A lonely path to promote Pangasinan love songs

ANALYN Bautista uses music to preserve and popularize Pangasinan songs. WILLIE LOMIBAO/CONTRIBUTOR

She could have pursued a career in the entertainment industry through her angelic voice that had captivated judges of amateur singing contests in Pangasinan province since she was four years old.

But Analyn Servinias Bautista, now 31, chose to tread a difficult and lonely path to promote wholesome Pangasinan love songs, which she writes and records.

She noted how songs in the local language have been set aside and ignored in favor of modern songs.

While there are newer compositions in the Pangasinan language, “most are replete with double-meaning phrases, or outright green jokes,” she said.

“I get hurt when even the lyrics of the folk song ‘Malinac lay Labi’ (A Peaceful Night) are changed with words with sexual innuendos,” she said.

For her passion to preserve Pangasinan love songs, Bautista, an accountancy graduate, has produced compact discs, which she gives away so she could help promote songs in her native language.

Bautista is the president of Bombo Harana Club, a group of Pangasinenses who love singing in their own tongue.

“We have our own program called ‘Bombo Harana’ over local radio station dzWN. It is aired every Sunday night, during which we sing Pangasinan love songs. We spend our own money for fare and other expenses. We get nothing but the satisfaction of sharing our music to our listeners and helping revive these songs,” she said.

“Sometimes, when I feel like giving up, I think of my members who have to look for fare money just to go to the station. I get inspired by their passion,” she said.

Her 4-year-old son, AJ, always sings “Malinac lay Labi” at the end of the program. “My members tell me that their grandchildren listen to him. In a way, he is already helping revive the love for our music among younger Pangasinense,” she said.

It helps that Bautista owns and manages the Servinias Band and Orchestra based in Dagupan City, which gets to play during fiesta celebrations, weddings and other functions.

“I always sing several Pangasinan songs during these events as a way to promote our own songs,” she said.

Bautista, who developed the passion for Pangasinan songs at an early age when she joined zarzuela (stage plays), has recorded four CDs, two of them in collaboration with other singers and groups.

The first CD was a revival of Pangasinan folk songs while the second was composed of Christmas songs using lyrics in Pangasinan language.

The third CD, titled “Pangasinan Songs,” is composed of mostly adaptations of Korean songs (Bautista worked for more than a year as a singer in South Korea with her older brother, Arnold) and Original Pilipino Music (OPM) like “Pusong Bato” (“Pusom ya Binmato”) and the Pangasinan love song “Malinac lay Labi.”

The fourth CD—“Samit na Sonata”—is composed of original Pangasinan songs that she wrote. Her friend from San Carlos City, Bong Tongson, did the music and arrangement.