Editor Maria Alexandria Iñigo Chua
About the book:
On May 22, 2017, Nakpil celebrated his sesquicentennial or 150th birth anniversary. The Julio Nakpil @ 150 Music Project was conceived in this light, to critically assess the contributions of this pioneering and revolutionary Filipino composer in the development of music in the country. A team was organized to collect all possible music materials and sources on Julio Nakpil, who has quietly slipped through our memory. There has been no study, however, of Nakpil’s contributions in the field of music before this research. His musical compositions seemingly have been forgotten and deemed insignificant. There would be slight mention of him in history as a revolutionary, a member of the Katipunan who aided in the fight for freedom, especially as the composer of the ill-fated national anthem that Bonifacio commissioned. But Nakpil was much more than that. The study argues that he was an organic music intellectual. He fought not only in the battlefield but also in the margins through his music which, as a result, revolutionized the trajectory of Philippine music development. Hence, there is a need for his music compositions to be made available to Filipinos today and the world at large.