When death comes, music lives on

ILLUSTRATION BY RENE ELEVERA

SAN CARLOS CITY — Music throbs, even during funerals, at a village in this central Pangasinan city.

“We are known for our marching bands,” said Romeo Palaganas, 53, a resident of Barangay Palaming.

The bands play solemn tunes or love songs desired by the departed’s families and relatives during wakes and funeral marches.

Palaming residents are usually members of marching bands. Palaganas, for one, owns one such band that provides funeral music not only in Pangasinan but in places as far as Quezon province.

Band work is a very busy enterprise, Palaganas said. His group serves up to three funerals a week.

The musicians arrive as early as 4 a.m. at the departed’s house or a funeral parlor where the wake is being held.

“Usually, we are served breakfast, then we set up and start playing. The music serves as an announcement to the neighborhood that the funeral march will soon start. We play 10 pieces or more before the march starts,” Palaganas said.

“The bass trumpet with a big speaker can be heard several kilometers away,” he added.

The band stays until the end of the funeral service or until the tomb or the crypt is sealed.

Palaganas’ band is composed of 36 musicians, locally called “tokador” or “musikero.” It is a small group compared to those based in Cavite province, which have around 100 members.

Many families can’t afford having all 36 tokador and opt for only 12—nine musicians and three majorettes.

“There are always majorettes,” Palaganas said.

Some families hire a one-man band, consisting of an organ player and a singer who rides at the back of a pick-up truck that accompanies a funeral.

Package

The one-man band is sometimes part of the package offered by funeral parlors.

“But many families still prefer the marching bands as they evoke solemnity to the funeral march,” Palaganas said.

Marching bands have adapted to the modern times. They used to play gloomy pieces called “punebre” (funeral march, or dirge), but modern bands now play the departed’s favorite songs, even happy tunes.

The general perception is that marching bands are made up of old musicians, but the tokador now are as young as 11-year-old Mark Jayson Soriano.

Soriano learned to play cymbals when he was 7 and started to join marching bands by the time he was 8. Now he is learning to play the saxophone.

All in the family

Palaganas’ youngest son, Patrick, 18, became a tokador when he was 12, playing the trombone for his father’s band.

All his children are involved in the band, playing different instruments, he said.

His eldest son, Kennedy, plays the saxophone and has started his own band in Denmark where he now takes care of children for a fee. Another son, Rommel, plays the trombone; son Jester, the trumpet; daughter Ronalyn sings in his orchestra while daughter Cathy Mae is one of the majorettes.

Another daughter, Charmi Lyn, once played the clarinet but now trains singers and dancers of the orchestra.

“They earned money while they were studying, and which they used as their allowance or to buy what they wanted,” Palaganas said.

Day jobs

The band members have their day jobs, including Juvil Paris who sells cooked food in front of a community school here. Another member sells peanuts at the local school.

Palaganas’ children, too, have their own jobs. Two are teachers, one is a nurse, and another is a commerce graduate.

But when they are called to perform and wear their colorful uniforms, they become different people altogether—playing music that comforts the dead’s families.

Palaganas started playing trumpet when he was 10. He was taught by a music teacher whose name he recalled only as “Minsyiong Rosario,” a music graduate from Binmaley town.

His grandfather, Vicente Soriano Sr., started the marching band in the village.

Palaganas has been training interested Palaming musicians, providing them instruments and uniforms. He said his musicians also play in other bands but they are required to give priority to his band once it is asked to play.

The band has seven sets of uniforms. The members don the color as requested, including red, which is the preferred color of Chinese in the village.

“Music is a gift,” Palaganas said. “And it seemed that many residents here are gifted.”

The tokador can read musical notes and play by ear. “You can’t just read musical pieces because the wind may blow the paper away and you can no longer play. So you also have to play by ear (oido),” Palaganas said.