THE MANILA Cathedral launched four new wedding songs composed by a Thomasian last Nov. 29 along with the opening of its sixth Pipe Organ Festival.
“This time, we’re trying to go back again in the old ways of composing liturgical music, that is using ‘approved texts’ like psalms and proper antiphons,” cathedral music minister Ferdinand Bautista said, who composed the new wedding musical themes.
First in the list of new Catholic wedding songs is Ang Ngalan mo Poon, which is to be used for the grand wedding entrance. The piece was accompanied by music from the pipe organ, trumpet, violin, contrabass, and timpani.
Other featured new Catholic wedding songs were Basbasan at Kalingain (offertory), Ang Pag-ibig, and Mapalad ang Tao na may Takot sa Diyos (recessional).
Bautista said the new songs were in keeping with the directive of Monsignor Nestor Cerbo, the rector of the Manila Cathedral and also a UST alumnus, to work for the revival of liturgical music.
“Msgr. Cerbo wants us to help the Cathedral become the powerhouse in liturgical music in the whole Archdiocese of Manila and in the Tagalog regions,” Bautista said.
He added that it took him around two months to compose the new wedding songs, and he had to consider using the pipe organ and the other non-conventional instruments in arranging the music.
“These songs are still in the experimental stage because there are still few who compose in this particular field,” he said. “Maybe we should start on it little by little until we return on the right way of composing liturgical songs.”
He noted the importance of proper education in music and liturgy in composing liturgical songs.
“I hope more young people would get involved in liturgical music—the right way. They have to get in the conservatory first, enroll in a formal music study, and then study the liturgy to balance (their knowledge),” he said.
Bautista said that when he was studying at the Conservatory of Music, he was influenced by his professor, Julie Anne Hallazgo. He then took his liturgical studies at the Paul VI Institute of Liturgy in Bukidnon.
Other Thomasian performers in the Pipe Organ Festival Gala Concert were Mark Francis Almeria (trumpet), Sylvester Aviñante (trumpet), Jan Christian Gutierrez (violin), Lexter Deo Santos (timpani), and Vincent Dela Cruz (contrabass).
The first part of the gala concert featured music from the compositions of Louis Vierne, Joseph Haydn, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, while the second part included Bautista’s compositions in a wedding simulation and a performance from Jose Mari Chan, who sang his single “Christmas in our Hearts” and “A Wish on Christmas Night” for the first time at the Manila Cathedral.
Capping the night’s performance was another new composition of Bautista together with Anglican Jennifer Wallum titled “A Christmas Story.”
Cerbo said he hopes part of the proceeds of the concert series would go to “the maintenance of the pipe organ concert, pipe organ student training and choir training, and social services of the Cathedral.”
This year’s Pipe Organ Festival also marked the 30th anniversary of the Manila Cathedral as a Basilica, and is a tribute to the former Archbishop of Manila Gaudencio Rosales, and the newly-installed Archbishop Luis Antonio Tagle.
