[Updated on January 12, 2007] Here are more songs from the Visayan Isles in the Philippines. These two singers are from Davao which a mostly Cebuano/Visayan-speaking city in Mindanao; the Philippines' southern island. They sing a set of twelve Visayan songs most of which are upbeat and sing about love, birds, the wind, the sea in the beautifully poetic Cebuano language. A language often called the French of the Philippine lang... [+]

[Updated on January 12, 2007] Here are more songs from the Visayan Isles in the Philippines. These two singers are from Davao which a mostly Cebuano/Visayan-speaking city in Mindanao; the Philippines' southern island. They sing a set of twelve Visayan songs most of which are upbeat and sing about love, birds, the wind, the sea in the beautifully poetic Cebuano language. A language often called the French of the Philippine languages.

I can identify one of the voices as Visayan singer Fannie Estellore. The cassette tape unfortunatley doesn't credit who the individual singers are. Fannie Estellore has an especially nasal voice which might be an aquired taste. The other singer is softer and feminine. The accompaniment is the Philippine rondalla which is a group of guitar related instruments: guitar, bandurria, mandolin. There is also a distant snare drum and cymbal. The Rondalla was adopted from the Spanish as the Philippines was a Spanish colony for over 300 years.

I often cringe at the popularity of the mundane Tagalog folk song: Cariņosa, Leron-Leron Sinta, Sinisinta Kita, Paruparong Bukid, Katakataka etc. Listen to these Visayan folk songs and see what I mean when I say the Visayan music is more organic, complex, playful and expressive then Tagalog songs.

And once again the album is out of print. I was able to find this cassette tape in a used record store. [-]