If you Google “bamboo band,” you get 600,000+ hits mostly referencing Filipino musician Bamboo Mañalac’s band. But there was a time when there was a real bamboo band in town, thanks to then Pangasinan State University-College of Education’s Pangkat Kawayan.
It was 1980 and, even then, it was already a novelty. Decades away from the personal computer and the Internet, smartphones, Google, YouTube, and Facebook, it was a time when Madonna, shoulder pads, hair gel and glitters, and the so-called New Wave rock music occupied the youth. But music professor Rufino Menor bucked the tide, so to speak, and insisted that extracting notes from bamboo was what constituted real music.
At the time, we haven’t even discovered Wordstar, Lotus and floppy diskettes yet, to say nothing of CDs, viral videos, trending news, and fake news; instead, what we had as cutting-edge technology were Betamax tapes and, in the field of sound, cassette tapes -- played, of course, in cassette players. Looking back, it’s funny how we used Mongol pencils to fix the cassette tape if it unspooled.
At the time, only the college students played the bamboo instruments made of the angklung (main bamboo tube instrument), bamboo xylophone, bamboo cymbals, and sibakong (bamboo base). Mr. Menor would explain that he borrowed the angklung concept from the Indonesians, but no one taught him how to make the instruments per se – he only caught the idea on TV and from then on, it was solo flight for him. He said it took him a huge amount of time to make his instruments because the bamboo tubes had to go through a painstaking treatment and adjustment process to emit the right sound when struck. The bamboos had to be submerged in seawater for a certain time, and to make a wooden tube emit the right note, Mr. Menor had to slowly chip off a part of it bit by patient bit. Then he’d varnish the pieces one by one.
Every time there was an important event on campus, Mr. Menor and his bamboo band were sure to be there, regaling the PSU community and guests with number after lively number. The bamboo band spurred high interest among all audiences because, when played in an ensemble, the instruments are a joy to behold and to listen to. Each and every note is assigned to a group of players who have to raise and shake the angklungs at exactly the right time when it is their turn. It takes a level of skill to play the instruments because a player needs to have a strong sense of being an indispensable part of a team. Gentle tinklings in unison and harmony are produced this way, and listeners are relaxed by the melodic tremolos because it is almost like listening to 'nature sound.'
At first the Pangkat Kawayan would perform folk songs such as “Bahay Kubo,” “Leron, Leron Sinta,” and “Malinac lay Labi,” then surprise the audience by performing the pop music hits of the day. The crowd would then roar and erupt in loud applause, apparently pleased by the disorienting effect of it.
The bamboo instruments would bring PSU’s Pangkat Kawayan outside home, performing around Pangasinan and the Ilocos region. Then, in 1987, the “singing bamboos” abruptly turned silent.
According to Prof. Januario Cuchapin, Mr. Menor’s superior at the time, it’s because the latter devoted himself to producing the bamboo instruments for sale, which of course took up a lot of time and energy. Mr. Cuchapin reveals that Mr. Menor’s unprecedented passion for his bamboo instruments was a product of his own professional research, which he turned into reality, thanks to some amount of government funding.
Mr. Menor himself recalls how it took him eight long years of research. And that there were only three of them in the entire Philippines working on a Pangkat Kawayan. He was the only one in Pangasinan.
Mr. Cuchapin also recounts that Mr. Menor used to buy all the bamboo stems from his native Malasiqui, but when he entered into mass production for commercial purposes, he began putting up bamboo farms. He would travel all the way to a mountain in Mayantoc, Tarlac to procure bamboos of all kinds – cauayan bolo, bayug, kiling, etc.
The demise of the bamboo band would deprive several batches of students of getting to know something that is uniquely a part of PSU’s identity and history. But the upside is that Mr. Menor found his new preoccupation quite lucrative, and even found a buyer from as far as Palawan.
It is thus gratifying to witness the bamboo band resurrect from the dead, so to speak, keeping alive Mr. Menor’s legacy. And who better to revive it from the catacombs starting August 2017 (in time for Linggo ng Wika) but his daughter, Leah M. Bumatay, herself a singer, composer, and music teacher teaching at PSU’s MAPEH Department and High School Department, now renamed PSU Integrated School. Bumatay says she revived her father’s band after Prof. Felipe Moreno, Chairman of PSU’s MAPEH Department, suggested to have the Pangkat Kawayan presented again to the public.
As if by miracle, things fell into place. New to the service and lacking in financial capacity, Bumatay encountered a lot of obstacles, but PSU's then Campus Executive Director Dr. Cesar Della helped her secure financial assistance from Mayor Cezar T. Quiambao through Levin Uy -- incidentally, both Mayor Quiambao and Uy are into bamboo farming. And when Dr. Della was replaced by Dr. Rhodora Malicdem, Malicdem inspired Bumatay to carry on by assisting her each time she encountered a new problem. Soon, PSU Prof. Salome M. Montemayor became a consultant and wrote the bylaws of the Pangkat Kawayan. Along the way, other people gave help when needed.
And thanks to this chain of events, referring to the Pangkat Kawayan can now be made in the present tense instead of past. Luckily, her father had passed on the technology by this time to a group of workers. Playing during the recently held 1st Pangasinan Rizal Youth Leadership Institute, the band is now composed of not just MAPEH Department college students but also high schoolers, and they played the latest hits such as Michael Buble’s “Sway” under Ms. Bumatay’s baton. The old bamboo magic is kept intact!
Bumatay reveals that the band needs a minimum of 30 players, but she is planning to add more instruments to the ensemble.
Mr. Menor -- who happens to be the composer of the PSU Hymn, the creator of the PSU Kitchenette Symphony Orchestra, Rhythm Band, Ukelele, Harmonica, Bottle Xylophone Ensemble, Elementary Rondalla, Children’s Choir, Elementary Drum & Bugle Corps, Drum & Lyre Corps, and the organizer of PSU Band -- is now 80 years old and has retired from all of his former preoccupations, but his passion for music remains aflame. He is now an active member of Bayambang Municipal Council for Culture and the Arts, sharing wisdom and experience gained from his field whenever he can.
To us who grew up watching PSU’s Pangkat Kawayan and the rest of the bands he had put up, it is like going back to the days when we were listening to the now-obscure New Wave acts like New Order, Seona Dancing, and Psychedelic Furs (to randomly name a few) while obsessing with our crushes and the latest outbreak of pimples on our face. And then the singing bamboos stopped us on our tracks, disorienting our thoroughly Westernized worldview.
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