(Written by Rubén D. F. Defeo for the inaugural exhibition of the Bulwagan ng Dangal, entitled “Pag-asa ng Bayan,” published in the exhibition’s accompanying catalog)
Bulwagan ng Dangal is a phrase taken from the second stanza of the institutional anthem of the University entitled UP Naming Mahal, sung in its original UP Beloved English version for the first 50 years.
The original music and lyrics were the product of two separate contests conducted by the University in 1917 to capture the UP spirit, “capable of touching the heart and soul of every UP student and alumnus.” The winning poem entitled UP Beloved was written by Teogenes Velez, a liberal arts student.
UP Beloved
UP Beloved Echo the watchword
Thou Alma Mater dear The red and green forever
For thee united Give out the password
Our joyful voices hear To all our brave sons rare
Far tho we wander Ring forth the message
O’er island yonder Ring out the courage
Loyal thy sons we will ever be All hail, thou hope of our dear land
Loyal thy sons we will ever be All hail, thou hope of our dear land
Setting it to music was the winning composition of Nicanor Abelardo, then a student of the Conservatory of Music.
Put together, it was first sung by students of the Conservatory the same year with Abelardo himself at the piano. Since then, it has been known and sung as the University hymn with nary a revision, except when the original B Flat major composition, found too high for the average vocal range, was downscaled to G major by Professor Hilarion B. Rubio of the Conservatory of Music. The original tempo of eighty quarter notes in one minute, however, was maintained.
Fifty two years later, in 1969, during the incumbency of President Salvador P. Lopéz, another contest was put in place to translate UP Beloved into Pilipino. The screening committee, however, did not find any one translation “to be, in full, suitable to the hymn’s musical accents nor literally acceptable.” The committee came out with a composite poem culled from seven entries, submitted by Carlito R. Barril of the College of Agriculture; Conrado Galang of UP Baguio; C.P. Habito, also of the College of Agriculture; Bienvenido T. Miranda, then direction of the National Science Research Center (now Institute); José L. Pelayo of the College of Engineering shops; Hilarion R. Rubio, then retired from the College of Music; Tomás N. Aguirre of the Department of Pilipino and Philippine Literature; and Severino S. Tabios, of the UP Los Baños Legal Office.
The screening committee was chaired by then music dean Ruby K. Mangahas, with the following members: Antonio Buenaventura, Felipe Padilla de Leon, Aurelio Estanislao and Regalado José.
UP Naming Mahal was first sung during the general commencement exercises on 11 April 1970.
UP Naming Mahal
UP naming mahal Luntian at pula
Pamantasanang hirang Sagisag magpakailanman
Ang tinig namin ‘Pagdiwang natin
Sana’y inyong dinggin Bulwagan ng dangal
Malayong lupain Humayo’t itanghal
Amin mang marating Giting at tapang
Di rin magbabago ang damdamin Mabuhay ang pag-asa ng bayan
Di rin magbabago ang damdamin Mabuhay ang pag-asa ng bayan
The appropriation of the phrase, bulwagan ng dangal, as the name of the newest exhibition space on campus honors the importance the University assigns to the role of arts and culture in the molding of lives and minds in the academe. The University naturally throws full support for advances in science and technology, widely recognized as the backbone of progress and stable economy. But providing sustenance to art and culture goes beyond the palpable.
A University may have the entire infrastructure dedicated to science and technology where researches are wrestled and new knowledge tested, all to bring comfort and security in the collective national life. But it is art and culture that clothe these monuments their shape, color and texture, their compelling contexts in the ever continuing saga of the nation. They empower us to know our history as they nourish the maturity of our national spirit.
The establishment of Bulwagan ng Dangal as a bulwark of art and culture in UP Diliman preserves the academic continuum of the obstinate and the creative, the concrete and the abstract, the global and the local. Hence, komedya and sarsuwela shall not remain fossilized theater forms, but inveterate conduits to particularize our national identity, in the same vein that more study should be conducted on the DNA to personalize human life.
The keystone of the Bulwagan ng Dangal came by way of a proposal authored by this writer as acting director of the Office for Initiatives in Culture and the Arts. It was an integral part of the plan to convert the campus into a heritage site. The proposal took on gravitas in light of the centennial celebration in 2008 when UP took stock of and reflected on its achievements while mapping out its directions in the next 100 years. Confucius once said: “Study the past if you would define the future,” and the adage instantly became the guiding light of the proposal: “to preserve, restore and conserve the UP Diliman campus as a heritage site.”
With the massive support of Chancellor Sergio S. Cao, the generous offering of Prof. Salvación M. Arlante of the basement of the University Library right in the very heart of the campus, and the inspired design of the Office of the Campus Architect under the watchful eye of Dr. Gerard Rey A. Lico, the Bulwagan ng Dangal rose from what used to be the Filipiniana Reading Room.
As the largest exhibition space on campus, it aims “to foreground the vast intellectual and aesthetic resources of the University” mainly found in the University Art Collection. As it is known today after the organized inventory done system wide in 1985 during the term of President Edgardo J. Angara, the collection counts on more than 1,000 works scattered all over the seven constituent campuses that include Baguio, Diliman (including the collection of Don Jorge Vargas bequeathed to the University in March 1978), Los Baños, Manila, Mindanao, Visayas and Open University. The collection is motley, ranging from basic still life to history art – painting, sculpture and mixed media – expressed in either representational or non-representational idiom.
A large concentration is in UP Diliman, with the University Library and understandably the College of Fine Arts contributing a sizeable part.
There is no record in the University that can categorically provide how the collection came about. One thing certain, however, is that the collection resulted from the goodwill of people who bequeathed, and continue to do the same today, to the University of the Philippines their prize possessions of works of arts, following the natural human inclination of giving for the greater good. The community of donors include the artist themselves and their families, patrons of the arts, alumni, faculty, students and friends, who collectively and continuously lavish the University with their inspired concern of enriching life in the University through art.
There are, of course, isolated instances of artists being commissioned to make art for the University. These, however, are rare and cannot be taken as the rule.
One way by which the UPD collection can be dated is through a chronological dating of the works themselves. Excluding works from the Vargas collection which had its own program of acquisition, the oldest work is an untitled large easel oil painting on a 365.7 x 487.6 cm canvas done by a certain G. Gomez in 1901. Rendered in the accustomed grande maniére of the historical genre, it deals for its subject matter with the martyrdom of José Rizal at Bagumbayan. Years after the event, the locus of execution became known as Luneta before it was officially named Rizal Park in honor of the martyr hero.
Another Rizalina piece showed the full portrait of the national hero found at the Office of the President. The large easel portrait however was gutted by the conflagration that hit Quezon Hall in September 1984.
Unfortunately, no record exists as to how these paintings came into the possession of the University. The Gomez painting, for one, antedates the establishment of the University by seven years. The only information available is that until recently, the painting had graced the auditorium of Malcolm Hall where it stood witness to many lectures and addresses held in the venue. At present, it is in the custody of the College of Fine Arts for further research and possible restoration, hopefully to coincide with the hero’s 150th birth anniversary in 2011.
As it is with any art collection all over the world, the works forming such a collection are constant. The Bulwagan ng Dangal provides a rich venue to sift through the growing University Art Collection, re-view, re-read, and re-contextualize it to suit particular contemporary purposes and present it through various thematic exhibitions and thus empower the public – students, staff, alumni and faculty the various publics the University serves – with utmost pride for and concrete understanding of the corporeal bounty, cultural patrimony and academic legacy of the University.
The current exhibit, Pag-asa ng Bayan, is the fourth outing in thematically presenting works from the University Art Collection.
The first time works from the University Art Collection were presented following a specific curatorial program was in an exhibition entitled Philippine History in Art: A Promenade to the Past held in 1996 to commemorate the centennial of the 1896 Philippine Revolution and to inaugurate a gallery on campus, the Corredor at the Castaneda Hall of the College of Fine Arts. Fifty-seven works comprised the exhibit taken from the collections of the Asian Center, the Colleges of Fine Arts, of Law and of Mass Communication, and the University Library. Through the exhibit, the University paid “homage to the Filipino people’s struggles for nationhood and independence,” wrote Dr. Roger Posadas, then chancellor of UP Diliman, in the exhibition catalogue. “In making public the University’s vast collection of art in a thematic exhibition of this magnitude, it also acclaims the country’s fine artistry and proclaims UP Diliman to be a national treasure house of artistic talents and creative works.”
In 1999, another programmed exhibition entitled At the helm of UP: Presidential Accents was mounted in the Corredor in conjunction with the twin celebration of the University Foundation Day and the declaration of the UP Decade 1998-2008 in preparation for the University centennial. The ceremonial exhibition featured the then existing 10 presidential portraits of the University from Murray S. Barlett to Salvador P. Lopéz and the unveiling of seven new portraits from Onofre D. Corpuz to Emil Q. Javier. Through the exhibit, the history of the University was given a human face. By bringing together the historical portraits, the exhibit foregrounded “the people behind the cultural and historical development of the University” and thus represented the national university as “first and foremost a community of people.”
The most recent exhibit where works from the University Art Collection took center stage was Lineage of Mentors: The National Artists for the Visual Arts of the University of the Philippines held at the National Artists Hall of the National Museum to commemorate the centenary of the University. The works of the nine National Artists, namely, Napoleon Abueva, Fernando Amorsolo, Benedicto Cabrera, Carlos Francisco, Abdulmari Imao, José Joya, Cesar Legaspi, Vicente Manansala and Guillermo Tolentino from the collection of UP Diliman, UP Los Baños and UP Visayas intermingled with works found in the National Museum, all to “exemplify tendencies in Philippine art history, from the establishment of a classico-romantic style regarded as conservative to the challenge of post-impressionism designated as modern.”
The current exhibition definitely assumes a commemorative bent as a centennial project. But more than that, it underscores the rich base from where the University Art Collection stands when viewed according to certain determinants, breathing into the collection a sense of the expansive where aesthetic forms and content are brought to fore. From the handful that fleshes out this exhibition catalogue, the endeavor yields generous and refreshing results.