This album presents a selection of late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century piano music from Manila. In the Philippines, this period corresponded with a rise in the middle class and the cultivation of salon culture. As a product of the late Spanish colonial period and then a period of colonization by the United States, this music embodies a unique blend of Filipino, Hispanic and American influences, along with other European influences of late-Romantic salon culture.

Pianist Sally Pinkas serves on the music faculty at Dartmouth College and as Pianist-in-Residence at the College's Hopkins Center. Born in Israel, she has performed solo and chamber repertory throughout the United States and around the world. She has recorded several albums on various labels, focusing especially (but not exclusively) on works of nineteenth- and twentieth-century composers, including Robert Schumann, Claude Debussy, Gabriel Fauré, Harold Shapero, Christian Wolf, Bohuslav Martinu, Phillipe Gaubert, Daniel Pinkham and George Rochberg.Footnote ¹

Her inspiration for this disc (as she indicates in a prefatory note) was an invitation to perform at an intercultural symposium devoted to the arts in the Philippines prior to the 1898, when the Philippines were ceded by Spain to the United States in the Spanish–American War. Pinkas later gave her debut performance in the Philippines in 2015, in honour of the centennial of the University of the Philippines.

The main liner notes, as well as English translations of poetic texts associated with the works, are provided by musicologists Maria Patricia Brillantes Silvestre (University of the Philippines) and Maria Alexandra Inigo Chua (University of Santo Tomas) and provide a good deal of helpful context for the repertory, which is likely to be both unfamiliar and intriguing to many Western listeners. The notes include a concise history of the colonization of the Philippine Islands by Spain, the United States, and Japan between the sixteenth and twentieth centuries and the resulting mix of cultural, including musical, influences there, as well as the socio-economic climate that led to a rise in the middle class, a flourishing of the arts, including the development of salon culture, and greater accessibility of Western music. As Silvestre and Chua indicate in their notes (liner notes, 5–6), the shifting political environment resulting from the Spanish–American War led to greater secularization in the educational system, with an associated rise in the institutionalization and professionalization of music education and performance, including the establishment of the University of the Philippines in 1908 and the Conservatory of Music there in 1916. At the Conservatory (where Abelardo, Santiago, and Molina all studied), one could experience a blend of indigenous and Western influences (liner notes, 6). In the early decades of the twentieth century, Western influences included not only those from classical music (particularly Romanticism and Impressionism), but also those of popular music, jazz and film music (liner notes, 6).

Clocking in at a substantial 76 minutes, the disc contains 23 musical selections dating from the 1870s to 1960 and representing 11 composers: Antonio Molina (1894–1980), Dolores Paterno (1854–1881), Julio Nakpil (1867–1960), Diego Perez (fl. 1870s), Francisco Buencamino, Sr. (1883–1952), Juan de Sahagun Hernandez (1882–1945), Ignacio Massaguer (1846–1906), Francisco Santiago (1889–1947), Nicanor Abelardo (1893–1934), Marcelo Adonay (1848–1928), and Ramon Valdes y Pico (1895–1960). The individual selections, which may generally be designated as ‘character pieces’, range in length from 1:28 to 6:18.

The works are organized into categories by genre or theme. First are three works by Molina designated as ‘Literary Inspirations’: ‘Camia’ (1942), ‘Mamer’ (a beautiful, sometimes dissonant, lullaby written for the composer's newborn granddaughter) (1960), and ‘Malikmata’ (‘Transfiguration’, 1939). Inspired by Filipino poems of the period, which were to be read while the music was being played (liner notes, 7), these are atmospheric works combining indigenous folk tunes with an Impressionistic musical influence, drawing on whole-tone and pentatonic language and emphasizing sevenths and ninths. Following the ‘Literary Inspirations’ are a number of ‘Danzas Filipinas’. Perhaps most familiar to many listeners for its evocation in Bizet's Carmen, the lilting habanera, originally from Havana, Cuba, was among the earliest and most popular of the dances brought to the Philippines by European colonizers, inspiring new Filipino dance music that came to be called the ‘Danza Filipina’. Next follow a number of romances, nocturnes and waltzes by several different composers, and finally three works by Nakpil and Santiago relating to the theme of ‘civic pride’.

This organizational scheme arguably is a bit unwieldy, as the programme skips around out of chronological order; works by a single composer appear on different parts of the programme; the dance genres (habaneras and waltzes) are separated by non-dance genres (romances and nocturnes); and the categories into which the pieces are organized are not necessarily mutually exclusive. (Not all of the works that were inspired by texts, for example, are included among the ‘Literary Inspirations’.) But the resulting programme is diverse and engaging.

As a set, the repertory represents a fascinating blend of indigenous folk tunes and literary influences, with Hispanic dance music featuring sensual habanera rhythms, an Impressionist musical style employing pentatonic and whole-tone scales in a lyrical, flowing texture (e.g., in ‘Camia’ and ‘Damdamin’), a lyrical Romantic style not unrelated to that of Chopin, and hints of syncopated American dance and ragtime that at times (e.g., in ‘La Sampaguita’, Recuerdos de Capiz’, Caricias’, Damdamin’, and ‘Purita’) bring to mind the 1890s American Western saloon or Scott Joplin (or perhaps even, given the other indications of French Impressionist influence, Debussy's ragtime-influenced ‘Golliwog's Cakewalk’). Aside from the use of syncopated rhythms and pentatonic and whole-tone scales, the repertory employs a number of common musical traits, such as rolled chords evocative of Spanish guitar playing (e.g., in ‘La Sampaguita’, ‘Caricias’, and ‘Sonrisa’), cantabile melodies, rapidly repeated melodic notes, triplets, chromaticism, grace notes and ornaments, parallel thirds and other parallel motion, and division into clear contrasting (and sometimes repeating) sections. The works vary in difficulty and complexity. Among the simplest of the pieces is Massaguer's waltz, ‘Violeta’, dedicated to the composer's daughters, set in C major, and featuring scalar material. Works like ‘Porque Llorabas?’ are more harmonically and tonally adventurous than most, with more rhythmic, melodic, and textural diversity as well.

As mentioned, a significant number of the works (not only the ‘Literary Inspirations’) were inspired by Filipino poetry or extramusical ideas. Nature is often used metaphorically, for example parallels are drawn between indigenous flowers and women in Molina's ‘Camia’ (named after a flowering ginger plant) and Paterno's ‘La Sampiguita’ (named after the white flower). The latter, also called ‘La Flor de Manila’, was a popular work, originally composed to be sung to text by the composer's brother (liner notes, 10). Also included is Buencamino's piano transcription of the popular Massaguer dance song ‘La Bella Filipina’. Some of the works provide portraits of specific places, such as Nakpil's pastoral ‘Recuerdos de Capiz’ (‘Souvenirs of Capiz’). Santiago's waltz, ‘In the Orient’, exhibits alternating melodic notes and flowing melody, rippling semiquavers, parallel motion, bright tonality, and a light, pleasant feel, collectively suggesting warmth and swaying breezes or flowing water. Although pentatonicism and the whole-tone scale have often been used by European composers to evoke an exotic ‘Orient’, and although these scale types are used in other works on the disc, this particular piece employs a more traditional Romantic tonal language. Another example of a work with extramusical inspiration, ‘Malikmata’ (‘Transfiguration’), is based on Rafael Zulueta da Costa's poem ‘Eroica’, which focuses on themes of death, resurrection and transfiguration. A work of dramatic extremes of style, dynamics and register, this piece employs a repeating motive with an inquiring upward melodic turn. The figure itself, first presented mysteriously with quiet chromaticism, transforms, becoming less dissonant and more tonal, quiet and higher, but keeping its core rhythm and identity. The music blooms into a gentle, lyrical melody, with rippling arpeggiated accompaniment and bright tonality. The music builds and the motive ascends, as if transcendent. At the end of the piece, however, the motive returns in its more dissonant original version, and then the music fades out quietly. ‘Sonrisa’, based on an anonymous poetic verse, expresses the various emotions that a smile can evoke under different circumstances. In keeping with the poem's shift from negative to positive emotions, the work begins in minor and moves to a light and playful parallel major, incorporating a number of unexpected pauses for dramatic effect.

The disc also includes two nocturnes, one in E-flat minor by Santiago, and the other in C-sharp minor by Abelardo. These works, composed in 1921–22, exhibit many of the traits expected for the genre: melancholy brooding, moments of passion, cantabile melodies, arpeggiated accompaniment, contrasting sections, lilting rhythms and heavy use of pedal. The opening of the E-flat minor nocturne begins with an unmistakable reference to the opening of Chopin's E minor nocturne (No. 19), op. posth. 72/1, with which it shares its ¹8 metre, melody, rhythm and texture. (Oddly, the blatant similarity between the two passages is not remarked upon in the liner notes.) The work is otherwise, however, not so precisely derivative of Chopin. The opening measures of the more restless C-sharp minor nocturne, also in ¹8, calls to mind the beginning (after the four introductory measures) of Chopin's Nocturne No. 20, in the same key – but the resemblance here is more fleeting, due mainly to the combination of the shared key, texture and voicing, with the arpeggiation of the tonic in the accompaniment and use of the fifth scale degree to initiate the melody.

The final three works are unified by the theme of ‘civic pride’. Each is inspired by some aspect of the turbulent political environment in the Philippines during this period. The set begins with Nakpil's ‘Pahimakas’ (‘Farewell’, 1897). This work was dedicated to José Rizal, a Filipino nationalist who had been executed by the Spanish in Manila at the end 1896 for his reformist political advocacy. The piece is a funeral march incorporating a militaristic bugle-call. It incorporates a kundiman, a lyrical Filipino love song that was a favourite genre of Rizal (liner notes, 16) Next is Nakpil's ‘Pasig-Pantayanin’ (1897). No translation is provided in the notes, but the title of the work refers to massacres or killing at Pasig, a city not far from Manila. The piece evokes rebellion against Spanish rule by members of the Katipunan, a secret organization of revolutionaries of which Nakpil himself was a member. This work also starts with evocation of a horn call, then incorporates martial dotted rhythms. Unlike ‘Pahimakas’, this piece is cheerful and bright, with grace notes and rapid repeated notes in the melody, conveying a delightfully spirited flair. The final work is Santiago's rousing ‘Purita’ (1908). In the style of a lively American two-step, the piece was dedicated to Pura Villanueva, the crowned ‘Queen of the Orient’ at the 1908 Manila Carnival, an event organized by American colonialists to commemorate good relations with the United States and celebrate cultural and economic progress in the Philippines during the first decade of American colonization (liner notes, 16).

In general, Pinkas's playing, recorded at Fraser Studio at WGBH in Boston, Massachusetts, is expressive and lyrical, and the rhythmic dances swing naturally. Pinkas's use of rubato is generally expressive and appropriate for the style, although the ritards are occasionally a bit exaggerated for my taste, and there is a brief moment in Hernandez's ‘Caricias’ when the pacing sounds unintentionally unstable moving into the ‘Tempo di Habanera’. The dynamic contrasts indicated in the scores do not always come through as dramatically as they might. In general, however, Pinkas's playing is consistent, solid, clean, light and lovely to listen to.

Overall, this disc provides an intriguing glimpse into the beautiful, neglected music of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century salon culture of Manila. The music is frequently gentle and peaceful, often spirited and rhythmic, sensual and at times strikingly dissonant and chromatic – and it seamlessly combines Filipino, Hispanic, French, American, Romantic and popular musical influences. Despite the fascinating mix of cultural influences and characters that arose from the political circumstances in this time and place, the programme manages to retain a pleasing reportorial coherence and is sure to be much appreciated as a window into the salon culture of Romantic Manila.