ANG LANGIT KOY IKAW (Constancio De Guzman) by RAFFY LATA

ANG LANGIT KO'Y IKAW
Constancio De Guzman
performer: Raffy Lata

The title literally means “You Are My Heaven” and it’s a song about love and devotion. There was a Tagalog movie with this same title that was released around 1958, and it was common back then for songs like this to be used as the movie’s theme. I can only assume it was composed around that time specifically for the movie. The song was first recorded by soprano Sylvia dela Torre, but the later version of Celeste Legaspi in 1980 seemed to be more popular.

This version that I played is based on Pedro Concepcion’s solo guitar recording with orchestration provided by Leopoldo Silos featured in the Villar Records series Philippine Memories. Mang Pedro’s unique style of rendering Filipino music on guitar has become the template for anyone aspiring to play Filipino guitar music.

Constancio De Guzman was born on November 11, 1903 in Guiguinto, Bulacan, Philippines. He was a composer and actor, known for Ikaw ang aking buhay (1959), Basagulera (1954) and Sa paanan ng bundok (1953). Among others, his compositions include Ang Tangi Kong Pag-ibig, Babalik Ka Rin, Maalaala Mo Kaya, Bayan Ko and many other songs we’ve come to call our own. He took formal piano lessons as a young boy and went on to study composition with the late great Nicanor Abelardo. He died on August 16, 1982.