NOTE: I am sure I may be getting some skewed comments thinking that this is going to be biased AGAIN since one of the involved vocalists is the Journey front man Arnel Pineda (because he is one of my idols). AND, this is a very long read again. I don't expect much people to take time in reading this one.
And please, these are my own opinions. Very arugable opinions. It's ok to argue with these but please pay respect to my opinions as I would pay respect to yours.
---
It is always a controversial whenever a fellow countryman/countrywoman is chosen to sing the Philippine National Anthem before an international boxing match which includes a Filipino boxer in the competition. Why? Because there is this existing government agency that is actually monitoring the usages of our national symbols (do not get me wrong - I believe they are there for a reason, and the reason is legitimate).
It all adheres to the Republic Act 8491 (under Section 37) or the Flag and Heraldic Code (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lupang_Hinirang#Usage_and_legal_regulation or http://www.chanrobles.com/republicactno8491.htm for more detail), which states:
"The national anthem must be sung in accordance with the original musical arrangement of composer Julian Felipe, who gave it a marching tempo. Violators may be fined P5,000 to P20,000 or jailed for a year."
From the latter link: Sec. 37. "The rendition of the National Anthem, whether played or sung, shall be in accordance with the musical arrangement and composition of Julian Felipe."
Get the whole Republic Act 8491 here - http://www.glin.gov/view.action?glinID=74097
This law was written in 1998, on the 100th year of its composition, 100th year after the Philippine independence from Spain, and 54 years after its composer passed away. Again, don't get me wrong - this is the law, and it was written in the very straightforward manner. I would put respect to any kind of law that is enforced by the government. But I would like to put an effort to question how was this law written this way, and how it is actually enforced nowadays.
If this is not a law, it would just boil down to preference (but even it IS the law now, I have read and heard different people's preferences). Some say why should these singers stick to the traditional composition when they can deviate a little; some say it's not that hard to follow the original composition.
Personally, I haven't decided yet what would be my personal preference to this. I am a musician, so I may tend to be yelling out the artistic sense of it, but law itself carries a good reason behind why it is there.
The chosen singers that were to sing the national anthem during international events should feel honored, having the opportunity to represent our country in the international stage in the means of delivering what would be one of the most important national symbols. But I am sure this has not been the case, as I am sure the most recent chosen ones are aware that a group of people are watching them not to feel so proud being represented by an amazing singer, but to dissect every note the singer sings and look for faults or errors that they can pinpoint. But from the singers' points of view and awareness, had they really been bothered by that thought at the actual moment they are singing the beloved anthem? Or the more general question would me, how did they exactly feel at the moment of singing with the fact that some people are watching and listening to them in a "lawful" way?
Do you think the law was well thought and well written? I understand the manifested objective of this law - to respect and to instill usage with respect of our National Anthem at all times. But do you think this written law is too stiff? Was it intentional to seem that way? Or does it lack something?
In my opinion, yes it does lack something. It honestly is lacking more than just one factor. Actually what is lacking are really big factors if you are going to write a law. So let me reiterate - "The national anthem must be sung in accordance with the original musical arrangement of composer Julian Felipe...". So where here in this law is the ORIGINAL MUSICAL ARRANGEMENT? Where do we look for a reference? If we are bound to this law, why are we also bound to look up for the original composition which is not really attached to the law itself. I think that is absurd.
By common sense, one way or another, we would know know the tune for the lead vocalist of our national anthem, whatever the key maybe (but BY LAW, it should be sang in the musical composition by Felipe, including the key signature). BY HEART, if I may add. But that is not enough not to include the composition (or at least an official reference) to the actual law. You know why? Today, I tried looking for a score sheet of Lupang Hinirang, but all I got is a two page sheet in the following link (http://www.free-scores.com/download-sheet-music.php?pdf=16729) which is an four-piece acapella arrangement of the song (with the credit goes to a NON-Julian Felipe).
My next concern would be very much related to the above fact. Is there or is not there an existing earlier composition for the voicing parts (e.g. SATB)? Take note that Felipe's original composition is an incidental music (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incidental_music) and had no lyrics to go with it (until the next year). So BY COMMON SENSE, how do singers should cope up with the law? Sing however the trumpets or any other melodic instruments were played? So yeah, it's easy to say there are musical arrangements made for the lyrics, but I haven't found anything about Felipe's rearrangement for this (as it says ORIGINAL and JULIAN FELIPE = music with no voice).
And touching more on the SATB voicing (take a peek on the La Diva's video below - I know it's not a SATB setup), ASSUMING that the first instance the original music was meshed with voice OR ASSUMING that the first instance the original music was played by a number of melodic instruments on a SATB setup (or any voicing setup), is it enough for us to revisit the written law again and say that it's clear how to simply follow it? Again, no is my answer. A solo singer does not have a reference voice to follow with the assumptions I have made above, and even if the assumptions were not placed, that would lead the solo singer AGAIN to a blind spot still, citing again the "original composition" which is an incidental music. It's actually hard to miss this point out as there are a lot of public establishments out there which have been making use of the national anthem with a choir (or at least a SATB quartet) with different voicing parts (especially radio stations signing on/off) which are in the same lawful umbrella too.
La Diva:
So comparing those radio station quartets to the solo singers (who are obviously getting more attention with a percentage of detractors compared to the former), I believe you can sing along with any of the two entities without any problems (I can go musically technical on this part why, but it is not necessary for now), let alone the tempo as I will touch on that part just a little later on this entry. Take a peek on the videos below on Arnel Pineda, Charice Pempengco, and Regine Velasquez. They have delivered pretty much the same notes (the key signature may differ a bit), and basically any one can just sing along with their renditions with minimal problems(even if it's not needed). But the debate comes in the last part comes in. The line "Ang mamatay ng dahil sa'yo". Firstly, I surely remember from school that the syllables "-tay ng da-hil sa-" is just made within one measure for a 4/4 time measure, or two 2/4 time measure for the standard marching tempo (series of quarter notes), but at times those syllables are sung in two measures for a 4/4 time measure, and let alone the 2/4 time measure because a series of half notes for this part of the song isn't so "marching" sounding. So again, which is the correct composition? There is no reference. But concentrating on the notes themselves, by COMMON MUSICAL SENSE, the unison should sing the last line on notes (of the key signature) MI-DO-RE-(lower)TI-TI-DO. But I believe, in choirs the notes are more than that. In the SATB voicing, I am guessing that would be the tenor part, and the soprano part would be MI-DO-RE-SOL-SOL-SOL. That's exactly how the above mentioned vocalists did in the videos below (except for Regine who sang it MI-DO-RE-SOL-SOL-DO), and for me that's not exactly a way of showing some artistic expression as an erroneous connotation of "doing it your own way" but simply taking on a different set of notes that has been pre-arranged, simply to make the song exclamatory and more dramatic. It may prove to be a simple technique, but it is an effective one. And musicality-wise, I have to say the way those artists have sang it, they did it WITHIN the original composition because even if I didn't live in 1898 to hear the original version, I am sure those notes I have mentioned above were hit by any melodic instrument too.
Arnel Pineda:
Charice Pempengco:
Regine Velasquez:
Martin Nievera and Lani Misalucha's version in the ending were really their "artistic expressions" in a sense that the notes they sang were really off the original composition.
Martin Nievera:
Lani Misalucha:
How about the tempo? The law says that it should be played/sung on a marching tempo. Again, where is the reference to this marching tempo? Does the law have to rely on human common sense again on defining our own idea of a marching tempo? Or is there a separate law wherein a "march" tempo is definitive? But alright, for curiosity's sake, a marching tempo ranges from 120 up to 200 BPM. The law writer on this one must have felt lazy searching for at least the definite tempo rate, or he/she didn't feel the need to make the indication.
But now going back to the original written law, yes, I am very sure in some way, composer Julian Felipe would have appreciated this law as a nationalistic sign to respect his work for the country. But did anyone from the National Historic Institute foresee the string of incidents happening? If he were still alive, would you think he would appreciate the NHI's efforts in keeping the national anthem respected by IMPOSING FINES and JAILTIME?
Nobody can blame the NHI for doing what they are supposed to do. And at the same time, it's plain easy to call the attention of these chosen singers (notably the singers in the videos below) because if you slap the law to them, they'd all be technically defenseless. But the bad thing really is NHI is enforcing the law that they obviously did not write BY COMMON SENSE because there are a lot of loopholes in that section itself and the rest of the chapter. The closest ones that I consider to be "safe" are Sarah, Kyla and Karylle, but no still because the way they sang it wasn't really in the marching tempo (normally a 2/4 measure) even though they sang it as how Felipe composed it in terms of the notes. But when at times (or even if not at all) they say they sang it with nationalistic pride and honor and with all their hearts no matter how they sang the national anthem, I do believe them.
Sarah Geronimo:
Kyla:
Karylle:
As how the law was written and as how the NHI is enforcing the law, I don't think there is a single musician involved in the formation of that law and enforcing of the law, except for Julian Felipe himself. If there is at least a single musician other than Felipe involved, please let me know.
The law as it is now would either be very stiff or very vague. If I have the necessary power, I would have that law rewritten or at least put the necessary reference to it. The reason why - I have already enumerated them above. If the law is going to be too stiff to be revised, why not have a chosen singer sing the national anthem in front of the NHI people privately, agree on how the singer should deliver the anthem in the big stage even on the little deviations, then persecute the singer if he or she does not do it according to the agreement. If that still does not work, why not do what some other people I hear suggesting - play a pre-recorded mp3 file of the anthem. You can actually have different versions of it. In that way, no one has to worry who's doing a bad job.
So, here are my opinions to this. I do not mean to detract any person or group of people in this entry. I do not intend to degrade that law which has been present for 12 years already. I do not intend to push some movement to revise the said law, or something really stupid like that. These are just my opinions and nothing more than that.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Monday, March 15, 2010
Head2Head: Steve Perry vs. Arnel Pineda Part 4 - The Other Guys
Between the times after Steve Perry's departure and Arnel Pineda's arrival, there were two vocalists that sang for the band Journey. As much as Pineda's popularity with his voice being widely known resembling Perry's voice (but I did disagree to this in some level in the previous entry), the other two singers may not have been as close as Pineda in terms of resemblance, but they do pack punches of their own.
Firstly, Steve Augeri.
He came in the band in 1998. He basically looks like Kenny G, with that long blond curly hair with tight leather pants and long sleeves. You may be quite mislead by his sort of "gayish" demeanors, especially in the 2001 Las Vegas concert, but he certainly can sing. For my opinion, his voice suits the ballad songs of Journey. In fact, I think his rendition of Open Arms tops all present and past Journey singers.
His voice presents a strong but still conservative attitude. It's like you know he's delivering some power in some lines, and at the same time he seems not putting much effort to it, which is really good. The end result is a soft rocker/balladeer.
He has this certain level of creativity too (but not too exploratory as Perry). In his 2001 concert, you'd hear his style in different ways. Check out the video below of his rendition of Faithfully (that could have honestly be the best Faithfully rendition among the Journey singers). If you can notice how he sang the line "Sleep alone tonight..." in 0:54-0:55, he sang the syllable "to..." in the word "tonight" in a quick melisma style (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melisma), singing three quick sixteenth notes of D#4, C#4 and B3 in succession. No other (at least in my knowledge) has done this aside from the sixteen year old kid from Batangas, Philippines named Jovit Baldivino in the TV show contest Pilipinas Got Talent. Also, listen to 2:18-2:19 of the same video, where he sang an additional syllable, completing his own lyrics "THERE'S always another show" and it turned out nice.
What really good in Augeri's singing is he would always take his time in every syllable he would sing, and that results to him that the lyrics that come out of his mouth would tend to be understandable (compared to Perry's somewhat "garbled" singing in some songs). But yeah, I mentioned above that his rendition of Faithfully could have been the best one among the Journey singers but not, because his vocal range may not be as wide as Perry nor Pineda. If you listen at the ending of the same video (3:52 onwards), when he hits C#5, he's already faltering and may sound he's already employing falsetto, but still alright. But when he hits D#5, that's already a subpar compared to Perry, Pineda and surprisingly to Deen Castronovo too. Try to listen to other Journey songs reaching those high notes, and you'll know what I mean.
In my opinion, if this guy didn't hurt his throat, he'd still be singing for Journey.
Next up is Jeff Scott Soto.
There are not much decent Soto videos with Journey out there, so I just settled for a few non-Journey songs that he sang. So this part may be not so definitive as compared to the other parts of this blog.
Soto has a bad ass voice definitely, and quite the opposite of Augeri. If Augeri has a conservative voice, Soto wouldn't conserve his voice and he doesn't sound doing it too. I can't really say if he has the range compared to Perry or Pineda, but in the video of Til The End of Time above, he hit B4 and C#5 in succession beautifully.
Not really much about to say about him, but in my opinion it's a good thing that he left Journey. I am not saying the guy treated the band badly or the other way around, but on the musical side, his voice would be more suitable for alternative rock (like those two videos above) rather than Journey's power ballad / glam rock genre.
So those are the two vocalists that came after Perry and before Pineda. But how about this guy...
Deen Castronovo.
Deen is Journey's drummer since 1998, along with Augeri's entry in the band. If you would see him play the drums, you'll see how much of a bad ass this guy is. The song, Still They Ride, in the video above is, in my opinion, the most soulful song that he sang while hitting the drums. That was in their concert here in Manila in 2009.
He doesn't only hit the drums. He can sing too, and his voice pretty much resembles Perry's. He never was listed as Journey's official lead vocalist, but he does sing a few Journey songs in their concerts, being really popular in singing the song Mother, Father. You hear him hitting those high notes with his modal voice while his concentration isn't really paid attention on singing only. That makes him a really talented musician. What more if he's just standing, focusing only on the singing part. That makes me really wonder what kind of wonders he can do.
I think if he really wanted to sing, he'd beat the sh*t out of Perry and Pineda. But who needs competition when they can sing and play together?
Still not convinced on Deen?
Eat your heart out!
Firstly, Steve Augeri.
He came in the band in 1998. He basically looks like Kenny G, with that long blond curly hair with tight leather pants and long sleeves. You may be quite mislead by his sort of "gayish" demeanors, especially in the 2001 Las Vegas concert, but he certainly can sing. For my opinion, his voice suits the ballad songs of Journey. In fact, I think his rendition of Open Arms tops all present and past Journey singers.
His voice presents a strong but still conservative attitude. It's like you know he's delivering some power in some lines, and at the same time he seems not putting much effort to it, which is really good. The end result is a soft rocker/balladeer.
He has this certain level of creativity too (but not too exploratory as Perry). In his 2001 concert, you'd hear his style in different ways. Check out the video below of his rendition of Faithfully (that could have honestly be the best Faithfully rendition among the Journey singers). If you can notice how he sang the line "Sleep alone tonight..." in 0:54-0:55, he sang the syllable "to..." in the word "tonight" in a quick melisma style (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melisma), singing three quick sixteenth notes of D#4, C#4 and B3 in succession. No other (at least in my knowledge) has done this aside from the sixteen year old kid from Batangas, Philippines named Jovit Baldivino in the TV show contest Pilipinas Got Talent. Also, listen to 2:18-2:19 of the same video, where he sang an additional syllable, completing his own lyrics "THERE'S always another show" and it turned out nice.
What really good in Augeri's singing is he would always take his time in every syllable he would sing, and that results to him that the lyrics that come out of his mouth would tend to be understandable (compared to Perry's somewhat "garbled" singing in some songs). But yeah, I mentioned above that his rendition of Faithfully could have been the best one among the Journey singers but not, because his vocal range may not be as wide as Perry nor Pineda. If you listen at the ending of the same video (3:52 onwards), when he hits C#5, he's already faltering and may sound he's already employing falsetto, but still alright. But when he hits D#5, that's already a subpar compared to Perry, Pineda and surprisingly to Deen Castronovo too. Try to listen to other Journey songs reaching those high notes, and you'll know what I mean.
In my opinion, if this guy didn't hurt his throat, he'd still be singing for Journey.
Next up is Jeff Scott Soto.
There are not much decent Soto videos with Journey out there, so I just settled for a few non-Journey songs that he sang. So this part may be not so definitive as compared to the other parts of this blog.
Soto has a bad ass voice definitely, and quite the opposite of Augeri. If Augeri has a conservative voice, Soto wouldn't conserve his voice and he doesn't sound doing it too. I can't really say if he has the range compared to Perry or Pineda, but in the video of Til The End of Time above, he hit B4 and C#5 in succession beautifully.
Not really much about to say about him, but in my opinion it's a good thing that he left Journey. I am not saying the guy treated the band badly or the other way around, but on the musical side, his voice would be more suitable for alternative rock (like those two videos above) rather than Journey's power ballad / glam rock genre.
So those are the two vocalists that came after Perry and before Pineda. But how about this guy...
Deen Castronovo.
Deen is Journey's drummer since 1998, along with Augeri's entry in the band. If you would see him play the drums, you'll see how much of a bad ass this guy is. The song, Still They Ride, in the video above is, in my opinion, the most soulful song that he sang while hitting the drums. That was in their concert here in Manila in 2009.
He doesn't only hit the drums. He can sing too, and his voice pretty much resembles Perry's. He never was listed as Journey's official lead vocalist, but he does sing a few Journey songs in their concerts, being really popular in singing the song Mother, Father. You hear him hitting those high notes with his modal voice while his concentration isn't really paid attention on singing only. That makes him a really talented musician. What more if he's just standing, focusing only on the singing part. That makes me really wonder what kind of wonders he can do.
I think if he really wanted to sing, he'd beat the sh*t out of Perry and Pineda. But who needs competition when they can sing and play together?
Still not convinced on Deen?
Eat your heart out!
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