The traditional Filipino serenade, popularly known in this Southeast Asian archipelago as “harana,” is slowly bowing out.
This Latin mode of courteous courting, which romanticized postwar love was relegated to the sidelines by the brasses and bongos of the Yankees, which has evolved into the computerized tunes downloaded to computers and played on computers.
Singing the harana harks back to the Spanish colonial period that started in 1521.
In some provinces—like Quezon, Nueva Ecija, Tarlac and the whole Ilocos region—a man and his friends, classic Spanish guitar in hand, was a common sight by the window of a woman being courted past dusk.
The men in their late teens or early 20s, in their evening best, hair styled with scented pomade from the nearest town store, belted out love songs when the night was young and the moon was yellow.
In some of the provinces, particularly those in rice-growing Nueva Ecija, the men would be politely invited inside for a singing dialogue with the beloved till past midnight.
But the old folks in the Ilocos would never let the men inside. The Ilocana, as were many Filipino women in other parts of the country, prided herself on being shy and secretive and never showed her wooer where he stood.
Decades later, the culture of “ang-angaw” among the Ilocanos and “tuksuhan” or just teasing among the Tagalogs flourished.
It matched teens and young adults, people who may have mutual admiration or affection for each other and may end up in a romance or avoidance of each other if the scenario became embarrassing for both.
The presence of other men during the evening serenade, the close friends of the one courting or one who is interested in the woman next door or in some other barangay, was at that time a psychological boost.
In the Ilocos, the men would blend voices and sing the ballad “adayo pay nga ili ti naggapuanmi, ‘diay ili a Santa Fe…”
Singing that he had come from a distant place, the town of Santa Fe in far Nueva Vizcaya across the imposing Caraballo mountains, the man told the maiden how much he has suffered for her.
Among those that evoke poignant memories is the Tagalog “,” popular in Bulacan and Laguna and other surrounding provinces of Metro Manila, particularly “O Ilaw (Oh, Light)” which compares the beloved to a star in the pitch-dark sky.
The song begs the woman to open her window and look out at the man, who is pining yet not whining.
But Parokya ni Edgar rocked the “Harana.” Loosely translated, it begins “Is the serenade still the trend? Perhaps it makes you meditate. Who is this looking like a fool alone, singing piteously out of tune. And he has roses in his hand. What he’s wearing are denims old in the company of friends so bold.”