But how?
Filipino composers such as Jose Maceda, Lucresia Kasilag, Ramon Santos, etc, have incorporated the concepts of Philippine indigenous music into their compositions, resulting to a unique style of modern music that distinguish us from "white" composers.
That said, I intend to follow their footsteps. But I cannot help but ask;
If we are for the advocacy of separating ourselves from the west as a distinct nation with its own ideas of aesthetics, is it not paradoxical that we "compose" music and write them down in western notation hoping it would embody a purely Filipino sound? Composing classical music after all is an activity of an almost entirely disparate culture distant from that of ours. One might say that the centuries of colonization had led us to the adaptation of western practices, but wouldn't that be contradictory to the rise of our cultural distinction?
Many young composers today have tried their hands at using ethnic musical materials as motives for their short choral (sometimes instrumental) works, with the pretext of "promoting" Philippine music. Many of such works often cater to new and emerging choirs who would participate in competitions abroad. More often than not, they fascinated the Europeans with their exoticism and primitiveness, and return with trophies and admiration.
But was it really Philippine music they promoted? Or a kind of contemporary-classical choral music that appropriates Philippine ethnic music? Because if you go out there as a choir and you perform music that was composed, those words alone, being western in origin, indicate you are engaging still within the context of western art music, regardless of your colorful Filipino costumes and indigenous elements of the compositions you sing.
Whether or not it is right to appropriate the culture of a minority in music composition, I have no say. But I always imagine that to do so would be analogous to the image of a Caucasian man wearing the red drapes of the Kalinga, or the peacock-like head dress of the Talaandig with the pretext of advertising these cultures. Another analogy would be a Filipino folk tale written in German.
One might ask me; what makes them different from what Jose Maceda or Ramon Santos did? Did they appropriate Philippine music in a western idiom?
"Appropriation" brings negative connotations. But take for instance Jose Maceda's composition Agungan. Although this work was written out in notation, there are absolutely no elements of western music to be found. Melody, harmony, rhythmic regularity are irrelevant. Even the form and structure is untraceable of western origins. With its use of an all-Filipino set of instruments (gongs), its complexity and sophistication, intricacy along with phenomenal play of timbre, Agungan is a non-western masterpiece. But I'll admit it was still an avant-garde composition.
But let it be remembered that these composers were also researchers. And their efforts in promoting the marginalized tribes of the Philippines cannot only be found in their music compositions, but in the events that they spearheaded to hold festivals wherein the actual indigenous groups perform their music for all who are willing to see and hear.
I think I just answered my own question.