Music and Religion in Southeast Asia - Essay Example

MUSIC AND RELIGION IN SOUTHEAST ASIA Introduction Payson entails traditions practiced in the Roman Catholic Church. Indigenous activities in the Philippines’ include chanting before home altars, funeral wakes and during Lents. All these activities include the use of Payson verses during the engagement of all the activities. The Payson played during these activities influenced music and culture in Southeast Asia. It had major influences in the history and culture of the people who lived in Philippines. This paper organizes into categories based on the influence of Payson on religion, music, church, culture and it is history to the present times in Southeast Asia and general Philippines Christianity. Moreover, the relation of Payson to Southeast Asian music and culture entails in this paper. The Payson entails seven major Filipino languages. The languages influence the culture, religion, and music of the Philippines Christianity in diverse and varied forms (Paul, 2002, p. 5). The languages tend to explain the cultures and religion of the natives in Southeast Asia in explaining Payson verses and it is influence to the music and culture of the Philippines. Besides, the languages consist of three thousand rhymed stanzas that comprise of five lines each. It narrates the history of salvation from the creation times to the second coming of Jesus Christ. It includes apocryphal stories, which consists of detailed account and prayerful moments of Christ. The passion and meditation of Christ also includes in the Payson. Majority of the Philippines sing Payson after meals to retain a sacral undertone according to the culture and religion of the Asians. Therefore, the introduction of Payson verses in the Roman Catholic Church has contributed greatly to the development of and influence of Philippines culture, music, religion and history. The verses consist of major teachings and ideas concerning the culture and religion of the Philippines’ in their daily lives. Therefore, Southeast Asian communities concentrate on the developments of Payson verses and ideas to enable them mature in their religion and music in the daily lives (Paul, 2002, p 8). History of Payson Natives born in a protestant family have the memory of Payson in their daily lives. This is because the developments of Payson started from dramatic actions of reliving the trial, suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The main participants of the dramas came from Protestant families since it was a norm for them to introduce any new member of the Payson verses. It encouraged and developed a majority of individuals, especially from the protestant families, to participate in the dramas and later encrypt the knowledge of Jesus Christ and the resurrection history. All these were encouraged by the development and establishment of Payson verses. The verses had different teachings that encouraged development of histories based on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Additionally, the Lenten season, in the history of Payson marks processions. The longest and most attractive one highlights drama at the end of the Lenten season. Devoted catholic neighbors’ go the extent of lighting candles on their windowsills during the practice of Lenten season. This shows how vital and sacred the Lenten season was in the history of Payson to teach natives on some important ideas and practices of the Philippines (Reynaldo, 2009). Moreover, the Lenten season encourages the culture of Southeast Asian in terms of remembering the teachings of Jesus Christ and the Passover festival according to the biblical stories. The religions of the Philippines’ Christianity emerge strong through the practice of Lenten season activities. The lighting of candles, with the play of specific Christian music encourages the cultures of the Philippines based on Christian believes. The natives become more knowledgeable about their culture and the type of activities they need to be participating in during their normal life operations that is relevant to their culture and the ways of lives. Moreover, the lent season in the history of Payson encourages togetherness and sharing of common religious beliefs and values in within the community. Majority of individuals participate in the activities of the lent season, which encourages sharing of religious norms and ideas and later development of their cultures in unison. Besides, the lent season signifies unity and with those that walk in the procession. The unity of people establishes a more strong community with different ideological ideas from their cultures. The different conceptions of their culture encourage participation of different cultural activities that tend to bind the community members to have a common goal in the process of development and establishments of families (Reynaldo, 2009). During the lent season, bedecked carriages carry statues of the beautifully garbed patrons. Consequently, other separate carriages carry the images of suffering Jesus. This demonstrates the religion beliefs of the biblical stories and the impact it creates to the Asian community. It enables the young generation to adapt to the significant changes based on the religion values and norms. Moreover, the culture of the Philippines is maintained based on the biblical stories. Generations take up the responsibility of maintaining the cultures and even passing it over to the next generation for continuity. Therefore, the lent season according to the Payson history has a major impact to the maintenance of Asian cultures and values, since they practice the lent seasons, which are passed from one generation to another. Culture and customs of the Philippines Philippines have a strong and indigenous Asian culture. The culture incorporates many external influences and fashioned according to it is standards. In the book, Culture and Customs of the Philippines by Paul A. Rodell, the manuscript bridges initial impressions and deeper understandings of the results of cultural synthesis (Paul, 2002, p 10). Moreover, the complex combinations of cultural elements create a unique Philippine culture. The major topics of Philippines cultures include music, literature, religion, architecture, fashion and family life. These topics have great impacts to the way of life and general beliefs that the Philippines life with in their daily activities. The development of Payson verses in music and religion has a significant contribution to the cultures of the Philippines. The verses give different ideas especially in music and other relevant topics like religion. The exploration of Philippine culture not only contributes to major concerns of the Filipinos, but also creates interest to a foreign reader. This is because of many varied forms that the culture brings in an attempt to have all the topics mentioned above in unison. Moreover, the Filipinos define their national identity through their different cultures in response to foreign influence. The cultures developed in by the Philippines emanate from the traditions of the Payson (Clewley, 2000). The Payson gives different cultural ideas that help in making up the different cultures of the Asian community and allows the sharing of cultures in different perspectives. The cultures of the Philippines have different meanings to the general understanding of human beings. The cultures signify the creation of different music genres that give information regarding the different cultures of the Philippines. Some of the music created talk about the preservation of the Philippines culture whiles other music talk about the development of cultures that protect the normal society of the Philippines from any decay. The music is played in different ways and functions of the community in an attempt to protect and signify different ideas that the communities’ culture portrays to the rest of the world. Therefore, music becomes vital in the process of preservation of cultures and its maintenance since the communities’ beliefs, and ideas incorporate in the development of the cultures. It is vital for natives to encourage the development and creation of music to preserve their cultures as seen demonstrated in the Payson verses. The spread of Payson The spread of Payson was not only in the holy week but also, on other important times of the year. This ensured even the illiterate Tao became familiar with the general contours that Payson verses established. Besides, reading sessions called people to assemble in the houses, where the altar is set up around two to three persons who sang alternate stanzas. The music established in the altars encourages more people to come, learn different ideas concerning the religion of people, and generally share common cultures from their experiences. The widespread of Payson enabled for the assembly of many people and practice of different forms of activities in the altars, which promoted the establishment and sharing of information that is relevant for the natives (Muriel, 2012). Religion and the use of music in the altars promoted understanding of cultural ideas and the need of proper logical structures that enable peaceful living of all natives within the Philippine community. The music played in the altars was from different people within the Philippine community that had incorporated Asian culture. Therefore, they demonstrated different cultural beliefs practiced in different parts of the Asian community. This enabled majority of the people from different parts of the Asian community to come together and share their differences based on their cultures. The promotion of cultures develops histories from different communities and promotes religion combinations of different ideas and norms within the community. Therefore, the prevalence of Payson has a peculiar effect to the cultures of a community. It encourages development of different religions within Philippines Christian values. The prevalence of Payson pulls for large gatherings that promote social interactions of people and general development of cultures. During gatherings, the size of a crowd determined how people could meet for the meetings to share common ideas and cultural differences. If the crowd was large then the owner of house would provide provisional tent outside the house that accommodated virtually the whole barrio population. Moreover, Payson singers divide into an even number of pairs with only individuals who know the text by memory. The singing would then alternate with natives in the house and the ones outside the house. This demonstrated unity and common cultural practices entirely promoted by the individual who clearly knew the song of the Payson. The singing styles of the Payson varied from one individual to the other as they still do today. The creation of different musical styles promotes the development of different histories of the Philippines and cultures from the origins of the music. The differences encourage more inhabitants to have the passion of knowing their cultural ideas and the ways of developing strategies of coming up with one common culture that bind all the Philippines and general Asian community (Singh, 2004). The impact of the Americans to Philippine cultural life American culture was strong in the Philippine cultural life. American educators designed the education system of the Philippines regardless of their cultural life and the system of religion that the Philippines believed in before the influence of the Americans. The use of English became the principle language of communication for the government, business and education system within Philippines. The prevalence of English facilitated the intrusion of American culture with that of the Philippines (Reynaldo, 2009). Therefore, the culture of the Philippines incorporated that of the Americans in their daily activities. These influenced the traditional Payson verses that were shaping the culture of the Philippines in different forms and direction. The intrusion of the American culture brought more westernization and change in the mode of speaking and dressing. Moreover, the music of the Americans changed the thoughts of the Americans based on some of the critical issues that the Asians in general considered more vital in their daily lives. The American culture brought colony to the Philippines ways of lives and general conduct of their culture and religion in the churches and synagogues. Besides, earliest Americans brought musical and Vaudeville Theater to the Philippines. These changed the operations of the Asians in almost all their activities since the rise of theaters brought a completely new taste of the Philippines culture (Cadar & Garfias, 1996). More cultural diverse practices spread across Philippines because of the influence in the ways of Americans religion and diverse forms of cultural practices brought into the country. The influence of the Americans to Philippines introduced Hollywood movies and other dance crazes. These had a significant change in the traditional Payson believes which automatically diminished with time. The practices of the Payson traditional believe that preserving the ways of lives of the Philippines scrubbed away by the introduction of new cultural practices, which had different impacts to the Philippines culture and general ways of lives (Cadar, 1996). Additionally, Americans influenced the aspects of culture including dress, architecture and art of the Philippines. At the height of all these influence, American culture seemed to have eliminated all the Filipino culture that had the efforts of the Spanish friars, who had taken power of the country for over a hundred years. Philippine singers, writers, musicians and theatrical artists who attempted to maintain the vernacular dialects and general cultural sensibilities seemed to be swimming against the tide. The American culture had taken over so much such that the Philippines cultural values were considered of no importance to the cultural practices and general Payson traditions (Eva& Hedman, 2000). The religion of the Philippines took another turn and the people changed believes based on the impact of the influence in their daily lives. In contrast, Philippine culture continued to make presence by incorporating new American fashions and influence to local tastes. These laid a firm foundation to the emergence of Filipino culture in the post- World War II era. The practices of Payson traditions took different turns as the changes in the cultures became significant. The traditions of the Philippines took different turns and people changed their ways of living to incorporate American culture and religious beliefs that were far much different from the norms and traditions of the Payson. Despite the influence of the Americans general prosperity, political advances and new cultural influences did not witness narrowing social divide between the poor and rich. The wealth of the Philippines remained in the hands of mestizo who were elite and built strong ties with the American rulers. To some extent, these encouraged the maintenance of some of the Payson traditions since the wealthy mestizo’s had dialogue with the Americans to maintain some of their cultural practices, which they considered vital for the coming generations. These helped in maintaining some of the cultural beliefs, which the Philippines considered vital for their general growth. The cultures preserved some of the vital resources within Philippine community that had a significant impact to the general welfare of the Philippines (Fenella, 2012). Conclusion Music mainly brought together the members of the community in unison despite the influence that the American culture had created in Philippine religion and cultural practices. Philippines had traditions that were included in the Payson. The Payson had cultures, the type of music, religion and the history of the Philippines and general Asian community. The Payson’s presence and development helped to maintain the cultural values of the Philippines in that all the norms and rules practiced in Philippines originated from the Payson. The introduction of different cultures, especially colonization of the Americans in Asian countries influenced the development and spread of the religion and cultural practices of the Philippines. Finally, the use of the Payson helped preserve Philippine culture and norms despite the many influences that it faced from external forces such as colonization by the Americans. Reference Cadar, Usopay H. (1996). “The role of Kulintang music in Maranao society”. Asian Music 27.2: 81-103. (Revised, with additional photos, from Ethnomusicology 17.2 (1973): 234-49.) Paul A. Rodel:(2002) Culture and Customs of the Philippines: Greenwood Publishing Group, 247 pages Cadar, Usopay H. & Robert Garfias (1996). “Some principles of formal variation in the Kolintang music of the Maranao”. Asian Music 27.2: 105-22. (Revised, with addition of photos, from Ethnomusicology 18.1 (1974): 43-55. Clewley, J. (2000). “The Philippines: pinoy rockers”. In Simon Broughton et al. (ed.) World music: the Rough Guide, vol. 2: Latin & North America, Caribbean, India, Asia and Pacific, 213-17. London: Rough Guides. Muriel Orevillo-Montenegro :( 2012) Jesus of Asian Women :Concept Publishing Company:263pages Fenella Cannell(2012): Power and Intimacy in the Christian Philippines: Cambridge University Press,312pages Eva-Lotta E. Hedman, John Thayer Sidel:(2000) Philippine Politics and Society in the Twentieth Century: Colonial Legacies, Post-colonial Trajectories, Psychology Press,206 pages Reynaldo Clemeña Ileto:(2009): Pasyon and Revolution: Popular Movements in the Philippines, 1840-1910: Ateneo University Press,280pages NK Singh, A Samiuddin:(2004) Encyclopaedic Historiography of the Muslim World: Global Vision Publishing House:1091pages Read More