. RAMON P. SANTOS
Junior Researcher: MS. ROAN MAY DG OPISO

In 1978, Maceda wrote: “It is the task of man today to look for an attitude of mind and a course of action other than that which imprisons him in his own creations.” The curator interprets this statement as a challenge for those (for us) who have access to knowledge, especially those that are irreplaceable, including those from Maceda, in setting out our creative trajectories. The
exhibit will use materials from the Maceda Collection as elements of artistic composition. It will contain six main works including installations, moving images, and electronic sound works.
Curator: MS. DAYANG MNT YRAOLA
Artists: MS. RINGO BUNOAN, MR. TAD ERMITAÑO, MR. LEO ABAYA, PROF. CHRIS BROWN,  MR. MALEK LOPEZ, MR. ARVIN NOGUERAS, MR. RICKY FRANCISCO, and MS. RAYLA HEIDE

The symposium gathers international and local speakers from various disciplines in roundtable discussions of subjects pertinent to the legacy of Maceda as an artist, scholar, philosopher, and humanist.  The sessions will be interspersed with the performance of Maceda’s landmark works: Agungan, Aroding, Siasid, and Exchanges. A special re-staging of Cassettes 100 in the Cultural Center of the Philippines’ Main Theater Lobby. The event is of international scope and is aimed to encourage exchange and linkages with other educational and artistic institutions.
Keynote Speakers: NATIONAL ARTIST DR. RAMON P. SANTOS, DR. RICARDO TRIMILLOS, and
DR. NICOLE REVEL
Convenor: DR. VERNE DE LA PEÑA
Music Director: PROF. JOSEFINO CHINO TOLEDO
Performers: GRUPO 20/21, UP TUGTUGANG MUSIKA ASYATIKA, DR. BENICIO SOKKONG,
PROF. AGA MAYO BUTOCAN, and PROF. KANAPIA KALANDUYAN

In this second re-staging of Cassettes 100 for 2017, the work returns to the Cultural Center of the Philippines where it was staged in 1971. This re-staging, will also make use of new media (MP3 players) in the performance.
Artistic Director: DR. JONAS BAES
Technical Planning: DR. FRANZ DE LEON and PROF. DAVID DINO GUADALUPE
Movements: MR. MARVEEN LOZANO and MR. JOEL EUGENIO
Performers: 100 VARIOUS VOLUNTEERS

The Maceda Reader compiles Jose Maceda’s writings including articles, papers, and book chapters in one publication. The collection, which covers some 50 years of scholarly output and comprising of about 60 titles will be a valuable addition to libraries everywhere.
Author: NATIONAL ARTIST DR. JOSE MACEDA
Editor: NATIONAL ARTIST DR. RAMON P. SANTOS

Written in 2002, the piece for four pianos represents the last artistic phase of Maceda where he uses European instead of exclusively Asian instruments. The work also encapsulates the author’s primary interest—the articulation and understanding of a music theory for Asia. Based on a Korean court music melody, Sujeichon was finished barely two years before the composer’s passing and has never been performed in the Philippines.
Music Director: PROF. JOSEFINO CHINO TOLEDO