Music and Purpose: A Message from the Editor
Blue Sound 2017 focuses once again on Atenean musicians, but this time we gave special emphasis to those that have made their mark on the film, television and other parts of the media industry including the likes of Jett Galindo, Ryan Camus, Paulo Tirol, Denise Santos, Jose Mari Chan, GP Eleria, Erwin Fajardo and Nonong Buencamino. Fr. Horacio Dela Costa is another outlier in our theme whom we paid tribute to as he still remains to be a prominent cultural figure in Ateneo’s history, having once been called a “Modern-day Renaissance Man” for his talents and versatility in various fields including music.
With the rise of media, technology and social networking, Blue Sound found itself flying from paper to browser in the previous year. This kind of evolution has made music accessible in a snap of our fingers. It has become a part of humanity’s way of life on a day-to-day basis, but in doing so has faded to the background of our daily lives, waiting on our discretion. What then is music and what is so important about it? People can be selective with music and restrict themselves to their preferences, often leaving out the rest that music has to offer. How often do people take it upon themselves to take time to appreciate catchy chiptunes, stock soundtrack and simple fanfares? These are things that we often miss out on and are just a part of the music we hold dearly on the devices we carry. There is so much more to music than what it seems, and that understanding in its entirety is beyond us. Why else would we have people dedicating their lives to it?
Now that we have given the vastness and relevance of music though, that still leaves us with the same question –what exactly is music? Do you ever find yourself listening to it because of the most volatile emotions, or the most trivial of whims and preferences? It is through this that music shows how it is a language of something beyond our concrete world; a communication from one heart to another. We see this even in music’s role as a form of expression, coping, recreation, rehabilitation, and so much more. Music in itself is a multi-faceted body of expressions from myriad human souls of ages ago until the present. And it is from these expressions that we learn to connect ourselves with music, showing the “language” form that it takes in us. That’s just how complex and valuable we see music, and it is through this that we find the value and motivation to continue doing what we do. Music is not just meant to be written on or composed, but to be written about as well.
What we want to show by focusing on the Atenean community is that in the vast world that hounds on each individual, people continue to make way to express themselves in a form of music—a product of the human soul. Given firsthand understanding of the ever-varying Atenean context and lifestyle, we wish to show others by our highlighting of Atenean musicians above all else that anyone can creatively express themselves to produce something beautiful regardless of their lifestyle or context. Where passion lays dormant, beauty is all but waiting to be brought into fruition.
And this year, what we wanted to show in focusing on Atenean musicians making their mark on various parts of the media industry is to veer away also from the conventional image of music—to make a point on the variable origins of the beauty that is creative expression. Going back to music fading into the background, this became our foremost reason for focusing on Atenean musicians in the media industry as the fruits of their work are often laid in the background: seen in the sound engineering of Jett Galindo, video game soundtrack of Ryan Camus and the film scores of the other musicians mentioned. The products of their efforts and expressions are often experienced in passing rather than in focused listening.
As we feature these living treasures, we would also like to give recognition to Willy Cruz, who just recently passed away. Cruz, similar to the names mentioned, made his mark on music in contemporary media, but the fruits of his works still live on even in his passing. We wish to make it so that the works of the musicians we feature leave a larger mark in our efforts to propagate them and that they, like Willy Cruz’s works, live on.
Music is intrinsically beautiful and it exists beyond the spotlight, in the background as well. We wish to show our readers that beauty in the form of music does not only exist in the background. And in showing the setting and origins of the featured Atenean musicians, we hope to allow our readers to see that beautiful music can come from any origin, medium, and purpose.
*Edited by Quino Papa Photo taken by Ja Punzalan from the Ateneo Musicians' Pool