Celebrating the musical legacy of Philippine Madrigal Singers
The Philippine Madrigal Singers celebrates its 60th year, continuing its mission to serve humanity through music.
Founded in 1963 by National Artist for Music Andrea O. Veneracion, the choir began after her postgraduate studies in Indiana, where she encountered madrigals, a genre popular in the 15th and 16th centuries. Inspired by the challenge, she brought this genre to the Philippines, forming the UP Madrigal Singers at the University of the Philippines.
The group brought an unusual composition of singers. Yes, there were male and female members of course, but assorted in the form of ‘quartets’. Shaped in a semi-circle, the conductor herself sat at the leftmost end. They, then, had to be conscious of one another every time they sang.
Bernadette de Leon, a member in the 1960s, recalled how much hard work had to be exerted in their early years.
“We had to meet at lunchtime to copy our lines by hand, there were no photocopy machines back in those days,” she says in a short conversation.
The setting also doubled her efforts in rehearsing with an unconventional setup.
Bernie, as amiably called by her peers, was part of the batch that sang at the Second International Choral Festival in New York. While they were known for their thunderous, roaring applause, it came too suddenly for the group. It was the week when former US President Dwight David Eisenhower passed away. As such, Ma’am OA found it fitting to perform a more somber piece – “Randall.”
Thompson’s Alleluia – in paying tribute. After they sang their “Amen,” silence was in place, but not for long. Cheers and acclaim soon followed. The rest, as they say, was history.
Ma’am OA, as the conductress was fondly called, is known by her strict guidance of the Madz during her tenure. This is summed up in an interview by the CCP; “I don’t care if you are a good singer, or you’re the best singer I have. You have to attend rehearsals kasi that’s the only thing that will keep us together.”
Robert Delgado, who sang with the group in its famed 1989 batch, remembered the need to juggle his time between his studies, the group, and his other endeavors. Apart from the usual, thrice-a-week, two-hour-long rehearsals, he also had to be with the Madz in events organized by the CCP, concerts and private engagements, as well as state dinners and international tours that are usually held every year.
Indeed, there was never a year that they weren’t laid back as they set out to perform and sing.
Delgado would later be known for his arrangements of popular songs. Among his classic pieces was his take on “Bituing Walang Ningning,” originally penned by Willy Cruz. Through his artistic flair, he uses them to build an “imagined community” as he calls that would unite choirs in harmony. Today, he holds his online courses that would uplift aspiring arrangers to make more music, apart from his exhibition of the Robert Delgado Choral Festival.
The Madz is widely known for its wins in various competitions. They were the first choir to win the European Grand Prix twice in 1997 and 2007. Among them is Mark Carpio. A tenor since 1992, he considered himself to be a ‘diehard fan’ since his early years at UP College of Music. He got to sing with distinguished tenors which developed his voice. Later, he became a soloist. More than the limelight, however, he recounts that all of them were trained the same way by Ma’am OA. He was even part of a committee that would select her successor as she retired in 2001. All of them were poised to be one – to sit at the end of that circle.
As it turned out, it would be him. Now, sir Mark is at the end of the semi-circle, still singing with them as its choirmaster for twenty-three years and counting.
The legacy of the Madz, then and now, remains strong and steadfast in its desire to ‘sing from the heart’. They remain committed to sharing their desires for the greater good through their harmonies. For as long as they continue to sing and make music together, they’ll be able to share the vision, once dreamed by Ma’am OA, now in full fruition – the vision of a “singing Philippines.”
