Where our songs came from
Media
Part of The Young Citizen: The Magazine for Young People
- Title
- Where our songs came from
- Creator
- Carballo, Francisco
- Language
- English
- Year
- 1937
- Subject
- Singing.
- Songs -- History and criticism.
- Rights
-
- Abstract
- Did you ever stop for a moment and ask yourself or somebody who knows how music originated and how early people came to learn music and to sing? If you did, many and varied would be the answers.
- Fulltext
- 176 THE YOUNG CITIZEN July, 1937 Where Our Songs Came From By FRANCISCO CARBALLO You, my dear readers, as you hum or ture have been an endless source of insing your favorite song, or listen to spiration fo the great composers and someone singing or playing a piece of poets, for music, following the moods of music on some instrument, did you ever nature, is able to express various feel· ~top for a moment and ask yourself or ings and emotions; such as, love, anger, somebody who knows how music origi- devotion, calm, terror, passion, happi11ated and how early people came to ness, gloom, hope, despair, patriotism, learn music and to sing? If you did, and the like. many and varied would be the answers. There is no doubt, however, that, as In olden days some people believed claimed by the ancient masters, our that the planets as they revolved in the friends the birds taught the early peoheavens produced sounds which they pie their first songs. Do you know our called "music of the spheres," and which common Philippine birds and can you the good gods were said to have handed i·ecognize them by listening to their down as a gift to the early people on songs? earth. Be that as it may, it is a fact that our ancestors must have learned Here is a Ii ttle song suggested by a their first music from the traits of na- lively Philippine bird which is an early ture. The sky, the sun, moon, star~, riser. It haunts bamboo groves and clouds, the air, wind, and tempest, vales, bushes in or about provincial towns. Its n:iountains, streams, seas, trees, flowers, plumage is gray or brown with a patch and creatures of earth and sky with of light yellow on the breast and it has their various sounds and beauty must :1 red bill. It feeds on moths, grubs, have suggested to man his first song~ and other forms of small insect life and caused him later on to device mus- harmful to plants, and is, therefore, a ic-al instruments. These whims of na- friend of gardeners and farmers. 1'he July, 1997 THE YOUNG CITIZEN 177 cheerful song of this sweet-voiced singer any speciai gift in music, and he is is usually heard from early morn to late grateful to our little feathered friend, afternoon, p·articularly during the sum- the Pipit, for this little tune has been mer season. The writer does not' claim f;uggested by its charming song. a. Pi ;,. Pi r p +ree +o da'.1 you +-each. m<Z morr"--·-5 '"'9 ----· bi t'"a ----· PIPIT Words cmd M 11sic by FRANCISCO CARBALLO P r Pi -prt, P1 - pit, P1 - pi+, r p I µ with with.. you r: I ~. ' ~ r P I w11"\gs- so ligh.+, 'From d ow r\.----y breos+, A+bu e-----·y bird, You ~Ir D Fri t-r<20 you fli+, I h.ear <:JOU 511'\.9 from h.ord ---ly sit, You wor~ th.~ most and do rny , bit-, 'You are th..e beef- wee +-i I l"\.igh+, love your son.g, P1----pif-. + h.e bes+, Your +ur..12.--·fu I Sor'\.g, Pi---- pi+. I'v<Z. k.eord, WiH' your- :.we.et so"g, Pi----pi+.