UP Center for Ethnomusicology

ANNOUNCEMENT

We will be closed on May 27 (Wednesday), pursuant to Presidential Proclamation 1264, declaring the date a regular holiday throughout the country in observance of Eid’l Adha

Please plan your research accordingly

For research concerns, you may reach us through the following email contacts:
General Email
[email protected]
Library and Archive
[email protected]
Musika Jornal
[email protected]

The UP Center for Ethnomusicology successfully brought together a lively, virtual audience from all over last Wednesday, May 20, 2026 for Songs from the Ruins: Music, Memory, and the Reconstruction of a Nation in the Philippines' Historical Data Papers, 1951-1953, a lecture by Dr. LaVerne De la Pena.

ANNOUNCEMENT

We will be closed on May 22 (Friday), afternoon, for Pagdiriwang: Buhay na Sining ni Ramon P. Santos Second Colloquium.

View the event page at
https://bit.ly/PagdiriwangColloquium2
for more details

For research concerns, you may reach us through the following email contacts:

General Email
[email protected]

Library and Archive
[email protected]

Musika Jornal
[email protected]

Join us for 2nd serving of our colloquium series titled Pagdiriwang: Buhay na Sining ni Ramon P. Santos where we listen to arts managers share how it is to have worked with Dr. Santos. We are happy to have Dayang Magdalena Nirvana Yraola, PhD, Chairperson of the Department of Theory, UP College of Fine Arts,; Mary Katherine "Katz" Trangco, Chairperson of the Department of Composition and Theory, UP Kolehiyo ng Musika (UP College of Music); and Riya Brigino Lopez, Managing Director of the Strings of Unity: International Rondalla Festival/Plucked String Music Festival.

Register by scanning the QR code in the poster or visit
https://bit.ly/BuhayNaSining2
https://bit.ly/BuhayNaSining2
https://bit.ly/BuhayNaSining2

See you on May 22, 2026 from 3 to 5 PM at the UP College of Music Mini Hall.

Admission is free!

Join us on May 20, 2026 (Wed) at 10 AM with Dr. LaVerne David C. de la Peña for an online lecture titled Songs from the Ruins: Music, Memory, and the Reconstruction of a Nation in the Philippines' Historical Data Papers, 1951-9153.

This public lecture explores a remarkable archive of folksongs preserved in the National Library of the Philippines in the Historical Data Papers. Dr. de la Peña draws on this collection of community-gathered songs, lyrics, and melodies and investigates what makes these songs distinctively Filipino. These manuscripts compiled by public school teachers across the archipelago in the early 1950s under President Elpidio Quirino’s Executive Order 486 is itself a response to the devastating loss of the National Library during the Battle of Manila in 1945. Gestural analysis uncover the recurring musical mannerisms - such as descending scalar contractions, neighbor-tone oscillations, and the combination of small melodic cells - that appear across regional traditions from Luzon to Mindanao. The presenter also reflects on the methodological challenges of working with such a large and heterogenous corpus, discussing the experimental use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and large language models as analytical aids for identifying patterns in both the lyrical and musical data, while situating the research within the broader history of the Philippines; postwar cultural reconstruction and the underappreciated role of teachers as grassroots ethnomusicologists.

Dr. de la Peña is the former Director of the UPCE and former Dean of the UP Kolehiyo ng Musika (UP College of Music). He also serves as Vice Chairperson of the UNESCO-Philippine National Commission, contributing to the preservation of cultural heritage through archival and documentation initiatives. Following his retirement, Dr. de la Peña continues to serve as professorial lecturer at the University of the Philippines where he teaches courses in ethnomusicology and musicology. He is the first recipient of the Trimillos Visiting Distinguished Professorship in Ethnomusicology for the Spring 2026 semester at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, a post honoring the legacy of Dr. Ricardo Trimillos. Dr. de la Peña holds a PhD in Ethnomusicology from UH at Manoa and both bacherlor and master degrees from the University of the Philippines.

To join, register through https://bit.ly/SongsFromTheRuins or scan the QR code below!

Admission to the lecture is free!

It’s been 22 years today since National Artist for Music and founder of the UP Center for Ethnomusicology, Dr. Jose Maceda, passed on. The UPCE remembers him and his contributions in the preservation of Philippine creative expressions and practices.

SERVICE ADVISORY

The UPCE Collections Portal will be down for maintenance and data migration until further notice.

Other UPCE web services remain operational

For research concerns, you may reach us through the following email contacts:
General Email
[email protected]
Library and Archive
[email protected]
Musika Jornal
[email protected]

"Using perspectives from sound studies, affect theory, and Indigenous studies, this paper examines how indigenous traditional practices develop through tensions and disagreements over representation and creative innovation among members of indigenous communities, drawing on the history and practices of left-wing activism in the Cordillera Region of the northern Philippines. In particular, it examines how an elderly member of an indigenous Igorot community, who is also an activist and a member of a political organization, responded to members of his community who criticized his use of traditional practices, costuming, music, and dance in street protests. His response, which involves a solo performance that symbolically reaffirms his political convictions, demonstrates how indigenous practice can evolve through an individual’s agency."

Soon after graduating with a Bachelor of Music in Musicology at the UP College of Music, Lisa joined the UP Center for Ethnomusicology team as a junior researcher during the 2013 Field Exchange project in Sagada, Mountain Province with a team from the National Taiwan Normal University.

Check out the article of UPCE Director Dr. Lisa Decenteceo in the Malaysian Journal of Music.

RESEARCH | Street protests led by Igorot left-wing activists feature gangsa (flat gongs), political speeches, and chants mixed with traditional celebratory dances. For many, these protests express important Igorot values such as collectivism, sovereignty, and territorial defense. However, not all Igorots agree with this approach. In 2017, some performances by leftist Igorots sparked debates within the community concerning linking Igorot identity with political activism. This was especially difficult for one elder who had, since his youth, seen Igorots defend their ancestral lands from corporate intrusion using traditional practices.

Using perspectives from sound studies, affect theory, and Indigenous studies, this paper examines how indigenous traditional practices develop through tensions and disagreements over representation and creative innovation among members of indigenous communities, drawing on the history and practices of left-wing activism in the Cordillera Region of the northern Philippines. In particular, it examines how an elderly member of an indigenous Igorot community, who is also an activist and a member of a political organization, responded to members of his community who criticized his use of traditional practices, costuming, music, and dance in street protests. His response, which involves a solo performance that symbolically reaffirms his political convictions, demonstrates how indigenous practice can evolve through an individual’s agency.

Author: Lisa Decenteceo (Department of Musicology, College of Music, University of the Philippines Diliman)

Published in the Malaysian Journal of Music

Read more: https://ovpaa.up.edu.ph/research/tensions-and-disagreements-within-indigenous-communities-over-representation-and-creative-innovation-influence-indigenous-traditional-practices/

ANNOUNCEMENT

The UPCE Library will be closed on 14-16 January 2026 for cleaning and maintenance of the collection.

Services will resume on January 19, 2026.

Thank you for your understanding.

For research concerns, you may reach us through the following email contacts:
General Email
[email protected]
Library and Archive
[email protected]
Musika Jornal
[email protected]