Maceda, José

Maceda, José, Filipino ethnomusicologist and composer; b. Manila, Jan. 31, 1917. He studied piano with Cortot at the École Normale de Musique in Paris (1937–41) and with Schmitz in San Francisco (1946–49), and pursued academic studies at Queens Coll. in N.Y., Columbia Univ., the Univ. of Chicago, Ind. Univ., and the Univ. of Calif, at Los Angeles (Ph.D., 1963). From 1952 to 1990 he taught at the Univ. of the Philippines Coll. of Music, where he built up an archive now known as the U.R Ethnomusicology Center that contains about 2,500 hours of field tapes of music of 51 Philippine linguistic groups. He also pursued field research throughout Southeast Asia, Brazil, East and West Africa, and later in Vietnam and the Yunnan province of China. In addition to articles in scholarly journals, he pubi. A Manual of Field Music Research with Special Reference to Southeast Asia (Quezon City, 1980) and Gongs and Bamboo: A Panorama of Philippine Music Instruments (Quezon City, 1998). Maceda’s compositions bely a conscious effort to veer away from current tenets of musical organization. He uses native instruments as drones played by hundreds of participants distributed in space (Pagsamba, a mass, 1968; Udlot-Udlot, outdoor music, 1975) or together with Western instruments in levels of definite and indefinite pitches (Siasid for Percussion, Blown Bamboo Tubes, and 5 Violins, 1983; Strata for 10 Buzzers, 10 Sticks, 5 Tam-tams, 5 Flutes, 5 Cellos, and 5 Guitars, 1988). In his orchestral music {Distemperament, 1980), combinations of practically all intervals of mixed instruments from the lowest to the highest levels result in one consonance without distinction between consonant and dissonant intervals. Udlot-Udlot was reduced in 1998 to a theater music piece for 5 people with durations of performance that can be doubled—10, 20, or 40 minutes—as in Javanese and Thai ensembles. Among his other works are Ugma-Ugma for Native Instruments and Chorus (1963), Agungan for Gongs (1965), Kubing for Bamboo Instruments and Men’s Voices (1966), Cassettes 100 for 100 Participants and Cassette Recorders (1971), Ugnayan for 20 Radio Stations (1974), Ming for 100 Instrumentalists, 100 Voices, and the Public (1978), Aroding for 40 Mouth Harps, 7 Men’s Voices, and 3 Tiny Whistle-Flutes (1983), Suling-Suling for 10 Flutes, 10 Bamboo Buzzers, and 10 Flat Gongs (1985), Dissemination for 28 Instruments (1990), Music for 5 Pianos (1993), Two Pianos and Four Winds (1996), Music for a Chamber Orchestra (1997), Music for Gongs and Bamboo (1997), and Colors Without Rhythm for Orch., 10 Percussion, and 7 Keyboards (1999).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire