Special Feature: Selected Papers from Tawag ng Bantula*

Abstract

The essentiality of bamboo in the material culture of peoples in Asia is a generally accepted truth. This proverbial plant in its
innumerable varieties, has been for centuries sustaining and protecting human life in this part of the world in the form of food, shelter, clothing, and conveyance. While mainstream knowledge is very much aware of such commonplace utilization of bamboo, its spiritual, communicative, and aesthetic value remains hidden in its presence in the intangible expressive traditions and artistic practices. In music, one of the more overt forms of human expression, bamboo instruments not only provide cultural and geographic identity to its practitioners, but also define distinct aesthetic qualities to their expressions, partly through their natural substance and partly through
their acoustical technology as demanded by the performance practice itself. It is for this reason that the Tawag ng Bantula was conceived and organized by the National Music Committee of the National Commission for the Arts under the leadership of Felipe Mendoza de Leon, Jr.