In commemoration of the life and memory of Papa Plady Alcoba and in dedication to Louella Alcoba, David Reyes Sr., and Erlinda Reyes.
Much love to my family and the grace of their support and existence.

This work features 20th century classical Filipino guitar works in 4 channel stereo recorded through my grandfathers Akai 280D-SS reel to reel tape machine - a high fidelity home consumer model 4 track reel to reel tape machine with quadraphonic stereo technology that soon found it's decline by the 1970's.

My family owned the machine while on base in the Philippines mid-marcosian terror in 1975 and still stands today in contemporary refurbishment amidst what terror lies within the Philippines under the Duterte regime.

Here the kundiman continues as an artifact of respite in material comfort and communal expression against the long standing wage of authoritarian and colonial control.
As a musical genre of such sultry serenade - the tune, Kundiman de 1950 for example under the guise of a song of courtship, was also praised to stoke the patriotic flames of rebellion against Spanish colonizers and to inspire the fight for freedom through the 1896 Philippine Revolution. While it is commonly titled as Jocelyn ng Baliwag in dedication to a woman in the Bulacan town of Baliuag, the Kundiman is also officially known as Musica del Legitimo Kundiman Procedente del Campo Insurecto (or Music of the Legitimate Kundiman that Proceeds from the Insurgents).

It stands out to me, most amazingly, that such a sweet and romantic tune can be found in such violent times of revolution and that even amidst immense struggle the turn to art and expression can be an important outlet and artifact for humanity.

In end, here’s a bit of a Filipino Musicology lesson featuring the writing of Chrystle Mactal-Villaflor and Raymundo Banas y Castillo -
“While still adhering to Western musical idioms, composers found a way to define Filipino music as a hybridity of pre-colonial and post-colonial music. Antonio Molina, composer and a nationalist advocate University of the Philippines urged the need for a creation of music that they could define as Filipino: He says,“The new tempo of Philippine life demands that our music take a new direction… It must reflect actual happenings and national events; for music is, in a way, a historical and social document.” (Banas, 1970, p. 7). … Instead of ignoring the reality that Filipino musicians had already been fully westernized for in many centuries, the nationalist composers used Western musical idioms to amplify or create genres that would help define Filipino music. This deliberate choice was due to their desire for progress and modernism. n the sense of seeing patriotic compositions as a tool of defiance against colonialism, prominent Filipino composers like Francisco Santiago, Nicanor Abelardo, and Antonio Molina could easily be revered in the same way Filipino national heroes like Jose Rizal, Andres Bonifacio, or Emilio Aguinaldo are respected."