Home | To bottom

It is like reaching a plateau

A tribute to the Panagbenga Hymn composer

BAGUIO CITY (Jan. 26) — Baguio residents are yet to hear rehearsals of the Baguio Flower Festival (BFF) or Panagbenga Hymn this year. There seems to be no school band rehearsing it these days, unlike last year when it was in the air months before the staging of the BFF.

Definitely, at least eight participating groups will dance to the rhythm of the hymn in the street dancing on February 26.

For BFF enthusiasts and ordinary Baguio residents, the tune is familiar but its title, “Tribute to the Cordillerans” is little known. Its composer, former Dean of Students Affairs Macario G. Fronda of the Saint Louis University (SLU) received a large trophy for the musical score in 2003 and several plaques of appreciation during the nine-year staging of the BFF.

Fronda, who was at the Kapihan on the updates of the holding of the tenth Panagbenga, said that he was yet to attend a meeting with choreographers of the different schools participating in the BFF.

Fronda told NORDIS that the hymn was not intended for Panagbenga. “It was composed years before the first flower festival, to inspire athletes of the Palarong Pambansa,” Fronda disclosed. He said that people did not know its composer or its title then, because he kept it to himself.

Fronda composed the hymn on February 8, 1989. He was then with the Sports Committee of the city when he arranged the music for the Cordillera athletes who were going to Mindanao for the Palarong Pambansa. After that debut presentation, it continued to inspire all athletes in the yearly national sports events.

Capturing the Cordillera terrain

“There is an up and down rhythm which captures the terrain of the Cordillera,” Fronda explains. The tune comes to a higher note and stays there a little just like when one reaches a plateau, he relates.

The melody was inspired by an Ibaloy cañao which Fronda attended in Tublay sometime back. The sound of gongs combined with the chanting of the community was captured by Fronda as he arranged the melody.

Gongs are usually played in rituals involving weddings, baptisms, even death and memorial services in Ibaloy and Kankanaey communities in Benguet. In some of these communities, however, the gongs are restricted in ceremonies for the dead or to commemorate the departed.

A lot to be grateful for

“It is giving respect to the Cordillera people,” he emphasizes saying that he has stayed in Baguio City for the last 58 years. There are reasons to be grateful for and it is but fitting to put it artistically in a tune, the musician quips.

According to Fronda, it was Atty. Damaso Bangaoet, who headed the BFF Committee in 1996, who approached him and moved to adopt the hymn for the Panagbenga. It was unanimously approved by all school heads.

“It was only then that the composer and the title of the hymn were announced to the public,” Fronda said.

Fronda, who turned 83 in December 8, used to be a musician for eight years at the Camp John Hay before he landed a teaching job at the SLU elementary department in 1947. In 1952 he was transferred to the university’s high school department where he worked until 1957. From I957 onwards he served the SLU College of Education. He was Dean of Student Affairs for when he retired. Fronda says he still serves SLU up to the present as band leader.

Fronda and his wife Ildefonsa are natives of Agoo, La Union. The couple raised their family in Baguio City.

For Fronda, and other musicians, for that matter, recognition of a work well done need not be in terms of financial remunerations or the size of plaques and trophies. Like his music, Fronda has conquered mountain ranges and reached more plateaus than he has hoped for. # Lyn V. Ramo and Marlon Gomarcho for NORDIS

Home | Back to top