Philippine modernities : music, peforming arts, and language, 1880 to 1941 / José S. Buenconsejo, editor.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

This book is about a particular cultural history of modernity in the Philippines from the 1880s to 1941. Essays by explore salient questions such as: How did the capitalist practices of market exchange engender new sets of individual relationships within the already transformed Philippine society set by urbanization and secularization? How did arts and language articulate a new sense of belonging to this new social order? How did the politics of identity fare in the struggle of arts as social signs? In what ways did this modernity push for the establishment of a sovereign Philippine national culture? How did music, related performing arts, and language reflexively and critically engage these cultural changes? What kind of music were suited for a modern Philippine? What language was to be used as the official language of the independent state? The book therefore advances our understanding on how entanglements with the social practices of modernity led to significant local cultural transformation that were unique to Filipino experience. --Back cover of the book.