When Danongan "Danny" Kalanduyan, a kulintang musician from the southern Philippines, died in 2016, it was a wake-up call for Ronald Querian.
Querian, a San Francisco-born kulintang player, wanted to continue the work of his mentor. He and his wife, Lydia, founded House of Gongs, a learning space that honors both tradition and innovation on gong-row music and other Indigenous Filipino instruments.
Traditional Filipino instruments have sounds unfamiliar to most people, but the Oʻahu-based musician wants to change that by engaging people with the culture and Filipinos in the diaspora.
"The pitches of the instrument are different, the scales sound unfamiliar, and the tempos feel very fast," he said. "So when a lot of people hear kulintang music for the first time, it really grabs their attention, and in some cases, it sticks to them like a bug."
Kulintang is a genre of music thought to have been brought from China in the third century of the Christian era, according to the federal agency National Endowment for the Arts.
The music is also heard throughout Southeast Asia, such as Indonesia, Malaysia and Mindanao in the southern Philippines.
Kulintang has about five instruments: the kulintang, which includes a row of eight, small gongs that make high pitch sounds; the agung, which are larger gongs that have a base sound; the dabakan, a goblet-shaped drum; the babandir, the "timekeeper" gong; and the gangingan, a four-gong set.
Passing down traditions
For the first time, Querian is teaching a class on Philippine ensemble at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. He said it's the first time in 15 years the class has been offered.
"When the students came in, my strategy was to get their hands on the instruments as fast as possible," Querian said. "As the first student walked through the door, I put sticks in their hands and said, 'Play this rhythm.'"
"When the second student walked in, I would ask the first student to teach what they had learned to the second student, then I would move the first student to a different instrument," he continued.
Querian learned this hands-on technique from the late Kalanduyan, whom he met in 2004. He said the importance of learning kulintang music is by listening and imitating.
"There's less question and answers and more demonstration and imitation."
'Music of resistance'
Kulintang music is used for weddings, festivals and other cultural festivities.
Much of mainstream Filipino music is Spanish-influenced — such as the harana, the kundiman and the rondalla, which is a fusion between tribal music styles and traditional Spanish music.
According to Querian, kulintang music was never colonized by European explorers. And the music helped the Indigenous communities retain their identity.
"Sometimes kulintang music is referred to as music of resistance because we're talking about communities that are still living their Indigenous ways," he said. "Even up till now, with all the changes in the world, that's something to be valued."
But other musicians have been weaving in their own genres, like hip hop.
Querian said that conversation might be intimidating to some kulintang teachers.
"We all agree that this tradition is precious, and sometimes there's a fear that by allowing people to take license with the tradition, it opens the door to erasing the tradition," he said. "But it's my belief that we can walk and chew gum at the same time."
He said he tries to empower his students to learn the tradition and put their twist on the genre. However, he required his students to take accountability.
For example, Querian combines kulintang music with house and dance music, but he will never claim it's traditional kulintang music.
"That would not be fair to the tradition," he said.
Querian hopes that one day, more people will get into kulintang music and make it accessible to everyone, whether they're of Filipino descent or not.
