Jose Estella (1870 - 6 April 1943) was a Filipino composer and conductor who was known for his title as the "Philippine Waltz King". [1] Besides composing waltzes, he also became one of the major contributors of localizing Spanish zarzuelas from 1890s to 1900s. [2]
Jose Estella was born in Escolta, Manila in 1870. After studying and graduating from the Madrid Conservatory, he returned to the Philippines and pursued a career in music. In Manila and Cebu, he conducted several orchestras. In Manila, he had a teaching career as a piano instructor. He spends his time studying history, visiting different Filipino provinces and exploring the local folk music. In Cebu, he was director of the Municipal Band where he started to gain recognition. [3] Estella also became a director of the Rizal Orchestra, founded in 1898. [4]
Estella became involved with a plagiarism case in 1939 with Francisco Santiago over which he complains that Santiago copied his Campanadas de Gloria. In the end of the investigation, it was revealed that they both get inspiration from the same folk song named "Leron Leron Sinta". [5]
He died on April 6, 1943, and throughout his lifetime, he composed more than 100 waltzes hence he is given the title, "the Philippine Waltz King". [6] There are no information regarding his personal life except he has a son named Ramon Estella, a film director. [7]
Ang Maya
Composed in 1905, it was a piece from Estella's zarzuela, "Filipinas para los Filipinos" with Severino Reyes as librettist. [2] The piece represented the everyday life of the common people in the Philippines, thus predating some works by other composers who graduated from UP Conservatory of Music in the 1920s. Severino's youngest son, Pedrito, said that the song was inspired by the maya chirping in the trees near his father's summer hut. [8] Estella's "Filipinas para los Filipinos" was a satire made by the composer as a reaction to an American Congress bill banning American women from marrying Filipino men. [9]
La Tagala
Originally composed for piano in 1890s and 1900s, the waltz is a collection of Filipino folk songs such as Balitaw, Hele hele, Kundiman, Kumintang, etc. It was dedicated to the Tobacco Company Germinal. One of its notable performance was on a concert night of November 1899. [10]
Filipinas Symphony (1928)
Jose Estella's Filipinas Symphony is the first Filipino Symphony by modern scholarly consensus. [2] [8] [11] Although not much was known about the information of the piece, according to sources, the symphony was based on the Filipino folk song "Balitaw" meanwhile the Slow Movement (Adagio) was based on another folk song "Kumintang". [11]
The music of the Philippines includes the musical performance arts in the Philippines and the music of Filipinos composed in various local and international genres and styles. Philippine musical compositions are often a mixture of Indigenous styles, and various Asian styles, as well as Spanish/Latin American and (US) American influences through foreign rule from those countries.
Philippine literature is literature associated with the Philippines from prehistory, through its colonial legacies, and on to the present.
Ilocano literature or Iloko literature pertains to the literary works of writers of Ilocano ancestry regardless of the language used - be it Ilocano, English, Spanish or other foreign and Philippine languages. For writers of the Ilocano language, the terms "Iloko" and "Ilocano" are different. Arbitrarily, "Iloko" is the language while "Ilocano" refers to the people or the ethnicity of the people who speak the Iloko language. This distinction of terms however is impractical since a lot of native Ilocanos interchange them practically.
Nicanor Santa Ana Abelardo was a Filipino composer known for kundiman songs he wrote before the Second World War.
Ramon A. Estella, son of Filipino composer Jose Estella, was a pre-war Philippines movie director and actor. At the age of 27 years old, he started directing his first film, "Bayan at Pagibig,” in 1938 and in 1941, he was proclaimed Director of the Year by Philippine Cinema and Radio because of the success of his assigned project, "Buenavista". During the 1950s, Estella started his career as a neo-realist painter which later in 1959, had his first solo exhibition at the Philippine Art Gallery. He spent his entire life in Florida with his Japanese wife and his last recorded visit to the country was during the Manila International Film Festival in 1981.
Ruben Tagalog was a Filipino actor and musician, famous for his works in the kundiman style. He was also one of the founders of the singing group Mabuhay Singers. He is known as the Father of Kundiman. He was a member of the US Army during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines.
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Francisco Santiago Santiago was a Filipino musician, sometimes called The Father of Kundiman Art Song.
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Severino Reyes y Rivera was a Filipino writer and playwright. He used the pen name Lola Basyang. He was nicknamed "Don Binoy".
Walang Sugat is an 1898 Tagalog-language zarzuela written by Filipino playwright Severino Reyes. The music for the original version of the play was written by Filipino composer Fulgencio Tolentino. Walang Sugat was written when the zarzuela became a "potent means" of expressing Filipino nationalism during the Spanish Occupation of the Philippines that followed three centuries of Spanish rule.
Kundiman is a genre of traditional Filipino love songs. The lyrics of the kundiman are written in Tagalog. The melody is characterized by a smooth, flowing and gentle rhythm with dramatic intervals. Kundiman was the traditional means of serenade in the Philippines.
Vicente Daclan Rubi was a Filipino Visayan musician from Cebu, Philippines best known for composing the Philippine Christmas carol Kasadyaa Ning Taknaa, which was translated into Tagalog, Ang Pasko ay Sumapit, by National Artist Levi Celerio. He was one of the top 100 Cebuano personalities according to The Freeman.
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Marcelo Quiteria Adonay was a Filipino church composer, musician, organist, musical director, and music teacher. He is regarded as a major icon of Philippine golden age of church music for his extensive contribution to religious music in the Philippines throughout his career.
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José Canseco y Rivera del Poso, more commonly known as José Canseco, Jr., was a Filipino composer and bandmaster. He was known to be a prominent native music composer during the Spanish colonial period of the late 19th century.