After the maiden concert of MaestroClass: The Songs of Ryan Cayabyab last November, National Artist for Music Ryan Cayabyab will take on the songs of Jose Mari Chan, George Canseco and Willy Cruz in Love Letters, a Valentine’s concert on February 13, 14 and 15 in the state-of-the-art Proscenium Theater at Rockwell.
“It will be a concert of love songs written by three very important Filipino songwriters whose songs were most popular during the last quarter of the 20th century: George Canseco, Jose Mari Chan, and Willy Cruz,” said Mr. C, as he is fondly called in the music industry.
Ryan Cayabyab
“As they have many, many songs individually and as a group, careful selection and extra curatorial powers were needed to present a good repertoire. There will be twists along the way (which I cannot divulge), but these will be to add more spice to an already tasty offering. My personal take on this is: ‘What a relief! Sa wakas, no more songs of mine’!” he said, laughing.
Proscenium Theater at Rockwell
The concert in the 780-seat Proscenium Theater will have esteemed artists Basil Valdez, Celeste Legaspi, and Ogie Alcasid joining Mr. C onstage. He is recreating content or presenting music to connect to today’s generation.
“It will be an unabashedly and unapologetically nostalgic trip to songs which shaped the soundscape of our generation—the songs of seniors like Basil, Celeste and myself,” Mr. C granted. “What is in it for today’s generation? Well, ‘This is how we do it’—learn from it, for whatever worth it may carry.
Basil Valdez
“For me, I will just have fun and be myself, as Basil and Celeste will be themselves, no ‘recreating’ for us. If Basil is king, Celeste is queen, Ogie is the joker. And I mean that as a compliment. The Joker card is a transformative card—it can be anything it wants. And Ogie is also the joker, literally. It will be so much fun.”
If he succeeded with the first “MaestroClass,” the 71-year-old Mr. C plans to do the same with his audience this time—enjoy and appreciate the concert. He will engage anew the audience in an intimate conversation.
Ogie Alcasid
“DEFINITELY! I want to engage the audience more,” Mr. C said. “The set and the way the theater is designed makes for great audience-performer interaction. I will use that to my advantage, and the performers will also feel that. The closeness is very palpable inside the Proscenium Theater. It is like everyone just dropped into a huge family room and cozied up around the piano. Ang saya!
“I will continue doing the Maestro thing,” Mr. C added. “I have a surprise task for the audience, and hope it will leave a lasting impression on how a concert can be enjoyed prismatically—not just in the performance, the production values, the stories of the songs, and the personal takes of the individual artist, but also in learning new things about music and how it works.”
Celeste Legaspi
A maestro’s philosophy on writing love songs that endure—without becoming saccharine or dated—characterizes Mr. C’s creation process. He pens love songs without clichés.
“What a songwriter feels, the listener feels, too,” Mr. C pointed out. “When a song is put out there, it is forever—it can never be changed. There is always a tug of war between impulse or reckless abandon and being very careful. There are so many stories and angles of love, and songwriters just need to know when to step in or step out while in the process of writing the words and music.”
Mr. C doesn’t believe that love songs should only be dramatic. Rather, they are always honest. “Pop songs do not normally have dramatic ingredients because they are supposed to be light, rhythmically,” Mr. C said. “Love ballads may or may not have that drama.
“Many times, a lyrical piece can sound dramatic when it is musically composed or arranged utilizing certain stereotypical models or harmonic/melodic templates to make them sound dramatic. How to make love songs honest? Songs are stories in musical form. An honest love story makes for an honest love song.”
So what advice would he give young composers writing about love? “Love is never about another person,” Mr. C insisted. “Love is always about me, the me in ‘me and you’ and how I feel, how I dream, how I make stories about my feelings, directed to another person, perhaps?
‘Love is always about me, the me in “me and you” and how I feel, how I dream, how I make stories about my feelings’
“It is about how I form the pictures in my mind and how I want them to be. Of course we always dream of the ideal. But that is ‘my ideal.’ So write about how you feel, what your dreams are, what your hopes are, the picture that you see in your mind—that is what love is all about.”
Each artist shares personal stories tied to their music—first love, loss, marriage, family. The artists, and even his audience, develop that attachment to his music.
“Artists would have experienced the same type of love, loss, marriage, family as the songwriter—and they use this to make their interpretations truthful and honest,” said Mr. C. “But in songwriters who have not experienced certain depths and heights of love and loss, what happens is they would feel all these vicariously through true stories of friends and relations. And because they are artists, they would have a way to connect with their inner selves and recreate them.”
Although Mr. C cannot think of or associate a personal memory to his song at the time he answered these questions, his fans or friends shared stories about how his songs affected them through the years.
“Mostly general stories like ‘I grew up singing your songs,’ ‘We sang your songs in my choir,’ ‘I dressed up like Smokey Mountain singing ‘Kailan,’ ‘The coconut nut IS a nut! It is not ‘not a nut.’ Of course no one will tell me or confide in me that the song Sometime, Somewhere is ‘the story of my life.’”
Knowing his music became part of someone’s life is simply “cool” for Mr. C. “I hope that through that, there was a positive effect on that someone’s life.”
As for Basil Valdez, Celeste Legaspi, and Ogie Alcasid sharing the stage with Mr. C.,“It was not about choosing them, but more like a wish list,” he said. “I am so happy the wish has been granted.”
Instead of an orchestra, Mr. C will stick to something more organic—a grand piano and a six-piece live band—that will bring focus to music and storytelling. “When you have a king, a queen, and a joker, you can pretty much do whatever you want—and more.”
Rowell Santiago will direct Love Letters, under Mr. C’s musical direction.
Rockwell Proscenium is now an iconic landmark in Metro Manila.
