In a recent article written by One Music PH, we featured some of the important functions of musical scoring in movies. We’ve established there that musical scoring provides a movie its much needed depth, and it’s worth mentioning that the Philippines has a vast collection of movies with high social substance and meaning. In line with this discussion, there are several musical scorers who have contributed greatly to making the quality of our local films at a high level. As such, One Music PH presents to you some of the great Filipino musical scorers that we have today.

Jaime Fabregas

Photo from media.pinoy.com

Although he is known by many as one of the country’s best veteran actors, Jaime Fabregas is also among the Philippine’s best and most experienced musical scorers. He has won more than a handful of awards for his works in musical scoring, and among them are Best Music for the movie Shake, Rattle & Roll way back in 1984 at the Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF), Best Musical Score for Rizal Sa Dapitan back in 1997 again at the MMFF, and another Best Musical Score win for the movie Kutob also at the MMFF. He has more nominations and award wins under his belt, so he’s more than just a great actor.

Jerrold Tarog

Photo from rogue.ph

His name was brought into the spotlight when the highly successful movie Heneral Luna – which he directed – hit the movie theaters last year. Not many people know, however, that Jerrold Tarog has extensive knowledge of and experience in musical scoring. You’d be pleased to know that he was behind the music of the inspiring movie The Healing that starred Vilma Santos. Among his other notable works wherein he did the musical scoring were the thriller Confessional and the romantic drama Sana Dati that starred Lovi Poe and Paulo Avelino.

Nonong Buencamino

Photo from Facebook user: Nonong Buencamino

One of the most successful movies in the history of the local movie industry is Jose Rizal starring Cesar Montano. Casual movie fans fail to recognize, however, that the brilliant musical scoring of that movie was done by Nonong Buencamino who is one of the most prolific and respected musical scorers in the Philippines. His other movie music credits include two other movies starred by Cesar: Muro-Ami and Panaghoy sa Suba, and more movies such as Inang Yaya and Ikaw Ang Pag-Ibig. Last, but most definitely not the least, the elegant musical score of Tanging Yaman was also the brainchild of Buencamino. Now that is one loaded resume for a musical scorer.

Lav Diaz

Photo from independent.co.uk

Who doesn’t know the much celebrated director Lav Diaz? With the enormous success of his epic Hele Sa Hiwagang Hapis in terms of accolades, everybody took notice of Diaz’s brilliance in directing. On the other hand, not all are aware of his equal greatness when it comes to musical scoring. You’d be surprised to know (or not) that he both created the music for and directed Melancholia which is a critically acclaimed movie. In the movie Alamat ni China Doll directed by Adolf Alix Jr, it was also Diaz who composed its music. With these other works, we are reminded of the great director’s versatility and seemingly limitless talent in the realm of movies.

It’s a real challenge for anybody to do a movie’s musical score because it requires a complete understanding of the storyline’s context, and of course, of the audience’s mentality and emotions. But we need not worry when the names mentioned above are at the helm of the musical scoring because keeping score of their achievements would tell us that they’re more than fit for the job.