Songs and Music

Usually people were often judge by their ability to sing or create new songs which would be accompanied by the community on musical instruments which the singers themselves made.

The religious fold dramas in Bicol which center on catholic beliefs and liturgy also contain musical elements. The Bicol composers trained in religious music eventually wrote secular pieces as well.

Such traits can be gleaned from numerous folktales and folksong that abound the most known of which is "Sarong Bangui". The heroic stories reflect such traits as kindness, a determination to conquer evil forces, resourcefulness and ...courage. The folksongs come in the form of awit, sinalampati, panayokyok, panambitan, hatol, pag-omaw, rawit-dawit and children's song and chants.

There are also new folksong which refer to local history and geography, sometimes ridiculing politicians.

The themes are boarder in protest than nationalistic songs. Whatever the content, serious or nonsensical, these songs generally have a simple structure and a free form.