TECHNOLOGICAL INSTITUTE OF THE

PHILIPPINES

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
OF PHILIPPINE ARTS AND
CULTURE

SUBMITTED TO:
Prof. Danilo G. Vidal, PhD.

SUBMITTED BY:
Joey S. Nazareno
November 24, 2015

CULTURE AND ARTS

The arts of the Philippines reflect a society with diverse cultural influences
and traditions. The Malayan peoples had early contact with traders who
introduced Chinese and Indian influences. Islamic traditions were first
introduced to the Malays of the southern Philippine Islands in the 14th
century. Most modern aspects of Philippine cultural life evolved under the
foreign rule of Spain and, later, the United States. In the 16th century the
Spanish imposed a foreign culture based in Catholicism. While the lowland
peoples were acculturated through religious conversion, the Muslims and
some upland tribal groups maintained cultural independence. Among those
who were assimilated arose an educated elite who began to establish a
modern Filipino literary tradition. During the first half of the 20th century,
American influence made the Philippines one of the most Westernized
nations in Southeast Asia. The cultural movements of Europe and the United
States profoundly influenced Filipino artists, even after independence in
1946. While drawing on Western forms, however, the works of Filipino
painters, writers, and musicians are imbued with distinctly Philippine
themes. By expressing the cultural richness of the archipelago in all its
diversity, Filipino artists have helped to shape a sense of national identity.
Many Malay cultural traditions have survived despite centuries of foreign
rule. Muslims and upland tribal groups maintain distinct traditions in music,
dance,

and

sculpture.

In

addition,

many

Filipino

artists

incorporate

indigenous folk motifs into modern forms.

LITERATURE
The indigenous literature of the Philippines developed primarily in the oral
tradition in poetic and narrative forms. Epic poems, legends, proverbs,
songs, and riddles were passed from generation to generation through oral
recitation and incantation in the various languages and dialects of the
islands. The epics were the most complex of these early literary forms. Most

of the major tribal groups developed an original epic that was chanted in
episodic segments during a variety of social rituals. One common theme of
the epics is a hero who is aided by benevolent spirits. The epics that have
survived are important records of the ancient customs of tribal society
before the arrival of Islam and Christianity. After the arrival of the Spanish,
Catholic missionaries employed indigenous peoples as translators, creating a
bilingual class known as ladinos. These individuals, notably poet-translator
Gaspar Aquino de Belen, produced devotional poetry written in the Roman
script, primarily in the Tagalog language. Later, the Spanish ballad of
chivalry, the corridor, provided a model for secular (nonreligious) literature.
Verse narratives, or komedya, were performed in the regional languages for
the illiterate majority. They were also written in the Roman alphabet in the
principal languages and widely circulated. Francisco Balagtas Baltazar,
generally considered the first major Filipino poet, wrote poems in Tagalog.
His best-known work, Florante at Laura (Florante and Laura), probably
written between 1835 and 1842, is an epic poem that subversively criticizes
Spanish tyranny. This poem inspired a generation of young Filipino writers of
the new educated class, or ilustrados, who used their literary talents to call
for political and social reform under the colonial system. These writers, most
notably Jose Rizal, produced a small but high-quality body of Philippine
literature in Spanish. Rizal's novel Noli Me Tangere (Touch Me Not),
published in 1886, and its sequel, El Filibusterismo (The Subversive),
published in 1891, helped to shape a new, nationalist identity during the last
years of the 19th century.The transfer of the Philippines to United States
control in 1898 resulted in a dramatic increase in literacy and, consequently,
literary production. A variety of new literary journals began to be published.
English-language Filipino novels, short stories, and poems were first
published in book form in the 1920s. Many Filipino authors have had
distinguished writing careers. Their works typically explore the Filipino
cultural identity in the context of social and political issues. Filipino authors
often write in more than one literary form and in more than one language.
Major English-language works include Winds of April (1940) and The
Bamboo Dancers (1959) by N. V. M. Gonzalez; Many Voices (1939) and Have
Come, Am Here (1942) by Jose Garcia Villa; You Lovely People (1955) and

Scent of Apples and Other Stories (1980) by Bienvenido N. Santos; The

Laughter of My Father (1944) and America Is in the Heart (1946) by Carlos
Bulosan; Bitter Country and Other Stories (1970) by Rosca Ninotchka; The
Woman Who Had Two Navels (1972) and A Question of Heroes (1977) by
Nick Joaquin; The God Stealer and Other Stories (1968) and Tree (1978) by
Francisco Sionil Jose A Question of Identity (1973) by Carmen Guerrero
Nakpil;

and

His

Native

Coast

(1979)

by

Edith

L.

Tiempo.

ART AND CULTURE

During most of the Spanish colonial period, the art and architecture of the
Philippines were strongly influenced by the patronage of the Roman Catholic
Church.

Most

art

emphasized

religious

iconography.

The

church

commissioned local craftspeople, often skilled Chinese artisans, to construct

provincial stone churches with bas-relief sculpture and to carve santos, or
statues of saints, and other devotional icons in wood and ivory. The edifices,
statues, and paintings of the period show Chinese and Malay modifications of
Spanish baroque, an elaborate and detailed style.Philippine painters began
to explore secular themes in the mid-1800s. The painters Juan Luna and
Felix Resurreccien Hidalgo produced works in the romantic and early
impressionist styles, achieving recognition in Europe. Painters of the early
1900s-notably Fernando Amorsolo, Fabien de la Rosa, and Jorge Pinedaproduced romanticized landscapes, genre scenes, and portraits. In the late
1920s Victorio Edades, an American-trained painter, infused modernism into
the Philippine art world. Many Philippine painters who were influenced by
American and European modernism also experimented with it to reflect
Philippine realities, such as Carlos Francisco, Arturo Luz, Anita MagsaysayHo, Vicente Manansala, and Hernando Ocampo. Lee Aguinaldo and Fernando
Zobel de Ayala achieved international recognition in the 1960s and
1970s.Sculpture took on secular themes in the early 1900s. The major
Filipino sculptor of the American colonial period was Guillermo Tolentino, who

trained in classical sculpture in Rome. In the 1950s Napoleon Abueva

pioneered modernism in Philippine sculpture. Many talented sculptors were
active in the following decades, notably Eduardo Castrillo, whose large
welded-metal sculptures are displayed in Manila's Memorial Park; Solomon
Saprid, noted for his expressionist series of mythical figures titled Tikbalang;
and

Abdulmari

Imao,

who

produced

contemporary

interpretations

of

traditional Muslim designs. More recently, sculptors have tended to utilize

ethnic artifacts and natural materials to produce assemblages with social
themes.In remote areas, tribal groups have preserved traditional art forms
such as woodcarving, textile weaving, bamboo and rattan weaving, and
metalsmithing. Artistic body adornments such as bead jewelry, body tattoos,
and headdresses are important indications of social status. In the northern
Philippines, the Ifugao people are known for their sculptural wood carvings
of bulul figures, which represent guardian deities. The figures are ritually
placed in rice granaries to bring a plentiful harvest. The terraced rice fields of
the Ifugao are considered a major architectural feat. The Ifugao built them
over a period of centuries by carving terraces into the mountainsides and
reinforcing each level with stone walls.The Muslim peoples in the south
practice okir, a design tradition that shows evidence of Indian and Islamic
influences. Rendered in hardwood and brass, the okir designs are mostly
figurative, depicting animals, plants, and mythical figures. The style is highly
decorative, with long curvilinear lines and secondary arabesques. The
designs are based in the ancient epics and serve as significant cultural
symbols. An important motif of the Maranaos is the sarimanok design,
depicting a bird holding a fish in its beak or talons. Many okir designs are
used as decorative elements in architecture. The Muslim peoples of the
Philippines are noted for their metalworking skills, producing weaponry such
as

swords

and

decorative

containers

in

brass

and

silver.

MUSIC AND DANCE

Filipino classical musical compositions in many ways epitomize the blending

of multicultural influences. The compositions often embody indigenous

themes and rhythms in Western forms, such as symphonies, sonatas, and

concertos. Several composers and conductors in classical music have
achieved international recognition, including Antonio Molina, Felipe Padilla de
Leon, and Eliseo Pajaro. Jose Maceda is considered the first Filipino avantgarde composer, liberating Philippine classical music from the traditional
constructs of Western forms. Traditional types of music are played on wind,
string, and percussion instruments made from local materials. These include
the kulibit, a zither with bamboo strings and tubular bamboo resonators;
wooden lutes and guitars; and the git-git, a wooden three-string bowed
instrument. The Muslim peoples use these and other instruments to play
complex musical compositions that have been passed by memory from
generation to generation. Most Filipino communities remember the tunes
and lyrics of traditional folk songs. Tagalogs, for example, have more than a
dozen folk songs for various occasions, including the uyayi or hele, a lullaby;
the talindaw, a seafaring song; the kumintang, a warrior song; the
kundiman, a love song; and the panambitan, a courtship song. Some songs
are accompanied by a specific folk dance.Formal training in classical dance
has been available in the Philippines since the 1930s. The first noted Filipino
choreographers in classical ballet were Leonor Orosa-Goquingco, Remedios
Totoy de Oteyza, and Rosalia Merino-Santos. Orosa-Goquingco is most noted
for her staging of Filipinescas: Philippine Life, Legend and Lore in Dance,
which toured the world in the 1960s. Merino-Santos later turned to modern
dance and founded the Far Eastern University Modern Experimental Dance
Troupe. Other dance companies include Ballet Philippines (formerly the
Modern

Dance

Company),

Hariraya

Ballet

Company,

Dance

Theater

Philippines, and Pamana Ballet (formerly the Anita Kane Ballet Company).
Several Filipino ballet dancers have achieved international fame, including
Maribel Aboitiz, Eddie Elejar, Lisa Macuja, and Anna Villadolid.Choreographer
Francisca Reyes-Aquino is recognized for pioneering research in the
documentation of Philippine folk dances and founding the Philippine Folk
Dance Society. She codified the folk dances into steps, directions, and
musical arrangements that are taught in physical education classes in most
schools.

REFLECTION:
Philippine art and culture is one of the important parts of our nation. Art and
culture in the Philippines is a means of expressing the livelihood and
characteristics of a Filipino. It is also a means of expressing the cultural richness of
the archipelago in all its diversity that helped to shape a sense of national identity.
Through the years Philippine arts and culture has evolved, we can see now
that our country is very rich when it comes in arts and culture. The history of the
arts and culture of the Philippines showed that Filipinos are very creative and
imaginative to the things around us. For the arts we have theater play, ballet
performer, musical productions. Theres also the exhibits of ggod painters and
sculptures, photographers, many of them are out there honing their craft. There are
lots of Filipino contributors that shape the arts and culture of the Philippines like
Antonio Luna with his master piece the Spolarium, Jose Rizal with his novels like
Noli Me Tangere.I can say that we are very rich in terms of arts and culture. Take
note that Philippines had the larger and more vigorous artistic community than any
other Southeast Asian nations because we have four cultural heritages- Asian,
European, Mexican and American. In Manila alone, the arts and culture capital,
there are many art galleries, showcasing the works of talented painters, sculptors,
muralists and folk artists, theatrical and orchestra performances are also very
popular. For the culture aspects a simple might be you go to Baguio youll see the
Igorot there, you get to see them do their native attire.
Art and culture is integral part in nation building, it is the aspect thatt helps
to let everyone know that we can also produce world class talents when it comes to
the performing arts. As a Filipino I am very proud that we Filipinos give
importance to the arts and culture of our nations. As a student I appreciate good
work in arts, paintings and photographs. We should appreciate this kind of things
like visiting to museums and cultural heritage attending to exhibits, art galleries.