Memory of the World

Prof. Dr. Jose Maceda (January 31, 1917 – May 5, 2004) composer, internationally renowned scholar in ethnomusicology, recorded end collected (personally, and cooperatively with his staff, as well as contributions from other scholars in the international community) traditional musics in the Philippines and in some parts of South East Asia (Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, China, ….) during the period between 1953 and 2003.

The collection consists of 1760 hours of tape recordings in 1936 reels and cassette tapes [See Annex A], field notes, black&white; and colored photographs of different musicians and instruments and some films.

The collection reflects the traditional music of the Philippines covers sixty-eight ethnolinguistic groups [See Annex B] and South East Asians before many musical styles vanished, or substantially changed, as a result of the process of social change, modern civilization and cultural globalization.

For the region, the José Maceda Collection is unique in scope and size. It is a significant memorial of the orally transmitted cultural contributions to mankind from that part of the world.