Episode 181: Folk Music of the Philippines

We made it to the final stop on this summer’s Around the World with Busy Kids Love Music tour — and what a destination to end on.

The Philippines is an archipelago of more than 7,000 islands in Southeast Asia, home to over 110 million people speaking more than 180 languages and dialects. Its folk music is not one tradition — it is many, layered on top of each other over thousands of years: ancient bronze gong ensembles from the highlands and the southern islands, rice harvest chants recognized by UNESCO, Spanish-influenced string ensemble music that became entirely its own thing, and love songs that carried a secret message of resistance hidden in plain sight.

In this finale episode, we explore both sides of Philippine folk music — the indigenous traditions that survived centuries of Spanish colonization, and the hybrid traditions that grew from the meeting of Filipino and Spanish culture. And woven through it all is a theme that has appeared at every stop on this summer’s tour: music as the keeper of identity, the carrier of what people are not always free to say out loud.

What We Cover in This Episode

• The Philippines’ geography, history, and extraordinary cultural diversity — 7,000+ islands, 180+ languages, indigenous peoples alongside centuries of colonial influence
• Spanish colonial rule (1565–1898) and how it reshaped lowland Filipino culture while leaving highland and southern communities largely intact
• The kulintang — a row of bronze gongs played in ensemble by the Maranao and Maguindanao peoples of Mindanao and the Sulu Archipelago
• The gangsa tradition of the Kalinga people of the Cordillera highlands — flat bronze gongs played communally, one gong per player
• The hudhud — a form of epic chanted poetry sung by Ifugao women during rice harvests and funerals, recognized by UNESCO as an Intangible Cultural Heritage
• The rondalla — a Spanish-derived plucked string ensemble that became the sound of Filipino fiestas and community celebrations
• The harana — a traditional serenade tradition with Spanish roots that developed its own Filipino character, now a disappearing tradition being actively preserved
• The kundiman — Filipino love songs from the late 19th and early 20th centuries that carried hidden messages of patriotism and longing for independence under colonial rule
• How Filipino-American communities across the United States are keeping these traditions alive today

Free Downloads for This Episode

• 🪄 Download your Philippines Passport Stamp (Stop 5 of 5 — your final stamp of the summer)
• 🎵 Listen to the Curated Philippines Folk Music Playlist (kulintang, gangsa, hudhud, rondalla, harana, and kundiman)
• 🗺 All five summer tour episodes are linked in the show notes (revisit any stop on the tour)

All downloads are available at busykidsdopiano.com/podcast/181

Instruments We Learned About

Kulintang — a row of small, knobbed bronze gongs arranged horizontally on a wooden rack, graduated in size from largest to smallest. The player strikes the gongs with two padded mallets, playing melodies across the row while the rest of the ensemble — larger suspended gongs, an agung (large flat gong), and drums — plays interlocking rhythmic patterns around them. Most highly developed among the Maranao and Maguindanao peoples of Mindanao.

Gangsa — flat bronze gongs used in the Kalinga and other Cordillera peoples’ folk music. Unlike the kulintang, each gangsa player holds a single gong and contributes just one part to the collective sound — a communal instrument in the most literal sense.

Bandurria, laud, octavina, guitarra, bajo de uñas — the family of plucked string instruments that make up the Philippine rondalla ensemble, all descended from Spanish and Moorish string traditions brought to the islands in the 16th century.

Traditions Featured in This Episode

• Kulintang ensemble music — Maranao and Maguindanao peoples of Mindanao and the Sulu Archipelago
• Gangsa — Kalinga people, Cordillera mountains of northern Luzon
• Hudhud — Ifugao epic chanted poetry (UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage); can last for days, sung by women during rice harvests and funerals
• Rondalla — plucked string ensemble music of Filipino lowland community celebrations
• Harana — traditional courtship serenade music, currently being actively documented and preserved
• Kundiman — Filipino love songs with hidden patriotic meaning, developed under Spanish and American colonial rule

The Kundiman and the Summer’s Biggest Theme

The kundiman is one of the most moving examples of something we encountered at every stop this summer. Colonial authorities could censor overtly patriotic music — but they couldn’t suppress a love song. So Filipino composers wrote love songs that were really about longing for their country and for freedom. We heard the same pattern in Norway (folk music as cultural identity under Habsburg and Danish rule), in Nigeria (rhythms and traditions that survived the slave trade), and in the Czech Republic (village folk songs outlasting centuries of Habsburg suppression). Folk music keeps finding ways to carry what people are not always free to say out loud. That is one of the most fundamental things music does for human beings.

The Complete Summer Tour

Keep Exploring

The curated playlist covers the full range of what we heard today — from kulintang ensemble recordings to rondalla fiestas to kundiman ballads. If you want one place to start, find a kundiman recording and listen knowing what you now know about what those songs were really saying. It changes how the music feels entirely.

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Coming Up Next on Busy Kids Love Music

The summer tour may be over, but there’s plenty more music ahead. New episodes every two weeks — subscribe so you don’t miss what’s coming.

Busy Kids Love Music is a podcast for music-loving families, created by Carly Seifert of Busy Kids Do Piano. New episodes every two weeks.