Musical Renderings of the Philippine Nation (review)

Professor Castro has written an insightful book about how the post-World War II Philippine nation-state has helped to shape the contours of creative expression in the arts, not only for its residents in meaningful ways, but also for those listening and performing throughout the Filipino diaspora.

Castro presents an example of how nation, state, and cultural forms become braided in curious and sometimes frustrating ways. Filipino rebels had waged an anti-colonial war against the Spanish that concluded with their declaration of independence on June 12, 1898. The public reading of that document wouldn't have been complete without music and it comes as no surprise that the "Marcha Nacional Filipina" made its debut on the same day. The Philippine government sent copies of both the music and the declaration to the US admiral whose flotilla had been anchored in Manila Bay. His absence was no accident. Neither Spain nor the United States recognized the new Asian republic, and the anthem did not reach its intended audience.

Castro probably could have written a book that focused solely on the twists and turns of Filipino anthems of all types—for example, songs for a newly founded polity, or anti-war songs taught to students and activists. But Castro's book tracks larger developments that involve many of the Philippine state's most important cultural institutions. This emphasis on the role of the state is important for several reasons, not the least of which involves how we all can benefit from rigorous analyses of patronage, provenance, and the crafting of national identities.

Musical Renderings of the Philippine Nation is not strictly about the formal aspects of music-making, although Castro's training in that field is evident and put to effective use. Texts such as The Garland Handbook of Southeast Asian Music (Miller and Williams, eds., 2008) can serve that purpose, as well as texts like Jose Maceda's Gongs and Bamboo (1998) or Ramón P. Santos's Tunugan: Four Essays on Filipino Music (2005). See also older texts such as Raymundo Bañas y Castillo's Pilipino Music and Theater ([ca. 1970] 1975) and William R. Pfeiffer's Filipino Music: Indigenious [sic], Folk, Modern (1976). An updating of this literature is definitely needed. Castro presents cultural histories of what can be understood loosely as "command performances"; in other words, aspects of state-crafted or state-sponsored performativity that begs careful analyses of intention, execution, and dissemination. Perhaps a good companion volume to take up with Castro's study would be D. R. M. Irving's Colonial Counterpoint: Music in Early Modern Manila (2010), another text that delves into overlapping arguments regarding the musicality of empire, albeit focused on the Spanish colonial period. Castro's text takes on a contemporary "cultural history of the Philippines that outlines the role of music and performance in defining nation and, in its interrelated converse, the influence of national-level politics on shaping music expression" (6).

At the center of her work are "expressions of cultural nationalism" [that] "seek to stabilize the vagaries of everything that 'culture' is said to stand for into tangible facets of national identity" (13). The major process she tracks throughout Musical Renderings is that of nationalization, how the nation-state acts in different ways and registers, as a filter, editor, patron, and promoter. Castro goes beyond merely arguing that the state is the sole tastemaker for the nation whose interests are dutifully translated in specific repertoires.

Musical Renderings is arranged in the following manner: a detailed introductory chapter wherein the author identifies the scope of the study, with special attention to the relationship between the concepts of "the nation" and cultural nationalism; a chapter that introduces the reader to prominent composers who lived and worked during the US colonial period (1899-1946); and three chapters that attend to the post-World War II landscape dotted by major cultural institutions (the Bayanihan Philippine Dance Company...