*This article is written for Ripples: Celebrating 24 Years of the UPCE
In 1977, the first ever academic music journal focused on research in Philippine music was published. Musika Jornal, was a vision for a publication that would bring to the foreground the traditional musics of the Philippines, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. The first editorial board are pillars of musicological inquiry in the country – Jose Maceda, Corazon Dioquino, Marialita Yraola, Rosario Papa, Pamela Cruz, and Arsenio Nicolas, Jr. This was established when Dr. Maceda was then the chair of the University of the Philippines College of Music Department of Music Research, and today known as the Department of Musicology.
It is revealed in the first editorial that Musika Jornal was to be a platform for artists, traditional musicians, and researchers in music from the Philippines and the Asia-Pacific region. There was a united cognizance and effort to open the consciousness of the Filipino people to music not just heard on the radio or watched on stage, but to also expose them to local indigenous music traditions.
Aside from these, it was decided that music from contemporary composers in the region are to be included as well. Truly, these were the core of the journal since then. For purposes of reach, the language of the first three editions was Filipino, considering accessibility to the population at large.
In addition to exposure and knowledge, another key purpose was to be a resource for music educators from north to south. In all sincerity, the desire was to give place to the marginalized indigenous cultures, and acknowledge their wisdom, practices, and life, to be valid, stable, and autonomous from western standards and ideas.
In the second edition, there was a distinct focus on the types and functions of music in a particular people’s society. This was working towards a decolonization of the soundscape of the Philippines of that time. Indeed that same notion is present in the spirit of what Musika Jornal is today.
After more than 25 years of a hiatus, the journal was revived under the helm of Dr. Ramon P. Santos, then the executive director of the UP Center for Ethnomusicology. This was Musika Jornal 4, release in 2008. The language was changed to English and Filipino in order to accommodate not just local readers, but also foreign ones.
Today, there are 12 published issues of Musika Jornal, and forthcoming issues are already in the works. The journal is open to all music scholars and artists who wish to publish their written work on music, with a special focus on the Philippines and Southeast Asia. This is now the continuation of the dialogue that began in the seventies, a continuing legacy in Philippine music research.
