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Baes, Jonas (b. 1961, Los Banos, Laguna). Philippine composer of interdisciplinary works that have been performed in Asia, Europe and North America; he is also active as an ethnomusicologist and writer.
Mr. Baes studied composition with Ramón Pagayon Santos at the University of The Philippines in Quezon City from 1977–82, where he earned his BMus in composition. He also studied musicology with José Maceda at this same school from 1982–85 and studied composition and music politics with Mathias Spahlinger at the Musikhochschule Freiburg/Breisgau from 1992–94. He finished his PhD in Philippine studies at the University of The Philippines in 2004 with a dissertation entitled Modes of Appropriation in Philippine Indigenous Music: The Politics of the Production of 'Cultural Difference'.
Among his honors are the CCP-LFC Composition Prize (1980, for Awit ng Ibon) and three awards from the chancellor, which earned him the Hall of Fame Award for best research at the University of The Philippines, entitled Gawad Chancellor para sa Pinakamahusay na Mananaliksik (2001–03). He later received the Nippon Foundation Senior Fellowship for Asian Public Intellectuals (2008–09).
As an ethnomusicologist, he has undertaken much research of Philippine music and has written extensively about it in articles for publications in Australia, Germany, Japan, The Philippines, South Korea, the UK, and the USA. He contributed articles on the politics of Philippine music to Perfect Beat: The Pacific Journal of Research on Contemporary Music and Popular Culture (1998, 2001–02, Macquarie University, Sydney) and Changing Sounds: New Directions and Configurations in Popular Music (2000, edited by Toni Mitchell, University of Technology, Sydney). He also wrote articles on José Maceda and Ramón Pagayon Santos for Komponisten der Gegenwart (2002–03, edited by Walter-Wolfgang Sparrer, edition text + kritik). Most recently, he wrote the article Mangyan Internal Refugees and Spaces of Low-Intensity Conflict in The Philippines for the journal SHIMA: The International Journal of Research into Island Cultures (2007, Small Island Cultures Research Initiative, Macquarie University).
He has taught analysis and composition at the University of The Philippines since 1996 and has also lectured in Germany, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, The Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand, the USA, and Vietnam.
CONTACT INFORMATION
E-mail address: jonas.baes@up.edu.ph
Street address: Mr. Jonas Baes, College of Music, University of The Philippines, Quezon City 1101, The Philippines
Telephone (home): + 632 436 2688
Fax (university): + 632 929 6963
Website: http://www.upd.edu.ph/~music/faculty_compo_jonasbaes.htm
SELECT LIST OF WORKS (note that the composer wishes for these not to be categorized, as it would be difficult to do so, but instead listed only chronologically; dates given are those of première)
1980s: Awit ng Ibon (text by Aloysius Baes), soprano, piano, 1980; Sigaw – Shout, or Internal Inaudible Cries of Injustice (vocalise), 10 male voices, 4 suspended gandingan (gongs with freely-vibrating sounds; 1 player), 2 suspended agung (gongs with stopped sounds; 1 player), 1981; Pantawag – Music for Calling People, tagutok (scraper), palaspas (palm leaves), muffled forest voices, 1981; Chalipay – Celebration and Meditation (vocalise), 100 trail-call voices, 20 batong buhay (pairs of pebbles), 20 tagutok, 20 tongatong (stamping tubes), 20 balingbing (bamboo buzzers), 20 kalutang (pairs of sticks), audience (plugging its ears), 1982; Basbasan – To Bless (text from a Roman Catholic prayer [Tagalog translation]), 20 male voices, 20 buray-dipay (bean-pod rattles), 1983; Yayeyunan – Melody (text from traditional prayers for the Virgin Mary), 5 female voices, 4 batiwtiw (bamboo zithers), 16 tagutok, 1987; Banal-Pasakit – Holy Sacrifice (texts from liturgical prayers, Philippine protest songs), 10 female voices, 10 male voices, 1988
1990s: Huntahang-Bayan – People's Conversations (social-issue discussion, improvisational text), 4-7 animator-chanters, audience, 1993; Ibo-Ibon – Bird Woman (text from simulated birdcalls), 4 caller-animators, dancer (with bell bracelets), audience (+ iron-nail chimes), 1995; Wala – Nothingness (vocalise), 7/100 or more male voices, 1997; Balawang-Paikutan – Making the Balawang (Bamboo Pole/Hoe) Move (text from an igway song by Ana Banaag, an Iraya-Mangyan from Mindoro), 16 mixed voices, 5 dancers, 5 animators, audience, 1999; Mga Pagninilay, piano, 1999
2000s: Daluy – Flow (interval music; percussionists, audience also chant), 5 percussion (batong buhay, tongatong, balingbing, saggeypo [pipes in a row]), audience (+ batong buhay), 2000; Banwa – Imagined Community, caller, khaen (mouth organ), sarunai (oboe), 4 tagutok, audience (100 players; all + iron-nail chimes), 2001; Song of the two-colored river, cello, 2001; Salaysay – Narrative (texts from fragments of various books; percussionists also simulate coughing), female voice, 3 percussion (tagutok, wind chimes, buray-dipay, tin cans, bamboo slit drum), audience (+ batong buhay), 2002; Patangis-Buwaya – ...and the crocodile wept... (ritual improvisations), 4 bass recorders/basset recorders/any 4 indigenous blown indigenous instruments from any culture, 2003; Bulaklakan – Love Song Verses (texts from bulaklakan sung by Iraya-Mangyan adolescents from Mindoro; vocalists also play games with the audience), 16 children's voices (all + subing [Jew's harp], balingbing, soft drink cans), 2004; Ti'awag Kasi – love called, 4 saxophones, 2005; Aguyoy – Gentle Wind (interval music), hollow woodblock, 3 buray-dipay, small rasp/tagutok, large rasp/tagutok, sticks/branches/dried leaves, 2006 (each of its seven parts may be performed on any alternative instrument); Pa-alulung – A Howling, double bass, cymbal (+ empty soda cans, empty water bottles, empty plastic cups, other found objects), audience (+ c. 100 iron-nail chimes), 2007; Lisan – Leaving (soundfilm on the plight of the Iraya-Mangyan; 16 voices chant, hiss, hack, cough, tongue-click, crumple plastic bottles, and yell; 5 miscellaneous players drop bamboo tubes on the floor, beat on tree branches, pour mung beans, and distribute pairs of pebbles to the audience), female voice, 16 voices, temple block, 4 tagutok, 4 buray-dipay, cuica, 5 miscellaneous players, audience (+ pairs of pebbles), tape, film (by Jerrold Tarog), 2007; A Priori (variations without a theme – Prolegomena), piano, 2008; N/REPA – the mimesis of spirits, bangsi (Iraya-Mangyan bamboo flute)/vertical bamboo flute from any culture, flute, oboe, clarinet, audience (+ 100 or more bamboo bird whistles/iron-nail chimes/batong buhay), 2009 (flute, oboe, clarinet may be replaced by any 3 multiphonic chanting voices); ripieno, English horn, bass clarinet, French horn, 2 violins, viola, cello, double bass, claves, woodblock, temple blocks, 2009
DISCOGRAPHY (as composer)
Daluy. Josefino Chino Toledo/AUIT Vocal Chamber Ensemble (National Commission for Culture and the Arts/Tunugan Foundation, 1999)
Banwa. Aga-Mayo Butocan/Maguindanao Palabunibunyan Ensemble; audience (ASEAN-COCI, 2000)
Wala. Rahayu Supanggah/voices of gamelan musicians (ASEAN-COCI, 2000)
DISCOGRAPHY (as compiler)
Mindanao Highlands Music – Tradition and Change (notes by Ramón Pagayon Santos). (Philippine Centennial Commission/National Research Council of The Philippines, 1998)
Nostalgia in a Denuded Rainforest – Iraya-Mangyan Music from Mindoro, Philippines. (National Commission for Culture and the Arts/Tunugan Foundation, 2002)
(Last updated on May 9, 2009)
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