Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Manunugtog Kawayan – Las Piñas National High School (1966), Las Piñas City




I am always fascinated with indigenous materials used as musical instruments. They make me proud of my heritage. We Filipinos are really inclined to music. I, myself really love to sing although I am not a good singer.


One Saturday afternoon, Oct. 4, I was off from work so I decided to do malling in SM City Sucat, which is a walking distance from my place. As I was going to the ladies’ room I heard ethnic and very nice music and when I looked, where it was coming from I saw the group of teenagers from Las Piñas National High, school performing. Their group is called Manunugtog Kawayan. Basically their musical instruments are made from Bamboos (kawayan). They’re using a xylophone and anklongs made of bamboos. As they play the instruments they have dance choreography, very entertaining. If only Joey de Leon, who sang and composed the song, Itaktak mo, could hear them perform their own version. I bet he would be fascinated how they perform it. The repertoire of songs varies from folk songs to contemporary. Hope more Filipinos could preserve this kind of musical instruments.

5 comments:

bobbyboy said...

You know, it's kind of funny in a way Joyce, but when my friends in the Philippines wanted to go sing kareoke, they told me that they weren't very good singers. When they started singing, I thought they were professional lol

The instruments, clothing, language and over all culture should always be preserved I think. If we don't, then we can't appreciate where we came from and who we really are.

Thanks for the pics too, very good :)

rydel said...

.,hi im one of the member of manunugtog kawayan, tnx for having a that kind of blog, i relly aprreciate it,tnx next tym i would tell you the next performancesa will will have.

Anonymous said...

hi! i'm lara.. the girl in the picture who's playing the "xylophone." Well, actually, that's "marimba." I couldn't believe that someone would post our pictures here... I still remember this performance of us. :-)We're glad to entertain people. Thank you!

hopeful4truth said...

eugene05
Hi!i used to be part of the MANUNUGTONG KAWAYAN OF LAS PINAS (MAIN) NAT'L HIGH..I'm glad to see and hear good words from people who appreciate this kind of music. miss the old days.

Anonymous said...

hi!
Thanks for posting this...i used to be a member of LAS PINAS NAT'L HIGH'S MANUNUGTOG KAWAYAN.I'm glad to see/hear good things from people who appreciates music like this.

..miss the old manunugtog kawayan days..
eugene08