A Thomasian pianist launched the first extensive anthology of classical Filipino piano compositions on Aug. 20 at the Manila Pianos Showroom in Makati.
Horacio Nuguid, a Conservatory of Music alumnus, compiled 25 pieces from 16 Filipino composers in his book “Philippine Piano Pieces.”
“Filipino composers are not well-represented in the music world. We hear only a few of them, here and there, sporadically,” Nuigid told the Varsitarian.
“With this anthology, I hope to motivate more performers and expose the performance of Filipino piano pieces,” he added.
Among the pieces featured in the anthology are “Malikmata” and “Pal’ok” by national artists Antonio Molina and Ramon Santos, respectively.
Also in the book are pieces by renowned composers Julio Nakpil and Nicanor Abelado.
To put the anthology together, Nuguid had to examine digital versions of the piano scores from university libraries or the composers themselves.
Nuguid added critical annotations and brief historical backgrounds of the classical Filipino compositions.
“I compared all different sources and carefully examined [them]. Sometimes there might be some misprints or some inconsistencies between two sources, so I had to sort them out,” Nuguid said.
Paul Bibal, another music alumnus, served as researcher and typesetter for the anthology.
During the book launch, Nuguid staged a solo lecture-recital where he played classical Filipino compositions like “Sidhaya,” “Malikmata,” and “Kundiman.” Karis M. Tsang
