We all know that Pinoys have this love for love songs – in fact, Pinoys love anything with a hint of love or sentiment. This explains why Celine Dion had such a hit with “My Heart Will Go On,”, why Pinoys love “Let it Go” (the movie version), and why “My Way” has become the killer karaoke song.
Some people think of it as part of the Spanish culture ingrained in us, the European romantic mythology, translated to our Asian roots. The truth is, it may go deeper than that, into our pre-colonial past. But if you think that our love for the romantic, sappy, or sentimental songs are just a function of present culture, then here’s some food for thought: let’s get nostalgic about the kundiman.
Kundiman, Cundiman
A good number of historians and scholars believe that kundiman songs originated from the Visayas, with the “Father of the Kundiman Art Song,” Dr. Francisco Santiago explaining that the term kundiman originates from a song where the term cundiman was a repeated term in the lyrics of the first stanza. Dr. Santiago, along with Nicanor Abelardo, would create the formal musical structure for the kundiman – including the artistic value of the lyrics, paired with the music.
The existence of the kundiman in the wild, as it were, has been noted as early as the 1870s, where it was still known as, of course, the cundiman, and was already typified as the “love song genre.”
Spanish scholars had a rather biased view of the kundiman (or as they called it, cancion indigena – native song), describing it as pathetic but with pleasant overtones.
By the 1880s, the kundiman was being recorded in lyric form by historians and scholars, with a portion of these texts Spanish translations of the original lyrics.
Oh, the feels!
The kundiman song is primarily seen as a serenading format. It’s meant to be a song that will pluck at the heart strings, no matter how saccharine-sweet the lyrics are. However, because of this ability to tap into primal emotions, the kundiman has also been used for politics and ideology. National hero Jose Rizal himself used the song form by creating a highly-charged set of kundiman lyrics in his novel, Noli me Tangere.
Later on, during the revolutionary period, the kundiman song known as the Jocelynang Baliuag would become the “Kundiman of the Revolution.”
The makings of a kundiman song
The kundiman has a very specific structure, though this may have been, in part, the formalisation of Santiago and Abelardo.
The kundiman takes on a 3 / 4 time signature, similar to the waltz. The first verse is played in a minor key (which probably sets the melancholic or emotional tone), and then this is followed by a second verse where the chords are put in a major key (an assertion within the mood) within the song. Stricter schools are explicit in that this is the kundiman formula, and nothing else.
Lyrics-wise, the kundiman is plaintive, to the point of exaggeration. Some people have observed that this could be a reflection of an innate passivity in the Filipino character, combined with a very emotional streak. There have been controversial views that this is a reflection of how Filipinos have allowed themselves to be taken over by foreign interests.
The kundiman in pop culture
The kundiman in its traditional form has not survived well in present-day pop culture. The very fact that it is a foundation for tradition makes it “baduy” in the eyes of younger Filipinos, where mournful, plaintive songs can be sneered as sounding like a Kundiman. True, there have been highlights, such as Sylvia La Torre’s career, and the popularity of songs like “sa Ugoy ng Duyan,” but these can be also seen as drawbacks, since it further puts the kundiman in the position of either being “high brow” culture, or worse, “library culture.”
One of the few times the kundiman is seen in a positive light is when the term itself is used to refer to the primary purpose: that of a song being used in serenading. In that venue, the term loses most, if not all of its negative aspects, save perhaps for the quaint idea of hearing a song sung by would-be lover, or a lover who cannot go into the home.
The key to making the kundiman acceptable in pop culture may, ironically, be in changing the form somewhat. While the strict musical structure can be retained to this day (though the instruments used and arrangements can be updated), the lyrics themselves might be the key to a kundiman resurgence. One can either go to the point of exaggeration, at the risk of sounding like a parody, or one can ditch the whole mournful and melancholic feeling altogether, and use more modern language, while liberally retaining the basic idea of the kundiman being a love song.
In some cases, you have “Kundiman” from Silent Sanctuary, which retains many of the traditional touches of the kundiman, but upgrades the arrangement and time signature. In other songs, such as Hale’s “Kung Wala Ka”, one can clearly hear the spirit or tone of the kundiman, though the actual song itself leans closer to classic western pop.
Where do we go with the kundiman?
The first thing that has to be done, obviously, is that the kundiman should be brought out from “high culture,” and then once again taken to the masses. Once could say that the kundiman as a cultural art form should have a makeover, making it more accessible to pop culture through either a glorification of its role in Philippine art and culture, or through updating it through musical releases that stay true to the idea and, if possible, to the musical structures that technically make a kundiman song a kundiman song.
Or, we can take comfort in the fact that the kundiman actually does live on in spirit in Philippine pop music, though we’ll probably never hear the original kundiman style reach the heights of popularity that it once did. Whatever the case may be, the kundiman as a signpost of Philippine character and culture should be an accepted fact. The yearning, sadness, and romanticism that the kundiman can bring to the fore are uniquely Filipino, be it bakya or high art.
Original Photo: “Singing the Kundiman,” Shubert Ciencia c/o Flickr.com
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