MENC: The National Association for Music Education

Asian Music in Education

Author(s): Lucrecia Kasilag
Source: Music Educators Journal, Vol. 53, No. 9 (May, 1967), pp. 71-73
Published by: MENC: The National Association for Music Education
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3391066
Accessed: 26/05/2009 15:33

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* Many people who have been
brought up in the traditions of
Western music accept in general
the common dictum that music is a
universal language. Hence, we react
readily to sonatas and symphonies,
operas and zarzuelas, art songs and
arias as naturally as if these Euro-
pean-based musical forms were part
and parcel of our own culture. But
when we are confronted with the
varying traditional musics of East-
ern countries such as those of
China, Java, or Japan, or even that
of our brother Muslims of the
South, we shake our heads in utter
loss of understanding. At this point,
music apparently is no longer the
universal language that we know
it to be. The universality of appeal
becomes conditioned with mixed
feelings of embarrassment at times,
or with boredom, to be sure. It is
not unusual therefore to regard the
exotic musics of the East as strange,
if not inferior.
Early writers of musical history
have written rather disparagingly
about the music of the Orient.
Krause wrote that "in Antiquity,
which is the childhood of music (!),
only simple, unadorned melody was
known, as in the case today with
The author is Dean, College of Mu-
practiced at present, has no charm
or meaning for us. The European
sic and Fine Arts, Philippine Women's
University, Taft Avenue, Manila. The system, though the exigencies of
article is reprinted with permission practice prevent its being absolutely
from The University magazine (Ma- true, is nearer the truth than any
nila), Volume 1, Number 3 (February other."2But look at how a Chinese
1966), p. 4.
audience was reported to have re-
acted to the nineteenth-century
such peoples as the Hindus, Chi- music of Schubert, saying that
nese, Persians, and Arabs, who while it had a nice play of notes, it
have not yet progressed beyond the hardly touched the heart!3
childhood age (!)"1What could be In judging non-European music,
further from the truth. The ex- Western critical values hardly
tremely complex, highly ornamen- apply, since structure and expres-
ted singing of the Arabs, Persians, sion are essentially different. Clarity
and the Hindus has no counterpart of form and time is of less impor-
in the, rigid, simple songs of the tance in Eastern music wherein the
West. And yet another report from musician rhythmically improvises
Hullah's history of moder music on set patterns and repeats them
said that "the orientals have had a endlessly without seeking any
music of their own; this music, as climax or development.
In the light of contemporary aes-
1Curt Sachs, The Wellsprings of Music thetics, the apparent divergence be-
(The Hague, 1962). tween Western and Eastern music
should appear less, since they have
a common heritage. Western music
developed from older forms identi-
ASIAN fied with the East, where musical
traditions have enjoyed a long and
ancient history. Music in Asia was,
MUSIC 2Sachs.
S"Ancient and Oriental Music," New
Oxford History of Music (London, 1960),
Vol. I.

Kasilag .
Lucrecia .

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MAY,. NINETEEN SIXTY-SEVEN

"Since our education
has beenquite long
on occidentalmusic
and veryshort on
Asian music . .. we
find ourselves
strangersin Asia."
I
and still is, used in rituals and
connected with magic long before
Christ. After the Crusades, musical
instruments developed in Europe,
with tracings from their humbler
Oriental predecessors. The emerg-
ing European system of major and
minor tonality and the preponder-
ant usage of harmony, in the course
of time, caused a divergent view
from that of the prevailing Eastern
traditional system of modality and
monody. Thus, the exotic sounds of
the East now remain in the back-
ground with mystery and miscom-
prehension.
Fortunately for us, this present
century has witnessed a widening
of musical horizons that admits
both East and West. Gerald Abra-
ham, eminent musicologist, once
stated that, "we occidentals recog-
nize now that it is a comically nar-
row and provincial view that our
music was the only music that mat-
tered. Today, we at least realize the
validity and wealth of the great
musical cultures and languages of
India, of China, of the Arab lands,
to take only three-even if we have
hardly begun to understand them."
Modern composers like Debussy,
Bartok, Stravinsky, and Messiaen
became fascinated with the musics
of the East and reflected these in
their works.
Thanks to the efforts and thoughts
of dedicated musicologists who
have assiduously researched and
collated vital data, the musics and
the musical instruments of the non-
European peoples, including those
of the so-called primitive or non-
literate peoples, as well as those of
the civilized Eastern nations, have
been brought to the fore. Curiously
enough, most of these scholars who
have pioneered in Asian music are
from the Western world, to wit:
Jaap Kunst of Netherlands and
Mantle Hood of America who spe-
cialized on the music of Java; Rob-
72
ert Lachman and William P. Malm,
both of America, specialists on Japa-
nese music; German Carl Stumpf,
Otto Abraham and David Morton
on Siamese music; Englishmen Ar-
nold Bake and A. Fox-Strangways
and Frenchman Alain Danielou on
the music of India; the world-re-
nowned scholar Curt Sachs, and a
host of other American-European
musicologists. Our own Jose Maceda
has written treatises on Hanunoo and
Magindanao music in the Philip-
pines, the recordings of which have
been released by Ethnic Folkways.
Attempts to bridge the existing
gap between Western and Eastern
music have brought about the
establishment of Oriental music
centers in different parts of the
world. To aid these attempts, the
Philippines might host an interna-
tional symposium on the "Musics
of Asia," under the sponsorship of
the National Music Council of the
Philippines and UNESCO. At the
College of Music and Fine Arts of
the Philippine Women's University,
where a substantial collection of
Asian instruments and recordings
furnishes laboratory materials for
music-making at both faculty and
student levels, regular lectures,
demonstrations, learning sessions,
and recitals on Asian music have
engendered an increasing apprecia-
tion for this type of music in addi-
tion to the regular Western musical
fare prescribed in the curriculum.
A re-appraisal of our concept of
music education to include in the
school curricula the study and un-
derstanding of Eastern musics, par-
ticularly the musics of Asia, would
be highly in order at this time in
our national history. Steeped as we
are in Western techniques of ap-
preciation, our untrained and un-
exposed ears find many things
disconcerting about Asian music.
Since our education has been quite
long on occidental music and very
short on Asian music, musically
speaking, we find ourselves strang-
ers in Asia! It is not amiss to men-
tion here that our brother Asians
take a lot of pride in their well-
established musical systems and
traditions which have withstood
the changes of time. By systems, I
refer to those of India, China,
Japan, Korea, and Indonesia, as
distinct from their adaptations of
Western music.
Through music education and
exposure to Asian music, our listen-
ing ears would eventually learn to
take in the microtonal intervals of
the Indian raga, the nasal singing
of the Chinese, the throaty voicing
of the Indonesian, the continuous
drone of the Indian tambura or the
Filipino kudyapi guitar, the endless
complex rhythmic improvisation on
the Indian tabla drum and the
Muslim kulintang, which can all
prove as exciting and as engrossing
as any of the musical forms from
the West.
The musics of Southeast Asia re-
veal general characteristics which
are notable in the related systems
of Bali, Java, Thailand, Burma, and
southern Philippines. There is a
prevalence of gong orchestras
called gamelan, consisting of gongs
of odd shapes and sizes, showing
"bossed" or protruding knobs at the
middle. On the other hand, Chinese
bronze or copper gongs are flat-
surfaced. Definite emphasis on a
bamboo culture is seen in the many
usages of this sounding body in
zithers, jew's or jaw's harp-a com-
mon instrument used for courtship,
found all over Asia-flutes blown
vertically or horizontally, and per-
cussions such as scrapers, buzzers,
rattles, and xylophones. Singing
mannerisms among these countries
show varied styles. The Malayan
singing, for instance, is natural
compared to the guttural tone pro-
duction of the Japanese or the nasal
pinched singing of the Chinese,
while the Indians have a character-
istic melismatic or highly ornamen-
tal way of singing, over that of the
Malays. Scales vary from five to
seven tones, the pentatonic being
more prevalent. The rebab violin of
Persian origin is an important in-
strument used in accompanying
melismatic singing among the In-
dians, Indonesians, and Malays.
Musical background for the
Hindu-based Mahabharata and
Ramayana epic dramas as practiced
in Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia,
and Burma, is furnished by gong
and drum ensembles. The gam-
elan plays a vital part in the
shadow puppet plays performed
after dusk in Java, Bali, Borneo,
and Malaysia, such plays lasting
through the night till dawn. The
gong orchestras are arranged in
circles in Thailand and Burma,
whereas in the Balinese gamelan,
the gongs appear in several rows.
MUSIC EDUCATORS JOURNAL
Another popular instrument of
much use in Java is the angklung
bamboo shake which produces a
rich, clucking, and mellow tone.
As many as a dozen to three hun-
dred performers make up the ang-
klung orchestra.
Asian music is still practiced in
the Philippines, in the isolated
areas of northern Luzon, Zambales,
Mindoro, Palawan, and Mindanao
and Sulu, where there are varieties
of musical instruments also found
in kindred systems in Malaysia, In-
donesia, Burma, and Thailand. Mel-
ismatic chants of Arabic influence
are used in southern rituals; long
epics about native folklore are sung
during weeklong festivals.
Displaying a rich Indo-Malayan
heritage, the Muslim Filipinos
offer probably the most colorful
segment of our cultural heritage
today. They have an assortment of
gongs of different shapes and
sizes with characteristic protruding
knobs. The principal melody-gong
is the kulintang, a set of eight grad-
uated gongs played horizontally
like a xylophone. The four-set large
gandingan gongs with narrow rims,
the big kettle-shaped agong, the
smaller babandil gong, and an up-
right drum with goat skin cover
called dabakan complete the Mus-
lim gamelan ensemble, not far re-
moved from the well-developed
Javanese or Balinese gamelan.
Other instruments are the bamboo
xylophone gabbang, similar to the
Indonesian gambang, and the insi
or suling bamboo flute, with a coun-
terpart in Java. Now becoming rare
is the long boat-shaped kudyapi
guitar with two strings. Endless
improvisations and rhythmic synco-
pations are underlying characteris-
tics of Muslim gamelan music.
The gangsa gongs of northern
Luzon are smaller and flat-surfaced,
of Chinese origin. These are played
with the palms of the hand or with
sticks or rubber-covered beaters.
Of course there is the now well-
known nose flute called balinging,
of Gemma Cruz fame, blown with
one nostril, and strictly inadvisable
for running noses. Regarded as
sacred is the long-bodied solibaw
drum, usually played in pairs.
Common to both regions of the
Philippines is the jew's or jaw's
harp, so called, probably because it
is the cheapest harp one can hope to
possess! It is known as subing in
MAY, NINETEEN SIXTY-SEVEN
the north, kubing in the south, and audience could get used to concerts
comes by other names elsewhere. featuring the juxtaposition of Occi-
This small bamboo instrument is dental and Oriental repertory as
widely used in courtship, by which performed on varied instruments
lovers communicate with each peculiar to the international musi-
other. cal systems of both worlds. A string
History tells us that our fore- quartet beside an Asian chamber
bears carried trade with the Asiatic group consisting of the p'i-p'a bal-
peoples long before the Spaniards loon guitar, the erh-hsien violin
came. The migrating Indonesians, and the hsiao flute playing classical
Malays, and Hindu Malayans came Chinese music, or a Javanese game-
in several waves to settle in the lan orchestra or a Japanese gagaku
archipelago and brought with them ensemble pitted with a pastoral
their own cultures. Chinese traders symphony are possibilities for an
also left their imprints on our cul- enriched and interesting cultural
ture. After 400 years of Christianity fare. The sooner the re-orientation
implanted by the Spaniards, and of our musical outlook to study and
after a half century of democratic get exposed to the musics of Asian
education taught by the Americans, countries, the greater the benefits
the exposure to Western civilization and the more realistic and challeng-
all but annihilated our native cul- ing shall the results be in engend-
tural roots, even as the Filipinos ering the appreciation of mutual
adapted European and American cultures on the newer, broader
influences into their way of life. bases of humanity.
With its rich, cultural, mosaic In our search for national iden-
background of Eastern-Western tity, while we keep on with our
complexion, indeed the Philippines, intense diggings into the past to
which is so well-situated in the discover the ties that bind us to
Pacific and so dually civilized, pre- our forefathers, let us strengthen,
sents an ideally centrical place for through music, the links of heritage
an ambivalent training in East- with which we share common des-
West musical cultures. Our local tiny with the rest of Asia. A
MENC Meeting
at the
National Education
Association
Convention
Program
"The Sounds and Sights of Music for
Children in Elementary Classrooms"
Demonstration Lecture.
In charge: Georgia E. Garlid,
Minneapolis, Consultant in Music Education,
Minneapolis Public Schools. Local
Minnesota arrangements have been made by C.
Wesley Andersen, Consultant in
July 4, 1967 Music Education, Minneapolis
Public Schools.
This program is sponsored by the
2:00p.m. Minnesota Music Educators Association,
MENC Federated State Unit. Presiding
LeamingtonHotel will be Willard H. Budnick, President,
Minnesota Music Educators Association,
Twin CitiesRoom Wayzata, Minnesota.
73