Udlot-Udlot

May 4, 2024
Field:

Performance

 Location:

Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreation Centre, Vancouver

 Time:

4:00 p.m.

Description:

As part of the multi-part project, José Maceda: Echoes Beyond the Archipelago, Western Front and the Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreation Centre presented two community workshops that culminated in a public performance of José Maceda’s composition Udlot-Udlot (1975). 

Udlot-Udlot is a 40-minute composition for 30 up to 1,000 performers. Composed for voices, wooden percussion sticks, and traditional bamboo instruments—balingbing (buzzers), tongatong (stamping tubes), and ongiyong (flutes)—the work was designed so performers without musical expertise could equally participate. Modelled on tropical rainforest rituals and ceremonies, Udlot-Udlot implies a fundamental connection between human activities and nature, and explores how drone, colour, and melody come together as independent elements in performance. Udlot-Udlot was first performed in 1975 by 800 students at the University of the Philippines, and has since been presented internationally and recognized as a key work within Maceda’s career and the canon of avant-garde performance. 

In Vancouver, the work was performed in the Exhibition Hall of the Roundhouse Community Centre by 50 community members who responded to an open call. Participants were invited to choose between voice and percussion, and were divided into three groups for rehearsals led by local musicians DB Boyko, Elysse Cloma, and George Rahi, with support from LaVerne C. de la Peña, director of the University of the Philippines Center for Ethnomusicology. The performance took place in the round, and audience members were invited to move throughout the space to experience different elements of the composition. 

Curated by Aki Onda.
A presenter speaks in front of a seated audience. They hold a balingbing, resembling the diagram projected behind them.
A presenter speaks into a microphone holding a balingbing. They stand next to a table which holds a computer, speaker, projector, and more wooden instruments.
A participant speaks gaining attention from those across the seated circle while other participants study sheets of paper and clutch their instruments.
Three participants smile as they play the balingbing. They sit on the ground with sheet music and other instruments in front of them.
An aerial shot of instruments and sheets of paper on the ground. The paper reads Udlot-Udlot, followed by a musical score displaying all instrument parts at once.
Participants walk in a circle wielding wooden sticks ready to hit them together. The leader appears meditative while the others follow their steps.
A group of participants walk banging rounded wooden sticks together. They circle another group which is seated on the floor.
A group of people stand in a circle facing each other. Each person is positioned an arms width apart from the next.
A group of people gather in a circle facing each other. They stand close together with hands clasped either in front or behind them.
A wide shot of the performance space showing a large gathering of people. Some are seated on the ground with instruments in front of them, while others are seated in chairs. A speaks into a make at the center of the gathering with cameras pointed at them from across the room.
A group of participants stand in a half circle with their mouths widened paying attention to a conductor with their arms extended. Seated on the floor next to them are performers playing balingbings. Behind these performers you can spot audience members watching the event.
Rows of participants are seated on the floor playing balingbings. Next to them stand a group of participants singing. Behind them, audience members watch the event.
A group of participants sit on the ground stamping tongatongs on the floor. They concentrate on the sheet of music laying before them. Audience members are seated behind them in chairs.
Two participants, with their backs facing the camera, give their attention to another participant who extends their arms in front of their chest. An audience member films the scene.
Seated in rows, participants blow into ongiyongs. Every other person plays a different note.
Some participants walk around the venue banging wooden percussion sticks while others stand in a semicircle. The audience watches this movement.
Participants pose in impromptu rows for a group photo. Many of them hold their instruments in hand.

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Captions:

Western Front is a non-profit artist-run centre in Vancouver.

We acknowledge the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and səl̓ílwətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations as traditional owners of the land upon which Western Front stands.

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