"To See You Again" sung by Ebe Dancel
I come from the Philippines, we
have the ancient tradition of the Harana or serenade, a dying artform in light
of the great westernization and technological evolution that is griping the
entire world. Despite all this, a part of me believes and knows that music can
never be a dying art form in this world; it is merely an unused one. We listen
to our favorite musicians and songs day in and day out. We hear them on the
radio and expect to hear our favorite melodies. But where is the substance, the
live expression in society that music is supposed to create?
Who is the
author of music, of sound, except the one who created the universe? If God
created man to have ears and voices of which to sing, then God intended music
to be alive, to be an expression of man’s soul. Have you ever asked yourself,
why in stories, there is always singing in heaven? The highest seraphim
themselves continually sing their praises to God. Once upon a time in many
countries, song was used to court and yes, it didn’t always work for the one
doing the courting, but it was a beautiful form of expression nonetheless. Now,
the Harana itself in Philippine culture is almost completely dead. Long gone
are the days when men would sing to try and win the hearts of their beloved and
vice versa.
It is
almost completely dead except for the few Filipino masters of this lost art
form who keep the tradition alive, masters such as Florate Aguilar and
Celestino Aniel from the documentary, “Harana.” In a way, that effort to keep
the “Harana” alive even as a musical artifact has re-ignited my own vision of
music in the realm of the romantic. The night I envisioned this website, I
realized that the “Harana” could live again, by injecting it into the
mainstream culture, and into the land cyberspace and media. Besides, practiced
art forms are merely reflections of the practices a culture possesses, or a
part of its soul. To not see the beauty and utility of a God given gift is to
be blind and apathetic to the ideal that God has asked each and every one of us
to strive for.
That brings
me to the next point. “Thy Kingdom come, they Will be done, on earth as it is
done in Heaven.” If there singing in heaven, then one day, there must be
singing on earth, whether it is to God or to one’s beloved, music should never
be seen as corny or out of date. We sing at Church do we not? Many of us sing
like robots or have learned to sing like robots. And our children sing as
robots as well because that is what the culture turns them into, turns us into,
not saints, because the greatest utility of a saint is to live love, to show
love, to sing love. To express love in suffering, or joy, in gladness, or
hardship is the path of love if it performed as such for the love of God. To
take a love ballad and offer it up to God, where has that gone? It has been
relegated to rote and repetitive practice. And as long as things are that way,
the Victory of God in the human soul will never be complete as long as we never
learn how to sing.
We must take the old tradition of the
serenade and reinvigorate it and raise it to new life and a higher standard.
Gone are the old lyrical styles and standards that those forms of music
utilized. But life is such is it not. We have songs so beautiful and amazing
that people in the past have never heard. We have technology and
advancements today that those before us never were able to experience.
God has revealed numerous secrets to his people that are yet to be revealed to
many for the benefit of bringing his people even closer to him. If so many
advancements are being made in all areas, then the art form of music must be
advanced as well. It must be brought back. We must utilize this dying art into what God intended it to be used for, in order to
create beauty in the human soul, an entire universe and kingdom unto itself. We
do this now, by teaching. That is how I envision this, our future, so let us
make it a good one. God bless.
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