KULINTANG MUSIC BELONGS TO ALL FILIPINOS

The kulintang music is truly an indigenous Filipino proud heritage, pre colonial, and the Muslims became the mere care takers of it. Indeed, the music belongs to all Filipinos!

What one would know about the Maranaw version of it through the internet tends to be the genre called KAPAGONOR and is warped. It is so for its showmanship, fanfare, spectacle and theatrical quality.

Music is the food of soul, it’s often said; and “the language of feeling and of passion, as words are the language of reason.”

In reality the Maranao repertoire is vast both in number and depth. My departed mother knew a lot. My departed sister Maimona learned most of it from her. This footage is an excerpt, merely 6 out of valuable 26 pieces DOCUMENTED BY THE MINDANAO KULINTANG ENSEMBLE when it invited Maimona as a guest artist during the MKE’s performance tour in Japan in 2003. A few of the examples were played in more than one version.

(Players: Maimona, Yoshitaka Terada, Scott Sscholz, Patrick Tamayo, Daniel Giray, and I.)