Who is the composer of the University of the Philippines official anthem and to whom the building of up Conservatory music was named after?

At five years old, Nicanor Abelardo was taught solfeggio and bandurria by his father and soon could play that instrument with finesse - which delighted and amazed everyone who heard him. He soon learned to play the guitar and at six surprised and thrilled listeners by his rendition of William Tell overture on that instrument. Other string instruments handled by his father, including the violin, fell into his bands as if in submission, learning to play them in succession without any difficulty. Upon the occupation of the town by American forces, sometime in 1899 or 1900, an American military band played around the town in a parade, and upon hearing the martial music, he left his breakfast and got his tin fife and joined the band. In 1901 he wrote his first composition which he entitled Ang Unang Buko, a waltz which he dedicated to his grandmother, Macaria Libunao, one of the women who brought food to the revolutionists in the Republic of Biak-na-Bato, and an aunt of Simon Tecson, the soldier. Abelardo's formal education was desultorily obtained - his parents not having bothered about it - having attended the town school and later when his uncle, Juan Abelardo, the painter brought him to Manila in 1902, he attended several schools in the city. At one time he was attending the private school of Pablo Paguia on Raon Street, but he soon moved to the Quiapo Primary School where he finished the primary course in 1905.In the neighborhood of Antonio Rivera Street, near the Tutuban railroad track, he became a favorite among haranistas in spite of his age - his feet dangling in the air while playing seated, and falling asleep as the serenade vied with one another in having him for a member, boasted of his talent, only to learn later that they were referring to the same young boy player.It was while living with his uncle that he learned to play the piano. Juan Abelardo took him occasionally as a helper in his painting jobs. One such contract was laying a new coat of paint on the cigarette factory of Georgia Vda. de Cobarrubias on Camba Street, in Binondo. This proprietor, who was an impresario of the same street where Francisco Buencamino was being hired as a pianist. The young helper saw the piano and attracted by the new sight, referred to it at intervals, tinkered with the keys after lunch, and soon was playing an air before the painting job was finished. Buencamino must have noticed this daring and endowed boy, for, later on, Abelardo substituted him in Cinematografo Filipino playing the piano.Afterward, also during this period, his uncle was hiring the services of a foreign teacher, Maestro Enrico Capozzi, in giving voice lessons to his daughter, Virginia. Abelardo took advantage of this rare occasion to listen furtively, but attentively, to the lessons, and after the teacher was gone, he fingered the keys and accompanied his cousin on the piano and executed the exercises to the great surprise of all in the household. Not to be outdone his father thought that Nicanor had a voice worth developing, and he placed the boy under the same Italian teacher, Capozzi. This teacher was so impressed by Nicanor's performance that he refused to accept any fee whatsoever saying that the boy was simply born for music. The same consideration was repeated when he formally studied bandurria under Jose Silos.In time he profited from his precocity when he was thirteen. Francisco Buencamino already knew about his performance ability on the piano, and that was enough hiring him to play at thirty centavos a night in a saloon or cabaret on Aceiteros Street. In 1907 he was taken back to his native town and finished the sixth grade in 1908.

Later on, Abelardo studied counterpoint at the University of the Philippines Conservatory of Music receiving his teacher's certificate in science and composition in 1921, and finished a post-graduate course in the following year. From 1931 he attended the Chicago Musical College, but left it without the master's degree on account of insufficiency in academic credits. But this lack he later fulfilled by enrolling at the National University after which he was granted his degree.

After finishing the sixth grade, Nicanor Abelardo accepted an appointment as a teacher in a barrio school of San Ildefonso and later in another barrio school at Sibul, at eighteen pesos a month. To put up an appearance for his lack of years, he set back his years of birth. It is not known whether Abelardo liked teaching in any way but after a year or so, Juan Abelardo happened to be in town and saw him plodding the mud-road to the barrio school and he could not but help inviting him to the brighter prospects the city had for him. From that time on he resided permanently in Manila where he found employment in a number of showhouses. He played first as a pianist in several small and low-class theaters - in Cine Principe on Lavezares Street, then in Cine It close to the Quiapo Church, a theater in Pako, and another on Madrid Street where he earned sixty pesos a month or was paid two pesos and fifty centavos an afternoon and an evening of playing. Sometimes he was in the service of the same showhouse in which his father played as a violinist. In 1910 his mother came to the city to reside there permanently. He was happy having his mother and sisters together for he was a loving son and brother and he liked to share his earnings with them. He soon climbed up to the better class theaters in the city where he received four pesos a day. Then he became the leader of the Cine Majestic orchestra on Azcarraga Street. It was during this time that the orchestras of the other big theaters of the city were conducted by musicians who were to become his colleagues and leaders in their field later: the Ideal Theater orchestra was directed by Francisco Santiago, Cine Serena on Plaza Santa Cruz by Jose A. Estella, and Cine Empire on Echague Street by Antonio J. Molina. The showhouses were then the concert halls of the time where classic and modern music was played all the time to accompany the silent pictures. Later, not having had any formal musical education, in 1916 Abelardo now thought of having one by enrolling in the University of the Philippines Conservatory of Music where he studied counterpoint, among other courses, under Guy F. Harrison and Dr. Robert L. Schofield. His enrollment in the conservatory was fruitful; it provided him with needed background, new direction, and fresh incentives. His musical ability was noted by the faculty and won immediate recognition when he was appointed assistant in solfeggio and harmony in this music school on July 15, 1918, while in his junior year. In the following academic year, on July 15, 1919, he was promoted to instructor "based solely on merit and recognition of ability" in the words of Director George.Meanwhile, he had shifted to another environment. The Majestic Theater having been burned down, its manager, Mr. Yearsley, brought him over to the Lerma Cabaret in Maypajo to play as a pianist and at the same time to direct its orchestra. It was here where he learned to drink. American patrons started giving him little drinks and his friends remarked that his playing improved with his drinkings. From that time on he was never able to free himself from liquor which inspired his music and creative faculty but wrecked his body later.Abelardo was beginning to have a crowded and heavy schedule, for he sought to enhance his musical education and earn as much as possible at the same time. Previously he had taken desultory lessons in voice under Capozzi; then he continued his study under Victorino Carrion who dragged him along to church choirs singing religious pieces during masses and church festivals. He also studied piano formally under Jose A. Estella. And he pursued his courses with great zeal in the conservatory. In 1921 he received his teacher's certificate in science and composition, and thereafter took a post-graduate course which he finished in the following year.After receiving his education, in 1923 he started directing the jazz band which was playing at the Manila Hotel with himself at the piano, or he picked such instruments as he pleased. He thus became a figure in the saloon and was called "un estuche musical." He could not stay long, however, for he had lost control of his drinkings and the management did not like it; and later he had to be hospitalized for a month disabling him completely.On November 20, 1924, he was head of the department of the composition of the conservatory at two thousand pesos a year but for financial reasons he worked outside of teaching hours in the evening not without objection from the school director, Alexander Lippay. He had to attend pupils outside the school - children of wealthy families like the Madrigals, the Legardas, and Valdezes - teaching them solfeggio and piano. He liked to do this extra work of course, for it meant prestige and additional income and he was in the prime of his vigor, just in his early thirties. About the same time, he became director of the Santa Ana Cabaret orchestra and he was given a good salary of three hundred pesos a month, later increased to four hundred and up to six hundred. This meant hard work but it made him happy because he saw his family live in comfort. His environment taught him to like good foods and expensive wines; and he now had to appear decently clean, sometimes changing his suit in the afternoon and again in the evening.However, this extra strenuous activity soon began to tell on him and one of his body became paralyzed. He was also becoming a habitual drinker, no longer able to refuse the wine offered by friends in the saloon. The sips developed into gulps, and there were times when the manager found him in a corner with a bottle instead of a baton in hand dead with booze, and he had to be discharged from the service. But it happened that no one else could be found as good and capable to take his place and the manager had to come to beg him to continue directing in spite of his lapses and as if nothing had happened.In one way this crowded schedule - teaching in the daytime and directing a large orchestra in the evening until the wee hours of the morning, debilitated him for creative work. But it did not actually. For he knew when his creative power was strongest and he knew how to set the spark so necessary in creative work. For not U.P. Beloved and Stabat Mater (1924) was finished in forty-five minutes complete with piano, organ, and violin obligato parts. Then Spirit of '96 was motivated by a bottle of whiskey, and the peace for the band was finished from Tutuban Station to Baliwag. And many more. Ikaw Rin was composed in a streetcar from the time he got seated at Plaza Goiti until he left it not more than ten blocks away.In June 1928 he asked for a leave of one-year absence because "there is a greater demand in my activities which demand my whole personal attention." This request was granted by the University without compensation. By the end of the academic year 1929-1930, he resigned from his position but only to be reinstated in June 1930. It appears that the University had a plan for him. About the end of the school year 1930-1931 he received a grant from the institution to pursue advanced musical studies abroad. It was a pittance that was given to him, but with his little savings, he accepted the offer, seeing his bright prospects in the future.In May 1931, he enrolled in the Chicago Musical College, his instruction being to pursue studies in science and composition. It was during this period that the depression was hitting the United States and other countries hard, and to support his stay abroad, his house on Oroquieta Street had to be sold, a fact which grieved him very much. Although he won the coveted LaViolette scholarship, he came back in August 1932 without the master's degree on account of insufficiency in academic credits; but this lack he later fulfilled by enrolling at the National University after which he was granted his degree.After his return from the United States, his health suffered a gradual decline. His going abroad entailed a great sacrifice on his part and family. The meager monthly allowance of thirty-three dollars and thirty-three cents was not sufficient to keep body and soul together. Upon his return, he came to the realization that he was a very much poorer man than when he left. He now proceeded to recuperate from his losses. The family had to run a boarding house on Nebraska Streer during his absence and this was continued even after his arrival. It was close to the university, that a "little conservatory" was nourished, where his pupils associated and boarded with him to study under him more closely during off-the-class hours and thus be warmed by the fire of his genius. Thus Antonio Buenaventura, Alfredo Lozano, Martiniano Esguerra, Lucino Sacramento became boarders and other more ardent students did.In dancing halls, he had learned to drink, and heavily in later years, not to forget his worries to be sure but to free himself often from musical spirits which chased themselves or stormed in his brain demanding liberation. Sometimes he found time to contain the spirits for the moment in an outburst of hectic activity. He would grab ruled pads or any sheet and in quick strokes managed to manipulate his pen jotting notes as fact as the fire could free them. When this happened the place did not matter; he could use a streetcar ticket to jot down dots which became unreadable to his pupils. The original drafts on his compositions, many of them, attest to this struggle in the man between the flame and the physical being coping with it.As these spirits became restless and more powerful, the body became weaker, unable to contain them as strongly as the physical being could them. The man had, therefore, to resort to wine, oftentimes, not to envigorate the spirits which chased themselves in his brain demanding expression, but to quell it so as to enable the frame to last longer. But the spirits became more and more powerful, and he had to take heavier doses regularly to check them this time - to enable him to rest from his physical labors, teaching in the day and conducting in saloons in the evening until the wee hours of the morning. And this heavy grind and constant struggle was the cause of the early extinction of that flame which he was unable entirely to subdue nor control.Abelardo left behind famous works including his kundiman songs. His earliest known work was composed when he was about eight years old but Ang Unang Buko did not survive. After the appearance of Banaag at Lakas in 1909, he composed songs for the Tagalog zarzuelas of Florentino Ballecer, Basilio Lanuza, and Mariano Velayo, an uncle. For his graduation in 1921 he offered several works among which were a Sonata in four movements, and Mountain Suite in four parts wherein he utilized native themes. In 1922 appeared Ang Aking Bayan, a patriotic song with words by himself, and The Historical Pageant composed for the Philippine Carnival of that year. In 1923, the first concerto, ever written in the history of Philippine music, Concerto in B Flat (for piano and orchestra), was played in the first concert that might be called truly Philippine for including only local works as those of Terezo B. Zapata, Cayetano Jacobe, and Juan S. de Hernandez, all colleagues in the Conservatory faculty, was held in September 1923.Nasaan Ka Irog? also finished during this year, 1923, is one of his first kundimans developed from an early motif of the harana days. It was Abelardo's favorite among his compositions. That it should be so is not to be wondered at for it was the story of a friend's first love and Abelardo had that virtue of being able to participate in any friend's heart-aches. This friend loved a girl, the daughter of a well-known musician. But his parents did not like her because her family was poor, they even prevented him from seeing her at home, so this friend and Abelardo serenaded her in a tiburin, in a flying manner. Exasperated, the boy's parents sent him to the United States to study. This story moved the composer deeply.Besides the unusual source of motivation, the lyric finds corresponding technical expression in the cadences seldom achieved, that is, the poetical meaning and musical cadences coincide, attained in this instance because the lyric was written first. Then the intense feeling finds a passionate outburst of expression in the melody, and the rich harmony enhances the overflowing music. In 1924 and 1925 three kundimans based on the lives of friends were also composed. In Kundiman ng Luha, words by Jose Corazon de Jesus, the lyrical ecstasy finds embodiment in the musical interpretation of Abelardo, because again the composer shared the dilemma of a friend, while in Magbalik Ka Hirang, the futile yearning of a widow for a lost one is the theme. Pahimakas! is another composition based on magnificent love dedicated to a friend, Jose S. Mossesgeld Santiago. Although the lyric by Jose Corazon de Jesus has strayed from the story, the music has captivated the hearts of hearers. In this story, the man and woman met in a celebration where both were attracted to each other mutually.In Mutya ng Pasig, motivated by the celebration of a carnival in Pasig in 1926, Abelardo tried to portray a mythical past and its grandeur long lost by utilizing a fading form, the kumintang, carry the theme of the song. Himutok, a kundiman with words by himself, was produced in 1928. In 1929 two popular pieces were published: Ikaw Rin apparently has folk-song elements, and Bituing Marikit, one of the songs in Servando de los Angeles' Dakilang Punglo, a Tagalog zarzuela, took the popular fancy by storm because of its emotionally-laden message carried by a scintillating melody which was unlike other kundimans. It is Ikaw Rin which elicited a delightful excitement from Max Felix Bruch, pianist-composer and son of the German composer Max Bruch while recording the song as interpreted by Jovita Fuentas.The year before he left for the United States in 1930 found him composing and writing the music of Kumintang ng Bayan, Kung Ako'y Umibig, Nasaan ang Aking Puso? and Halika Magandang Mutya. In Chicago, he composed about half a dozen pieces with more care which included among others a Sonata for violin and clarinet with piano accompaniment, and a Fugue for string quartette composed on an atonal basis, after finishing which he wrote his friend A. J. Molina from Chicago on June 22, 1931, that he had, at last, freed himself from classical bonds, and now on the trail of the ultra-modern, now being influenced by Hindenuth, Schönberg, Stravinsky, and Bartok. He expressed his fear that although he felt that he was conquering a new world, he was afraid that the more world he dominated the more foreign he was becoming to the country.

In Chicago, he also composed A Summer Idyll, The Flower and the Bird, a caprice for flute and violin with piano accompaniment, and Cinderella, an overture for grand orchestra which won for him the much sough-for LaViolette scholarship. This award was a great comfort to him because it lessened his worries and made his life in a foreign city a little bit more pleasant. In his letters, he spoke of glory for his country and his heart was filled with optimism in the days to come. Panoramas, an early attempt at polytonal experimentation in seven settings, together with Cinderella, was presented in a recital held at the Chicago Musical College on June 20, 1932. Both these works were received critically but warmly. He left an unfinished symphony before he died.

• Nicanor Abelardo is best known for his songs, which strove to reconcile the traditional Filipino genre of kundiman (love songs in the Tagalog language) with Western art song. He is a truly recognized and award-winning composer. In 1923, his Processional March was awarded first prize in a contest held in Naga, Camarines Norte. National Heroes' Day Hymn was awarded the first prize in the University of the Philippines celebration of 1928.

  Abelardo's relative Richard Abelardo made a film in 1950 called Mutya ng Pasig which is based on Nicanor's kundiman of the same name. The main theater of the Cultural Center of the Philippines and the building housing the College of Music at the University of the Philippines Diliman (Abelardo Hall) were named in his honor and memory.

On June 16, 1917, Nicanor Abelardo married the attractive girl Sixta Naguiat who was a cash-girl in a refreshment parlor at Cine Savoy. To him, there was no other woman in the world. For the reason that he was the only boy to survive and grow up into a young man in the family, he grew up under the vigilance of jealous but rather selfish parents who did not approve of his marriage. So he had to elope with his fiancee to the great disappointment of his mother and father who did not have any regard for the girl whom they called just a common takilyera. His father inflicted him harm when the newly married couple visited them and could have done worst had not his mother intervened. The marriage produced six children.

Valentin Abelardo was a lover and practitioner of the arts in a number of its forms: he was professional photographer of San Miguel for about ten years; then he became a goldsmith and watch-repairer, tailor, hatter, and a local pioneer in the rattan chair industry without being occupied in any of these occupations for a long time. He played the bandurria, guitar, violin, and other string instruments with facility and taste in haranas or orchestral groups, taught music and the violin in between, and then he acted on the stage as an aficionado in country plays off and on and had occasion to write dramatic notes for the papers of the period.

Placida Santa Ana, whose untrained voice was the envy of many a town damsel, used to sing in her young days in the choir of San Miguel Church, and for her sweet unaffected singing, she became the attraction of churchgoers in the neighboring towns and main feature whenever there was religious singing.