Rippling Waves: Aga Mayo Butocan And The Transmission Of Maguindanao Kulintang Music
Rippling Waves: Aga Mayo Butocan and the Transmission of the Maguindanao Kulintang
Abstract
This paper explores the journey of the Maguindanaon kulintang music as it is transmitted to non-Maguindanaons by Prof. Aga Mayo Butocan, Maguindanaon kulintang master who taught at the University of the Philippines College of Music. The biographical and technical interviews with the master display her expertise and experience on the instrument. Her life history is crucial to knowing how the tradition took deep root in her. Her pedagogical accomplishments illustrate culture crystallization, translation and transmission in the academic setting. The transmission process as seen in Prof. Butocan’s experience is a never a one-way route, but rather a conversational exchange between two entities – in this case, the westernized academe and the traditional kulintang music with Prof. Butocan as the catalyst. Her technical prowess, concepts in performance and understanding of the instrument served as a basis to pass on the traditional kulintang music to outsiders. On the other hand, issues of authenticity and ownership of the culture show that culture can be transferred and transplanted outside of its original cultural context and regaining a different environment, enabling it to live and grow in its new cultural home. Kulintang can be regarded as a viable cultural symbol of Filipino identity, and it will continue to expand its influence in the academe and beyond.
Liao, Janine Josephine Arianne A. (2013). Rippling Waves: Aga Mayo Butocan and the Transmission of the Maguindanao Kulintang. Unpublished Undergraduate Research Paper, University of the Philippines-Diliman. College of Music
keywords: kulintang music, transmission, pedagogy, Aga Mayo Butocan