Musings on the Engagement of the Neophyte with the Established Archive Fredyl B. Hernandez ASIAN-EUROPEAN MUSIC RESEARCH JOURNAL 5 (2020) https://doi.org/10.30819/aemr.5-2     pp: 9-16     2020-06-30

Musings on the Engagement of the Neophyte with the Established Archive

Stichworte/keywords: Performing arts, digitizing pedagogy, project outcomes, archiving of events, Philippines

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Abstract
Music Production of De La Salle – College of Saint Benilde is a program first of its kind in the Philippines. Oriented to trail-blaze for 21st century Filipino musicians, the Music Production program is to be found not in a conservatory, but in a School of Design and Arts. As such, the program ensures responsiveness to the needs of the Creative Industries. With the government’s Long-term Development Plan, wherein culture and the arts are seen as key social and economic capitals, something is to look forward for people who innately possess a certain degree of musicality whether in traditional, folk, popular, indie or in other formats. The program, to a certain extent, makes its own contribution in realizing this governmental thrust.

Situated in an amalgamation of cultural expressions as a result of historical determinations, sound and music culture in the Philippines feature a fusion of genres which also naturally results to distinct forms in the fusion and weaving processes. Recognizing this rich context, the program offers a wide variety of training to its students, and sensitive to the needs of the industry, outputs are always made relevant to the demands of the market and the society at large.

The capstone projects of the students as well as their other outputs from immersions and on-the-job trainings are in need of safeguarding and proper documentation. In the program’s over two decades of existence, there is no good reason to wait for these outputs to become archaic in the future, acquiring the status of becoming objects or pieces of curiosities. The archival initiative is premised on the idea that these productivities entail a wealth of contemporary musical expressions nurtured in an emerging field of formal learning and mentoring. Offhand, there is a felt necessity of tracing the development of works. At the same time, as prompted by trends, the question to be asked now: What direction must the program take in order to be truly responsive to the industry as well as to actively engage in cultivating contemporary practices of music in the Philippines and in the world?

Lastly, the archive is also a soundscape. Akin to the recording of varied sounds simultaneously present in an environment, the archive becomes an instrument of digitizing culture and pedagogy – of recording thought and learning processes of young people as well as educational approaches and methodologies in the part of the program. The initiative seeks to explore the charting of pedagogical outputs – its domiciliation and consignation, and processes involved in its retrieval and dissemination.