THE lockdown, due to Covid-19, brought families together. Music has become a channel of hope. Filipinos sing when they are happy or sad. The best compositions were done in the solitude of loneliness. So, we have so many sentimental “kundimans” with endearing lyrics. Cebu’s “Matud Nila” and “Usahay” have become classics like “Dahil Sa Iyo” or “Hindi Kita Malimot.” Music has changed, and the new generations sing and compose jolly songs, with less defined melodies, but novel in rhythm and rhyme. These typify the spirit of the era.
The old and new music on YouTube and Facebook showcase the Cebuanos’ penchant for music.
Dennis Gregory Sugar, indeed, is the ultimate artist. How he plays the piano, the violin and other musical instruments, is so awesome. Then, his children’s choir sings like angels as he conducts them with precision and grace. How soothing. My thoughts and fears of the uncertainties of the pandemic are diverted to a more meaningful outlook when I listen to healing music. What happens after Covid-19? No one knows.
Then, too, I discovered that my doctoral student, Icy Cabico, can sing like Martin Nievera or Marco Sison. Try to listen to his Facebook concert of songs in Cebuano, Tagalog and English.
I cannot miss my University of San Jose-Recoletos Amparito L. Lhuillier Educational Foundation (Drac Allef) scholars and other youth groups doing musical fusions to cheer us up or to gather donations for our frontliners.
Vince Borromeo, USJ-R’s Dramatics and Cultural Ensemble’s first Chris in its “Miss Saigon” musicale in the mid-’80s, has a series of interesting songs and talks on Facebook. Based in the United States, Anjanette Laborte Gaylord, our first Kim in “Miss Saigon,” who earned her international role in Germany, plays her guitar as she sings beautiful songs.
I look forward to seeing and hearing the Sakdap, the USJ-R Dramatics and Cultural Ensemble Larks and Nightingales, the Cebu Normal University and University of Cebu choir, or the University of Visayas and Benedicto College chorale, sing to beat our dull or dreary lockdown days.
The song “Heal Our Land” has always been a part of the repertoire of Speechcom and USJ-R Drac Allef. So were songs “From the Distance, “If We Hold on Together” and “What A Wonderful World,” among so many healing songs. Now, we hear them sung more passionately. It is because we are praying intensely to the Lord to spare us from harm and bring back the joy of living. And, it will come as the music lingers.