Descriptive Analysis on the Cultural Significance of Ifugao Indigenous Music

Abstract

Culture is interactive. The culture develops and changes through time, place, and circumstances. Descriptive content Analysis of the Cultural Significance of the Ifugao Indigenous Music is a descriptive examination of the cultural value of Ifugao indigenous music focusing its essential contribution to the preservation of customs, beliefs and community identity. Based on field work with culture bearer, ethnographic data, the study delves on how music serves as a means of cultural expression of Ifugao society. Often performed during rice ceremonies, harvest celebrations, and rites of passage, Ifugao music reveals that it reflects spiritual, agricultural, and social values firmly ingrained in the perspective of the community.  Not only are instruments like the Gangsa/tobob (flat gong), Libbit, Bangibang, Bunkaka, and vocal traditions creative expressions but also archives of ancestral knowledge and oral history telling simple cultural practices in Ifugao society. This research delves on how Ifugao people reflects their belief in the unseen deities, nurturance of societal connections and cosmological concepts in their indigenous musical practices. It also covers the threats of modern transformation and cultural erosion which calls for inclusive education and efforts at cultural preservation. This study also advocates on the preservation of Ifugao music as a living legacy vital to the intangible cultural heritage of the people of Ifugao and the Philippines as whole adding to the understanding of indigenous cultural inheritance of the land.