Rainbow connection
Lea Salonga and Ryan Cayabyab’s ‘Bahaghari’ is more than just an album. It features the linguistic and cultural diversity of the Philippines, aiming to preserve the importance and beauty of these.
Lea Salonga and Ryan Cayabyab’s ‘Bahaghari’ is more than just an album. It features the linguistic and cultural diversity of the Philippines, aiming to preserve the importance and beauty of these.
The Philippines is known for its rich culture and traditions. Did you know this country consisting of over 7,000 islands also hosts eight major dialects, compounded with 170 other local languages? Wow.
And while Filipino and English are most commonly used, dialects like llocano, Kapampangan, Bicolano, Bisaya, and Ilonggo are still widely spoken.
Aiming to introduce this matter to the consciousness of young Filipinos is “Bahaghari.” It is Lea Salonga’s latest endeavor that focuses on presenting the colorful music of the Philippines to the world. “Bahaghari” has 15 traditional folk songs, representing various regions and dialects.
“This album is a cultural celebration,” she said at a recent press conference. “I can proudly say it is a labor of passion and love.”
The project, released by Curve Entertainment, was initiated when Lea was introduced to GLP Music founders Angela Jackson and Rex Niswander. The label produces music that introduces children to world languages and world cultures.
She then sought the help of National Artist for Music, Maestro Ryan Cayabyab, whose deep knowledge of Filipino music proved key to the album. Immediately, he compiled a list of songs she can record. He made the album more interesting by tapping a diverse lineup of arrangers for each song, which includes Lea’s brother, Gerard Salonga.
“The songs have to be varied in subject, in emotion, in tempo and in rhythm,” he explained. “The collection could not all be slow songs or only celebratory songs. We had to have a good representation not only of language but of a variety of subjects and emotions. This would hopefully make for a lovely aural spread.”
Lea admitted singing in different dialects was challenging.
Ryan, on his part, shared he even tapped an Ilocano friend to teach Lea how to pronounce certain words correctly.
“It was difficult, but it is such a wonderful experience,” she said. “Because the arrangements were all so different from one another, I needed to stylistically adapt my vocals to fit them while holding on to my own voice and how I sing,” reflected she. “The more playful stuff, like ‘Pobreng Alindahaw,’ was just so much fun to do in the studio, and some of the more dramatic music, like ‘Matud Nila,’ was straight from the heart. The melodies are just as informative as the lyrics, so I latched on to them.”
Lea said the album is perfect platform to introduce the languages of her country to a bigger world.
“When we talked about this project, they suggested that maybe we can just do the songs in Filipino,” she said. “But I told them, you can’t have an album representing the Philippines without it featuring our different dialects. We have a diverse culture. We want this album to be a musical adventure for everyone.”
“To be honest, many of these tongues feel very foreign and strange, and since there’s always a danger that these languages won’t be spoken by future generations, there was a need on our part to preserve them in some way,” Lea added.
“Bahaghari” is now available in Spotify, iTunes, Apple Music, Deezer and all digital platforms worldwide. Physical CDs with a special booklet containing cultural notes written by awardwinning writer and director Floy Quintos, and original lyrics with English translations will be available at local record stores by Dec. 17.
Thoughts and opinions
The release of “Bahaghari” appears to be timely, given the fact that the proposed exclusion of Panitikan and Filipino from the core subjects in tertiary education has been stirring debates of late.
Note that the Supreme Court lifted a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) and upheld as valid the Commission on Higher Education’s (CHED) Memorandum Order (MO) No. 20 Series of 2013.
Under the MO, CHED will reduce the General Education Curriculum (GEC) to minimum of 36 units and the Filipino and Panitikan (Philippine Literature) will be removed from the core subjects of colleges. The change was made in accordance to the K-12 Education program.
Known for being outspoken, Lea weighed in on the matter.
“I have a very active Facebook feed and it’s populated by folks that speak different dialects from different places. I think, the biggest protest against the exclusion of Filipino in college is coming from those who speak Tagalog, and the ones who don’t natively speak Tagalog are happy about it,” she explained.
“Filipinos is not just about Tagalog and it shouldn’t be centered on Tagalog. For someone like me that speaks Tagalog as well as English… and as heartbroken as I am that they are not gonna offer it anymore… I understand the joy coming from someone who doesn’t speak it natively. But I hope they will still offer it, if not in an official capacity but as an elective because Filipino is still beautiful to learn.”
Ryan, on his part, expressed dismay over some schools supposedly declining to teach the popular Tagalog folk song “Bahay Kubo” to their students.
As to notions that the song seemingly “instills in the minds of young boys and girls that you could only live in happiness and peace in a simple house like Bahay Kubo,” Lea has this to say.
“It never occurred to me to dream small as a result of that song,” she noted.
Ryan, on his part, thinks “Bahay Kubo” is a song about “selfsufficiency.”
“Whenever I go to provinces to teach songwriting, I always ask my students about the meaning of this song. At first, one could say it’s just a list of vegetables. But a lot of people believe it’s about industriousness. It’s like, ‘Magtanim ka at mabubuhay ka.’”