2010 UP ALUMNI COUNCIL MEETING SERIES

Presentation to the 2010 UP Alumni Council Meeting, June 25, 2010, Ang Bahay Alumni, UP, Diliman, Quezon City

By Dr. Ramon Ma. G. Acoymo, BS'79cl; BM'88mcl; PhD'05

An academic institution of Music has, broadly, a triple mandate.  In the light of conventional wisdom that any academic institution ought to fulfill its roles and responsibilities in the dimensions of teaching, research and extension, a college of Music includes in its research dimension the creative endeavor;  that is, "new" knowledge in the form of original works that are symbolized in traditional manuscript form containing symbols used in the "Western" (European and American) "classical" or "serious" genres and idioms such as notes, clefs, key and time signatures and rests written on staves and measures usually associated with the "Common Practice Era" (that music created during approximately the years 1600 through 1880 to the present day:  the Baroque, Classical, Romantic through the Modern and Contemporary periods of Music History) or other alternative symbolisms; and in its extension work the "re-creative" endeavor - the act of "performing", or executing the physical symbols and symbolisms of the creators of music (the "composers").

A College of Music as one that exists in and at the University of the Philippines has in my view a broader and more transcendent aim contextualized, operationalized and concretized through the aforementioned triple mandate the continuation, strengthening, improvement, enrichment, enhancement and otherwise betterment of the state of knowledge of the academic community and ideally of the music-consuming public that enables this community and public to make better and more educated decisions regarding the music product alternatives available and how and why certain choices among these alternatives can and may be made.

In its making available, dissemination and presentation of pedagogical, research (including creative) and extension (including re-creative) outputs a College of Music considers as an ultimate accomplishment the illumination of the music consumer's ability to discern superior over inferior;  more desirable over less desirable music products, whether these products for the choosing are presented in the mass media or in more exclusive venues.

An academic institute of music teaching and learning tries always, and especially in the Philippine context (because of the relatively inadequate resources for the optimum access to quality music education by and for the greater number of learners in the education system) to - whether implicitly or explicitly - transform the dynamic of music production and consumption to approximate a state where the market recognizes the excellence of the music product and is empowered to gain access to the consumption fo this product; and the producer of the music product is able to consistently provide the product of a consistently excellent quality that is able to satisfy the market demand.

Herein lies the dissonance and the incongruity.  Anecdotally it is perceived that the Filipino is capable of being (in a term almost cliche) "world class" in his/her performances and other creative outputs.  Producers, businessmen, market people and other entities who and that are involved in the struggle to create an arts and music environment in which the demand-and-supply dynamic perpetuates at least the merely consistent production of arts and music consumable outputs that are "excellent" and the consumption of these outputs, would do well and in the long run to endeavor or to help endeavor, to raise the level and quality of music education throughout as much of the education system as possible.  This utlimately empowers a consuming market to recognize and "purchase" outputs of excellence as opposed to mediocrity or outputs bereft outright of acceptable qualtiy.

Artists will continue to strive to train; to hone their craft in the relentless pursuit of excellence - at times sacrificing the pursuit of more practical matters relating to the physical standards of their very existence.  If the audiences and consumers who are to avail of and benefit from this pursuit - yes, sacrifice - can at first and at the very least recognize excellence when and where it exists, then artists can more meaningfully contribute to the transcendence of our human existence which I believe is the most valuable and yet most intangible purpose of music.