By Jullie Y. Daza
DEAR reader, when you imagine the rice terraces of Banaue, what do you see on the movie screen of your mind?
As Maestro Chino Toledo puts it, what is your “imagined reality”? To a musician, what would be the colors and texture, the emotion and sound of that reality?
Banaue’s rice terraces – “a spectacular panorama of mountain meeting sky” – are the inspiration that will steam up the creative juices of musicians and composers, global and local, who have been invited to join the 2018 Banaue International Music Composition Competition. Launched last Thursday at Makati Shangri-la, the competition is farmers advocate Dr. Mila O. How’s way of telling the world how grand and awesome those terraces are, yet how urgently we need to raise awareness of their deteriorating condition.
Mr. Toledo has received entries and inquiries from nearly every continent – Canada, Colombia, France, Italy, China, Russia, Armenia, Malaysia, Greece, the US, South Africa, Hong Kong. Strangely enough, or not so strangely, no response yet from Filipino composers. “But that’s how we are,” the maestro told journalists; we wait for the last two minutes.
Deadline for submission of entries is April 15; selection and rehearsal of 10 finalists on July 18; awards night on July 25 at CCP. The grand prize is US$12,000 plus two prizes of $6,000 each. The participants’ trips to Manila and Banaue will be subsidized by Universal Harvester Inc., just as they will be immersed in the culture and lifestyle of the people of Banaue for 10 days before they submit the final form of their symphonies.
Based on the first batch of music sheets received, today’s musicians without borders have their own “imagined reality” of what the eighth wonder of the world stands for. One composer titled his piece “Lightning over Rice Terraces” while another asked if his music could be a takeoff from a “hut-hut” chant. A third chose “Banaue” as his working title.
In my mind, I hear the voice of a lonely flute soaring like a bird over the rice terraces. With 13 ha restored and six more to go, restoration is a work in progress with the help of Dr. Mori and Dr. Hiro of Japan. They were in Banaue with Mayor Jerry Dalipog over the weekend to continue their research on the soil. That’s right, let the musicians’ imaginations take flight while the scientists get down and dirty on their hands.