Tune in today’s CULTURE CAROUSEL with Irene Obligacion for an interview with Mark Carpio, the choirmaster of the Philippine Madrigal Singers (also known as MADZ). He talks about the 2021 Sing Philippines Youth Choir virtual music camp and performance. We’ll also hear recordings of batch 1 to 3 of the Sing Philippines Youth Choir with choirmaster Mark Carpio. Songs from the Philippine Madrigal Singers’ recently released digital album F.L.O.W. (Faith Lives on Wondrously) are also in the program.  
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All music on the program features with permission from the artists.

CULTURE CAROUSEL 21 0710 |  Sing Philippines Youth Choir Virtual Music Camp

In this MAESTRO FILIPINO, DZFE's Tiffany is in conversation with the exuberant composer Nilo Alcala, whose work — particularly choral music — has been on the ascent among Filipino ensembles, and has also been performed abroad. Part 1 of our two-week feature on his choral music ventures into the texturally and thematically diverse world of his album /Onomatopoeia/ with the Philippine Madrigal Singers. 
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All music on the program features with permission from the composer.

MAESTRO FILIPINO 21 1204 | The Choral Music of Nilo Alcala, Pt01

The elegiac music of Nilo Alcala and a recent string transcription by the dynamic young composer are heard and discussed on this week’s MAESTRO FILIPINO. DZFE's Tiffany presents. 
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All music on the program features with permission from the composer.

MAESTRO FILIPINO 22 0409 |  Composer Nilo Alcala

Gloria - Nilo Alcala

Performed by the Syracuse University Brass Ensemble.
John Williams/arr. Peter Graham
July 2013

Olympic Fanfare

Crossing the Bar

Composer: Nilo Alcala
Poem: Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Conductor: Benjamin Arendsen
Soloists: Artemisz Polonyi, Maya Webne-Behrman

Recorded live June 9, 2018 at Church of St. Luke in the Fields, NY
Audio recording: Noriko Okabe

cover art by Byron Gibbs

http://c4ensemble.org

Water Music

Crossing the Bar

CROSSING THE BAR 
music: Nilo Alcala
poem: Alfred, Lord Tennyson
C4: The Choral Composer/Conductor Collective
“Water Music” concert
conducted by: Benjamin Arendsen
soloists: Soloists: Artemisz Polonyi and Maya Webne-Behrman
recording: Noriko Okabe
Recorded live June 9, 2018
Church of St. Luke in the Fields, Manhattan, NY
http://www.c4ensemble.org

Crossing The Bar (N. Alcala) C4: The Composer/Conductor Collective

The Magi's Journey - Nilo Alcala
SBSO |  Dean Anderson, guest conductor

Composer’s Notes:

When I wrote this piece, I was imagining what it must have been like for these Magi to be summoned by this brightly shining heavenly light. These practitioners of ancient knowledge, especially pertaining to the study of the stars, are believed to be from different parts of the world - Persia, Arabia, India, and even as far as China. I imagined that the appearance of this bright cosmic, heavenly light must have been baffling but at the same time compelling that they left everything to follow where the light leads. 

Present day astronomers trace this bright light to an extremely rare astronomical alignment of several planets and other heavenly bodies some 2000 years ago, resulting in a single and and noticeably and unusually bright heavenly light for dwellers on earth!

As I conceptualized  the piece, I tried to trace the journey of these men  beginning from the mystical alignment of these heavenly bodies and it’s appearance to these men — and I tried to “follow” them, through a sonic, musical journey up until they reached where the child Jesus was with his parent Mary and Joseph. I imagined the travel was arduous, long, difficult, but also extremely exciting and full of adventure! And to represent this, I wanted the music to have this single motif the you would somehow recognize throughout the work, - but the music environment , the texture it is surrounded with changes constantly, as if traveling from one place to another — and finally reaching a culminating point, thats very cathartic, and possibly emotional - as they give homage to this child that they consider as extremely special.

The Magi's Journey - Nilo Alcala

Three Kalinga Chants by Nilo Alcala
Recorded live in performance on March 6, 2019 by Vox, our mixed voices small ensemble.

Based on the music traditions of the Kalinga tribe of the Northern Philippines. Incorporates lullabies and work songs sung by Kalinga women. Sung in Kalingan dialects.

The composer writes: 

“The chants in this choral setting are based on the music traditions of the Kalinga tribe who is part of a larger ethnic group called Igorots (Cordillera, Northern Philippines). Wiyawi is the Kalinga word for lullaby. The sound of the word wiyawi, repeated in the lullaby, is said to effectively lull a baby to sleep especially on a hot afternoon. Salidumay is a word with no direct translation but is widely used in countless Cordilleran songs that express thanksgiving, worship, and courtship among other positive themes. The gibberish phrase 'dang dang ay si dong ilay, insinali-salidumay' is commonly heard in songs during festive occasions and celebration. Mambayu is a popular rice-pounding song among Kalinga women. The syllables 'hiya' and 'hng' imitate the sound women make as they pound rice using wooden mortar and pestle. The rhythmic character and tempo of the chant accompanies the task perfectly, making the chore enjoyable.

“While Salidumay and half of Mambayu in this setting are fully composed, they draw from the essence of the indigenous chants. All three chants, associated with Kalinga women, are meant as tribute to the late Philippine National Artist Andrea O. Veneracion (founder of the Philippine Madrigal Singers) who was responsible for the growth of Philippine choral arts and its literature, especially of compositions based on indigenous material.”

Pacific Voices

Kalinga Chants

Christmas Eve - Gabriel Jackson (b. 1962, England)
Soloist: Jenny Spence

Our newest CD features holiday choral music from England, France, and Germany, plus readings from soldiers who lived through the Christmas Truce of WWI. Silent Night was recorded live in 2018 at Bastyr University Chapel, and marked 100 years since the end of the “war to end all wars.” Treat yourself to this musical celebration of an inspiring peace during wartime. More information or orders at seattlepromusica.org/cd-store.

British composer Gabriel Jackson was born in Bermuda in 1962, and is best known for his choral music, especially for his choice and setting of texts. While he cites Michael Tippett and Igor Stravinsky as influences, he is also drawn to soul and R&B. In Christmas Eve, he uses an interesting vocal effect to imitate the warbling of birds, as expressed in the text.

Christmas Eve
Poem by Christina Rossetti

Christmas has a darkness
Brighter than the blazing noon,
Christmas has a chillness
Warmer than the heat of June,
Christmas has a beauty
Lovelier than the world can show:
For Christmas bringeth Jesus,
Brought for us so low.
Earth, strike up your music,
Birds that sing and bells that ring;
Heaven has answering music
For all angels soon to sing:
Earth, put on your whitest
Bridal robe of spotless snow:
For Christmas bringeth Jesus,
Brought for us so low.

Christmas Eve

Inversion Ensemble
Aether: Fire - passion/psyche
March 1, 2020
Redeemer Presbyterian Church, Austin, Texas
Trevor F. Shaw, Artistic Director / Clinton Bray, Guest Conductor
Austin Haller, piano

Ceremonial Burning by Nico Alcala
Text: Nilo Alcala
I have fears to burn
Thoughts too ill to let pervade
I know a flame that quickens inside must purge these wraiths.
I fan this flame and it craves for more kindling.
This torch of courage burns them, nothing escapes.
And when the embers have died
There’s new light
From the ash.
Behold this blaze inside my heart.

In 2009 I first read the poem “An Autumn Burning” by Wendell Berry. The poet speaks of having pages of “words to burn: leaves of…wasted words”. The poem ends on a hopeful note, as it describes new “life beyond words”
springing forth from those burnt pages. I was taken with the imagery of the text and meditated on this poem for several days without thinking about how the music should sound. Eventually, I took the text, crossed out a huge chunk of words from it, and strung together a new poem, as if my own ritualistic burning of words. The resultant poem surprisingly retained the essence of the original which was for me a burning of the old, and a rebirth of something new. Not long after, I started to hear the music in my head, and in my imagination it was a mystical, ritualistic burning of these symbolic words.Years after, I tried to revisit the work and felt another ritualistic burning of words was needed. I totally discarded the excerpts from Berry’s poem and penned a new one. This purging now involved the burning or
letting go of fears. This time the speaker emerges and in possession of a newfound courage.

Ceremonial Burning by Nilo Alcala

Nilo Alcala’s compositions and arrangements have been performed in Asia, Europe, Africa, and the Americas. His choral suite Manga Pakalagian has been hailed as “extraordinary...” (Eric Whitacre), “very fine...” (Morten Lauridsen), “...powerful... spectacularly engaging” (Lauri’s List), “...exuberant and at times hypnotic...”(Cultural Cocktail Hour), and “...scaled peaks of genius” (Asian Journal).

Alcala made history for being the first composer from the Philippines to receive the prestigious Aaron Copland House Residency Award (2017), as well as the first Filipino to be commissioned by the Grammy-nominated Los Angeles Master Chorale and premiered at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. 

Alcala’s awards also include the POLYPHONOS Young Composer Award from The Esoterics (Seattle, WA), the 2nd Prize Asian Composers League Young Composer Award (Israel), and Ani ng Dangal (Harvest of Honor) from the Office of the President of the Philippines. His commissions include the National Music Competition for Young Artists (NAMCYA); Andrea O. Veneracion International Choral Festival; Korean Ministry of Culture; Asia-Europe Foundation; and premieres by the Metro Manila Concert Orchestra. 

Alcala was composer-in-residence of the Philippine Madrigal Singers (UNESCO Artist for Peace) which premiered his works in international competitions such as the Florilege Vocal de Tours (France); the European Grand Prix for Choral Singing (Italy); and events including the American Choral Directors Association National Conference (Dallas, TX); the 9th World Symposium on Choral Music (Argentina); and America Cantat 7 (Colombia). 

An Asian Cultural Council grantee, Alcala is also a Billy Joel Fellow at Syracuse University where he earned an MMus in Composition and received the Irene L. Crocker Music Award. He holds a BM in Composition at the University of the Philippines, graduating Magna cum laude. 

A versatile composer, Alcala also scores for the screen. His music for the film Homecoming (Gil Portes, Director) earned nominations for Best Musical Score at the Metro Manila Film Festival and Star Awards for Movies. He is also part of the composers team for Train Station, a ground-breaking international film by CollabFeature with 40 directors from 25 of countries. Alcala also recently scored White Horse Pictures’ short documentary Candlestick Park Fans (The Last Ticketed Concert of The Beatles) to promote Ron Howard’s “The Beatles: Eighth Days A Week”. He is currently music director of Club Six Studios, a Silicon Valley-based mobile video game company.

The Magi's Journey - Nilo Alcala

nilo alcala | composer |