By PABLO A. TARIMAN
THE ongoing Sarung Banggi Festival Festival in Sto. Domingo, Albay features song and dance offerings, culinary treats focusing on the different uses of malunggay, band concerts and the inevitable bikini competition that has become a hallmark of festivities this side of Albay.
But the focus remains the same and that is to pay tribute to Sarung Banggi composer Potenciano Gregorio through local dances and song.
Sto. Domingo Mayor Herbie Aguas said the festival will be a forum in which Bicolano songwriters and singers can showcase their talents. “There are so many Bicolano songwriters, composers, and singers. We will give them a venue to showcase their talents,” Aguas said
The festival started in 2001 and has since then been associated with the Bicol composer.
Gregorio turns 134 years old on May 18 and the effort to promote the composer has so far resulted in the new generation of Albayanos appreciating the musical heritage of their famous townmate. “Since I started the festival in 2001, even kindergarten students know the composer of Sarung Banggi who now lies in a special mausoleum in the town plaza. He will remain an inspiration for music-loving Bicolanos,” Aguas said.
The mayor pointed out the festival is not focused on legends and products. “It is the culture that we celebrate. Our events are mounted early evening and for that reason, we are probably the only place dong twilight festival events. With this celebration in song and dance, we honor the spirit of Lolo Poten.”
Mayor Aguas was the same person responsible for bringing the remains of the Gregorio who died in Honolulu in 1939 after participating in the 1938 Golden Exposition in California. Gregorio was later buried in La Loma Cemetery the following year.
In 2006, Mayor Aguas mobilized the gravediggers of La Loma cemetery to find the grave of the composer.
Days turned to weeks and months of relentless search before the original grave was found. “They were close to giving up,” recalled the the mayor, “but I gave them extra incentive to find the remains of the composer. Our perseverance paid off. We found the bones after double checking.”
One fine day in 2006, full military honors awaited the arrival of the remains of Gregorio who was met by music-loving Albayanos and given a touching motorcade from Legaspi Airport to Camp Ola. A special program honoring him highlighted his arrival in native soil after 68 years.
“That 2006 special homecoming meant a lot to Albayanos especially to the people of Sto. Domingo who fondly call the composer, Lolo Poten,” pointed out the mayor. “That homecoming renewed interest in the life of the composer and it also spawned a regular reunion of the Gregorio family.”
Founded in 1749, Sto. Domingo town has a heritage symbol in its church built in 1875 with its patron saint, St. Dominic de Guzman whose feast is observed on the 4th of August. The original church made of wood and bamboo split was burned in 1882 and was later replaced by a stone edifice with “piedras ladradas” (chiseled balustrades) and twin domes.
Albay Governor Joey Salceda has listed the Sto. Domingo Church as one important heritage site of Albay.
On the other hand, the Bicol composer born when the town was previously known as Lib-og. He was probably baptized in the original church made of wood and bamboo split. Like most pioneering Filipino composers, Gregorio learned how to play the violin at an early age and later became equally proficient in the piano, guitar and banduria.
Before he was known as the composer of Sarung Banggi, Gregorio was already writing music for the Sto Domingo church in collaboration with his equally musical brother, Bernardo who founded the Banda de Lib-og. The composer was the bandmaster of the same band until he joined the Philippine Constabulary Band in 1919.
As for the famous Bicol song, it is uncanny that it has two birthdates — one placed at 1897 when Gregorio was just a young man of 17.
But in a research made by Bicol historian, Dr. Merito Espinas, who conducted interviews with descendants of the composer, it appeared that Sarung Banggi was only completed on May 10, 1910 which makes it only 104 years old.
It was premiered three months later on the same year — not in Sto. Domingo (previously named Lib-og) but in the town fiesta of Guinobatan, Albay.
As the Espinas’ research indicated, a band arrangement of Sarung Banggi materialized in 1918 and performed by Banda de Lib-og and yet another version was made for a symphony orchestra in 1930.
The song has become so famous nationwide it spawned an LVN movie starring Rogelio de la Rosa and Mila del Sol and used as background music in many commercials in the ’40s and the ’50s.
The late Filipino violinist-conductor Redentor Romero made a special arrangement of Sarung Banggi and was performed by prize-winning Romanian violinist Alexandru Tomescu in Virac, Catanduanes in 2000.
That seamless performance of Sarung Banggi by a prize-winner of the Paganini Competition in Italy and the Marguerite Long-Jacques Thibaud Competition in Paris ended in a rousing standing ovation that had audiences in Virac town shedding tears of joy.
The late Virac parish priest Monsignor Ping Molina (he was once assigned in the Tabaco Parish in Albay) called it “the concert of the century.”
Last year again with pianist Mary Anne Espina, violinist Christian Tan (prizewinner of the National Music Competition for Young Artists) played the Romero violin arrangement of Sarung Banggi for an encore in another concert in Catanduanes.
It again ended in a standing ovation which once more confirmed the timeless appeal of the Bicol song that originated from Sto. Domingo, Albay.