Udlot-Udlot pays rare tribute to late Philippines composer in large-scale park performance, May 4

In Western Front and Roundhouse copresentation, José Maceda’s work blends traditional bamboo instruments and dozens of voices

By Janet Smith

Composer José Maceda conducts singers.

Western Front and the Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreation Centre present Udlot Udlot at George Wainborn Park on May 4 at 4 pm

MORE A COMMUNAL ritual than a traditional concert, Filipinx composer José Maceda’s Udlot-Udlot, created in 1975, is a monument to his fierce commitment to his country’s music. And now Vancouverites have a rare chance to see it performed, for free, in George Wainborn Park, care of Western Front and the Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreation Centre.

The 40-minute composition is designed for up to 1,000 performers, and welcomes those without musical training. It employs traditional bamboo instruments, wooden percussion sticks, and voices, and was modelled on tropical rain forest ceremonies. Here, the work will be performed by 100 community members who responded to an open call.

Udlot-Udlot celebrates the connection between humans and nature. It was first performed 50 years ago by 800 students at the University of the Philippines, and has since been presented around the world—simultaneously an ode to age-old rituals and an avant-garde performance. Writing it, Maceda was as aware of musique concrète as he was in researching traditional Asian instruments and rhythms.

The work is being staged in the park as part of the multifaceted project José Maceda: Echoes Beyond the Archipelago. The series celebrates the composer, pianist, and musicologist who died in 2004. His work uniquely fuses cutting-edge compositional techniques with traditional Asian instruments, rhythms, and structures. After graduating with a music diploma from Manila’s Academy of Music in 1935, Maceda studied piano in Paris, later pursuing musicology at Columbia University, anthropology at Northwestern University, and ethnomusicology at the University of California. He devoted much of his life to understanding and promoting Filipinx traditional music. travelling to the Philippines’ most remote mountain villages and islands to collect recordings and information.

The project has been curated by Aki Onda an artist, composer, performer, curator who is curator-at-large at Western Front.

Combine the performance with a visit to Western Front's exhibit Echoes Beyond the Archipelago, dedicated to the life and work of this undersung master of 20th-century music.  

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