Music Begins at Home

Music Begins at Home

    What a stirring experience to wake up at dawn with the band playing musical selections as it paraded through town heralding the beginning of the town’s fiesta.  The band stopped at my grandmother’s house for breakfast. That was the seed of my love for music.

      The seed was watered when I borrowed  my  godmother’s  toy piano with the black keys painted.  While tending my grandmother’s sari-sari store, I randomly struck the white keys.  To my surprise, I found that I could string a phrase of a melody.  I later found that if I could remember how I did it I could play a song.  Trial and error followed until I put together the popular music at that time, “Curacha.”  I could translate melodies from my memory on to the piano keys almost instantaneously with less trial and error.

         The next breakthrough came when I realized that the melody played by the right hand needs chord accompaniment played by the left hand. Coming home after seeing a movie, I tried to play on a real piano this time, the song “Maria Elena” played as intermission music before the next show comes on.  I picked out the melody immediately and tried two chords to match the melody.  Some things did not sound right.  My father came to the rescue.  My father does not play the piano, he plays the guitar, banjo and banduria however. He  whistled the notes that make up a given chord note by note, I picked them out on the keyboard and figured out the chord.  My father and I plotted out the remaining chords.  From then on I could play music “by ear” thanks to Maria Elena. 

       By third grade, I was  taught how to read notes at school.  I took piano lessons. Playing piano duet with my instructor was built-in into the instruction.  That was a special hit with me.  Since I wanted to play piano duet in my home town with friends who did not play piano, I taught them the “pupil” part while I figured out how the “teacher” part was played.  A series of piano duets by ear followed that I had arranged myself from popular songs.  This mode of playing duets continued with playing with my sister until the last year of her life.

         Since I could read notes, I rummaged through the collection of vocal pieces with piano accompaniment and tried to sight read them.  When I played some pieces good enough to be recognizable, I would hear my father whistle along or sing along from upstairs. That was another landmark.  This began the period of playing the piano while my father played the banjo or banduria.  Some of our favorites included “Who’s Sorry Now,” “Stumbling,” “Black and White,” Philippine folk songs such as “Bahay Kubo.”

        I learned how to sing, “Sa Daplin sa Baybayon,” translated as “By the Seashore.” I sang solo accompanied by my father with the guitar.  I sang duet with my younger brother where I sang most of each line and he filled in the last word.  That song was “Sa Pagtakas sa Hapon” translated as “When the Japanese attacked.” These songs were recorded by the latest technology at that time. A plastic disc was the recording medium, a groove was cut by the needle during the recording.  At the end of the recording, my father collected the silver-gray hair-like fiber cut from the plastic disc.

        Music,  music everywhere – growing up listening, singing, playing, dancing to the music became a life style. Each phase entered opened a new type of music and broadened musical literature for each musical genre.  Let me try to summarize the type of activity, type of music involved and a particular favorite.

Activity	Musical Type	Favorite piece
High School Glee Club	3-part, 4-part choral music	In Old Madrid Tea for Two
Listening	Papa’s compositions with Regino Dano	Ave Maria 1 Ave Maria 2 Romance
Accompanying	Duet by my father and sister	Nena Gilangkat Mo
Accompanying	Solo by my sister	One Kiss Ako’y Kampupot Matud Nila
Leading college classmates in a chorus	3-part medley	Planting Rice/Joy to the World
Accompanying, college chorus	Philippine song	Sampaguita
Teaching, singing	Children’s song	Under the Sun by Frank Leto
Folk dancing	International	Never on Sunday – Greek dance Pata-Pata -   African
Women’s  barbershop chorus	Barbershop	In Old Shanty Town Toot  Toot  Tootsie Goodbye
Church Choir	Anthems,  hymns, oratorio	Seven Last Words by Dubois, Handel’s Messiah
Latin dancing	Rumba, bolero, chacha, salsa, samba	Adios
Ballroom dancing	Fox trot, waltz, tango	Orange-colored Sky
Swing, Jive	Rhythm	Sweet Home, Chicago
Two-Step Dancing	Country Western	I’m on the Road Again
Listening	Mark Tulloss’  composition	Song dedicated to the passing of Vril Clarin and Rev. Lawrence Smith
Listening, Playing	Carlos Tulloss’ composition	Mother’s Day with Flute obligato
Hawaiian Wedding	Hawaiian	Over the Rainbow

         As the song goes –         

                                    “All things shall perish under the sun.

                                      Music alone shall live

                                      Music alone shall live

                                      Music alone shall live

                                      Never shall die.”

     Music  remains  the  mainstay for family get-togethers.  With Papa, Mama, my sister Nany and my brother Vril no longer with us on this physical plane, others have taken their places to keep the music going.  Neil Bonje plays the guitar, Mark and Carlos Tulloss with the bass, I play the keyboard, Avril Clarin-Taylor as the lead vocalist, Allison Philpott-Tulloss with the flute, Tio Gabriel and Tia Nen Bonje as standard vocalists.  It won’t be long the younger group will join the ensemble:  Andrew Bonje, Alex and Melanie Kuhlmann.  Tying the whole group together and recording the memorable event will be James Tulloss and Kirsten Kuhlmann. If we could fly Allison’s mother, Cathi, we add another vocalist and pianist. So many members of the clan scattered all over the U.S.A. can add to the ensemble.  Then we’ll be rocking and rolling as you’ve never heard before this side of heaven.

         The family that plays music together stays together.