|
Wednesday, December 21, 2005
Wenceslao: Christmas and music
By Bong O. Wenceslao
I rarely go to concerts but my wife lobbied hard for me to buy tickets for Jose Mari Chan's show at SM Cinema 2 on Dec. 17.
Since the next day was our sixth wedding anniversary, I obliged. Besides, many of Chan's songs are my favorite, like "Deep in My Heart" that I sang often when I was still courting her. Then there are the Christmas songs.
Though Chan is a businessman (he has a degree in economics from Ateneo), he is mainly about music, being the voice behind two of the country's best selling albums of all time, "Constant Change" and "Christmas in Our Hearts." He also composed "We're All Just One," the theme song of the just-concluded 23rd Southeast Asian Games.
Being a creative writer myself, I am therefore more interested in how Chan was able to combine family, business and music. In the concert, he joked more than he sang, talked about some of his songs and acknowledged his wife who was in the audience. I could say now that his family and his business propped up his passion for music.
Of his compositions, the songs that will never fade would be his Christmas classics, "Christmas in Our Hearts" and "A Perfect Christmas," for the simple reason that these are attached to an annual ritual. More than that, these are among the few English songs with very Pinoy sensibility, or one that does not talk about chestnuts or sleigh bells.
Which reminds me of "Kasadya," "Pasko sa Binilanggo" and the many other songs that the Cebuanos can never do without during Christmas. "Kasadya," intellectual property rights controversy aside, always comes to mind because it is the most sung---by children using flattened tansans as accompaniment or by the more sophisticated choirs.
I am mentioning "Pasko sa Binilanggo" to prove a point, that good music and message can make up for awkward lyrics. And for laughs, there's Max Surban with his depiction of Pinoy lightheartedness in his "Cebuanization" of popular English Christmas carols. Remember "Nabali ang Krismas Tri" with "paglili ko wa nay panty?"
Anyway, that Jose Mari Chan concert reminded me that life is not only about the antics of President Arroyo and the political opposition, or that Christmas is not only about the economic crisis, but is also about a family's or a community's simple joys.
For us, it was about sitting back and to be enveloped by something as ethereal as music.
P.S. I would like to thank those who remembered me this Christmas. In seasons like this, I receive gifts from personalities and establishments, and while I always make sure that those things won't affect my writing, I am personally grateful to the givers.
(khanwens@yahoo.com/0927-2055064)
(December 21, 2005 issue)
Write letter to the editor. Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board. Click here. |
|
[return to top]
[home]
[network page]
|
LOCAL NEWS
BUSINESS
OPINION
SPORTS
LIFESTYLE
FEATURE
SUPERBALITA
WEEKEND
|
