Tertulia sa Abelardo Hall

The tertulia is an intimate social gathering of people in the house of a Spaniard or Mestizo. It was done in
the evening after dinner and it is filled with conversations, entertainment, card games, food, and most
importantly, music. The program of the tertulia is quite unstructured that is why at the start of the
program, there is no formal speech or introduction, the people just entered the house and the program
started when Mr. Espino played the piano. The gathering is filled with music, singing, dancing, and even
poetry.
When I first knew about the term tertulia, I remembered the Mindanao social gathering wherein people
get-together to play the kulintang ensemble. This only suggests that even though the tertulia became
popular in the Spanish period, the concept of a musical social gathering was already there even before.
Also, the tertulia is not just only for the elite for the common people have their own versions of tertulias
in their own houses or even in the streets. If you compare it to today's traditions, you could call it a
"jamming session" or a simple get-together. It is similar to our family's tradition for example, that when
my tito's and tita's come to one another's house, they bring their guitars and we sing songs together, or
if there's a piano, we would play the piano and sing while we are having conversations, and the kids are
playing.
When the tertulia started, I was intrigued because it doesn't look like an ordinary concert, it looks like a
play. However, though the people may be acting, it really doesn't seem that they were acting because
the tertulia was so spontaneous and I could feel that Sir Greg was making his own ad-lib because there
really was no script. Sir Greg was really funny, he made the audience feel that there really was no clear
program at all. I saw my friends, Fidel and Clar serving food, and it made the tertulia more realistic.
The tertulia started with a happy rhythm, the Potpourri for piano, that set the mood of the people. There
were many playful habaneras that were accompanied by dances, like the one ate Roxy sang, La Flor de
Manila. The habanera is said to be of Western origin but you could feel the Filipino style in it in the
melody, lyrics, playfulness and overall feel. I enjoyed the humor of the song "Naku... Kenkoy!" because it
caricatured the character 'Kenkoy' and it sounds like a song to annoy or criticize someone else. I didn't
hear the lyrics very carefully but it was really very funny, and very Filipino. Aside from the funny and
playful pieces, there were also melodic and dramatic pieces. One piece was rarely heard in usual concerts
because it was a piano poem, Antonio Molina's Malikmata. The piece was very poetic and the sound of
the piano seems like the feelings and ideas of the poem is also in it. The way that Lorenzo Mendel played
the piano makes me feel that he puts all his feelings in the piano. Parang gigil na gigil siya, kulang na
lang, tumayo na siya. Even if you close your eyes, you could feel the feelings depicted in the piano. The
same technique is used in the Mayon Concerto. That piece was awesome because it's soft and mild at
times and then it becomes loud and low, then he would play almost every chord until it goes up to the
high notes and slide back down to the low ones. It was very stunning, it made me want to study the
piano again. Another touching and heartwarming performance was Augusto Espino's Kundiman ng
Langit. The piano was very romantic, touching and perfect; no wonder the pianist was also the
composer. The lyrics of the song "Sa kabila ng ginawa ko, ako'y mahal na mahal Mo" was very touching.
At first I thought it was a love song but then I realized that the kundiman was already brought to a
spiritual level because it was referring to God. The kundiman was very wonderful and it made me also
want to study kundiman songs aside from my usual broadway songs from Sir Greg.
Overall, the tertulia experience, from the entering of the performers up to the mini pica-pica outside, was
very fun, amazing, and fulfilling. It makes me want to say "Hindi lang kami basta-bastang gaya gaya sa
Spanish!" to the people who belittle our music. It makes me proud to be Filipino.