Kabayawasan tradition: a font of intangible cultural expressions in Panag-asinan

Pangasinan people are fond of music. The songs that they have produced through the years are concrete indications of this aspect of their rich culture and creativity.

Pangasinan traditional and folk songs have emanated from the Pangasinan oral traditions, and the popular of these is the rich kabayawasan tradition. In her PhD. Dissertation entitled “Pangasinan Folk Literature”, Dr. Perla Samson-Nelmida stated that Pangasinan Folk Literature is rich, varied, and a continuing tradition, and from this the rich kabayawasan songs came to be as these songs are sung by the native folks under the bayawas or guava tree while resting from their work in the fields.

Dr. Samson-Nelmida described that the kabayawasan singing tradition is unique to Pangasinan and that it is improvisational in nature, which suggests that Pangasinan people are good in composing words and tunes. They can easily put words into the tunes or fit some tunes to any existing words or anlong (poetry) as this developed into what we call the cancionan or singing joust.

Pangasinan folk songs vary in range in terms of purpose or occasion. From love songs, work related songs, to children’s songs, Pangasinan people can describe various emotions like happiness, delight, sadness, loneliness, anger, despair, longing, or dispositions of humor and endearment.

Our religious songs or himnos are greatly influenced by our Christian faith brought by the Spanish culture. These have been interpreted through the local Filipino/Pangasinan devotion to their respective town or barrio patrons or to the Blessed Virgin Mary which we also call gozos.

Pangasinan songs or music also had social functions during weddings where songs like Patanir or the Panangabalayan are sung or played for the bride to bid farewell to maidenhood and for her to be welcomed and accepted in the household of the groom. And when the wedded couple bear children, the tambayos or lullabies are sung to put babies or little children to sleep.

Songs were also put into practical use during the War times as they deliver encrypted or its subservient messages that are sung in sarsuelas. Another practical use of these songs is they are used to teach values to children.

Much of these traditional songs, however, are seldomly heard nowadays as popular songs from other countries pervade the mainstream entertainment media to which our Filipino youngsters are very fond of.

Our traditional songs about nature, about birds and the fishes, like the “Walay Manok kon Taras” or the “Dalem na Dayat” are now a strange tune among the younger generation. Only by chance during school plays or contests are these songs are ever played, or our instrumental Pangasinan music are heard during Folk dance competitions in the various academic levels.

Gone now are the days that pëtëk or harana is done during courtship that love songs like “Rosing songs” or “No Siyak so Mangaro” are heard or sang, with the exception of course of the “Malinac Lay Labi” which gained international popularity due to the various choral arrangement made in choral competitions due to its enchanting melody.

The traditional oral way of passing down these intangible cultures now befall the disinterested youth of this generation who happens to advocate more the KPop (Korean Pop Songs) counterpart of the Filipino OPM.

If these traditional Pangasinan Songs (Folk songs) don’t get a chance to be taught in schools in the regular curriculum, how can these rich intangible cultures survive? How much more if they are not documented and recorded, then what materials about them can we use to teach the future Pangasinan generation?

Time is crucial in marking off as much Pangasinan traditional and folk songs and documenting them in such a way that it will survive up to the next generations.

Mapping out the songs and tunes of Pangasinan

Pangasinan music is rich. Pangasinan traditional and folk songs abound, but there is a dearth of documented literature about them.

Small steps have been made to map out these Pangasinan songs through pockets of cultural mapping projects conducted by a number of local government units in the towns and cities in Pangasinan. But there is still much more to be done in order to preserve and safeguard these intangible cultures because once the remaining culture bearers are gone, these songs will be forgotten and become extinct. The threat of losing them is real and imminent.

When an opportunity was presented by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts to map out Pangasinan Traditional and Folk Songs, the Provincial Government of Pangasinan grabbed this chance and availed of the competitive grant of P500,000.00 to conduct the Pangasinan Music Geography Project.