I just received some very exciting news. I wrote an orchestral piece for the Banaue International Music Composition Competition, and I found out I’m a semi-finalist! As one of the 20 composer-fellows chosen from around the world, I get to travel to the Philippines for a composer immersion program in July. My piece, Balitúk: the Divided Child, will be rehearsed with a full orchestra and traditional Ifugao instruments from that region.

Balitúk: The Divided Child is based on an Ifugao folktale about a goddess who marries a human man. When the goddess must return to the sky without her husband, she divides their son in half, hoping that both sides can be reanimated. When the husband fails to reanimate his half, she becomes angry with the people of Earth for driving her away, and she transforms their son’s corpse into cursed and vile things, like snakes, diseases, rats, and rotten tree branches that fall on people below. It was great material for inspiring the composition.

I was also inspired by the traditional music from the Banaue region, including a rhythmic style that uses the “gangha,” or flat gong:

I can’t wait to travel to the Philippines and see the beautiful Banaue Rice Terraces that this competition is dedicated to.