MUSIC-PHILIPPINES: ‘Mr C’ Marks 25th year on High Note

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Johanna Son

MANILA, Aug 20 1996 (IPS) - Filipino musician Ryan Cayabyab’s career path has been stoked by an enduring anxiety. Afraid of being just another composer who is talented but poor, he set about building a career that blends artistic acclaim with financial success.

Twenty-five years later, at age 42, ‘Mr. C’, as he is known to adoring fans, can look back with some satisfaction on a career that left a legacy. Cayabyab is no “starving composer”: arranging and musical directing are his bread and butter but he is also among the Philippines’ most successful and prolific musicians.

His anniversary was marked this month at a concert that traced the roots of a career that began when he was poor and struggling. That was in the seventies, regarded as the golden age of local music.

Though the concert was billed was a tribute, Cayabyab said: “Actually I don’t really hold it dear to me. It doesn’t mean anything to me, this 25 years. It’s not in my character to brag about my career and what I’ve done.”

“Maybe I’ll do that when I’ll be celebrating my 50 years. Maybe that’s the only time that I can say, ‘okay, go ahead, give me a tribute,” he added.

A professor of music composition and theory at the University of the Philippines’ College of Music since 1981, Coyabyab is among a rare breed capable of crossing over from pop to classical music — and holding his own in a music market strongly influenced by Western pop.

His range is wide. Through the years, he has done classical pieces for a Latin Mass, a couple of musicals, commercial jingles, musical scores for films, and countless pop songs for leading singers.

As a 16-year-old, Cayabyab played piano tunes at a music store so he could memorise music pieces he could not afford to buy. He at first took up a business course. His mother, an opera singer, did not want her children going into a profession which had the promise of limited financial reward.

Later on, Coyabyab was able to pursue a music course at the University of the Philippines with help from a benefactor. In the meantime he worked with a choir to earn money to stay in school.

Cayabyab grew up in a house constantly filled with music played by the students who boarded in his family’s house. He attributes his staying power to his eclectic brand of music.

“Eclectic, meaning I go from being as avant-garde/classical to as pop as I can be when the need arises, to the point that in the classical field in the university, they find my works too pop and in the pop field they find my works too classical,” he said.

That variety was highlighted at his recent concert — called ‘Ryan, Ryan, The Music Man’ — where the mere opening bars of his most well-known songs sent the crowd roaring in approval.

The concert — where Cayabyab conducted and played the piano all throughout — took audiences through a mini-history of Filipino music, through the seventies and eighties that saw a harvest of songs by outstanding singers of ‘Original Pilipino Music’ like Rico Puno, Hajji Alejandro, Basil Valdez and Celeste Legaspi.

Top billing was given to Valdez, who now performs in public only occasionally and mostly to raise funds for charity, Legaspi, and Regine Velasquez, two of the best current Filipino pop performers.

Crowd favourites were songs full of local favour, like ‘Tsimis’ (Gossip) which toys with the penchant of Filipinos for indulging in gossip, or ‘Kay Ganda ng Ating Musika’ (Our Beautiful Music) which extols the richness of the local sound.

Cayabyab’s concert also included snippets from the theatre — ‘Rama, Hari’ (Rama, King) and the musicals ‘Noli Me Tangere’ (‘Touch Me Not’) and ‘El Filibusterismo’ (‘The Renegade’), based on classic Spanish-era novels by Philippine national hero Jose Rizal.

In 1981, Cayabyab withdrew his life savings from the bank and gave himself a “gift”: he produced an album, something he had long wanted to do, but which no producer wanted to touch.

“To lessen the cost I was the one who sang, arranged it and produced it. I just paid the recording studio and royalties for the use of the songs,” he related.

The album has sold steadily, attracting those looking for good local music. Said Cayabyab: “Apparently it sold and it is still selling until now, not because of its pop appeal but for its being a collector’s item.”

Entitled ‘One’, the album is a collection of popular tunes by Cayabyab and others arranged and performed a capella. Asked recently if the album made money, he laughed: “Actually yes. Maybe after 10 years.”

Cayabyab says he likes to work without distraction. “I work in a quiet environment because it’s easier for me to imagine sound from no sound rather than getting influenced by other sounds,” he said in an interview in the local press.

Cayabyab believes that it is music that finds him, and not the other way around. “From the start, I’ve always believed the ideas have always been there, the music has always been there, and it’s just waiting for me to pass by the turn it into reality.”

In the future, he will be busy not just letting more music find him, but keeping an eye out for fresh, new talent.

At last week’s concert, Cayabyab tested his audience’s memory of Filipino hits of the seventies by stopping midway into the songs, then letting his listeners pick up where he left off.

Without skipping a beat, the audience sang on. The maestro smiled: “As I always say, all Filipinos can sing.”