Music as tool for global harmony

PHILIPPINE music will also be showcased at the University of California, Los Angeles Spring Festival of World Music and Jazz.

Here’s an interesting story from the Los Angeles Times that shows how music strikes a common chord that brings together different cultures:

While the ethnomusicology groups allow some players to use Western instruments, the vast majority perform on the traditional ethnic instruments collected by UCLA or lent by its instructors, many of whom have the expertise and connections to find authentic instruments.

“I bought six of these for $80 each when I went home to the Philippines,” lecturer Tagumpay De Leon said as he held up a small 12-string bandurria during a rehearsal by his rondalla choir of plucked instruments, which includes guitars and double basses, as well as Philippine octavinas and lauds. “But if I’d just shopped on EBay, they’d be $200!”

De Leon’s new bandurrias make up a mere fraction of the department’s holdings. Many of these instruments are stored in a room housing the collection’s centerpiece: a 60-piece, 150-year-old Javanese gamelan dubbed Kyai Mendhung (Venerable Dark Cloud) for the sound of its largest gong.

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