Tabuk City, Kalinga – The Kalinga Bodong Festival is set to level up next year as it will already have its own hymn.
A move on the composition of such hymn to be played by either orchestra, symphonic, marching or brass band accompanied by traditional Kalinga instruments is underway.
It was earlier proposed that the making of the hymn would be done through a competition, in which P1 million in cash prizes as suggested, awaits participants.
In a meeting by the Kalinga Culture and Arts Council on Thursday, May 16, guidelines for the competition were thoroughly discussed.
As originally proposed, only amateur and professional iKalinga musicians and composers are allowed to participate in the contest, as the body targets to highlight and celebrate the abundant musical talent within the province and even iKalingas residing in other places.
However, a motion to include outsiders in the making of the hymn was made, only in terms of the melody and musical scores and not in the composition of the lyrics.
There is no limitation on how many members should be in a participating group; they should only submit one entry.
In terms of the composed lyrics, it should contained what the Bodong System is all about.
For the language to be used, the council mutually agreed that dialects from the eight localities in the province would be utilized.
In terms of the melody, it would make use of a marching beat tempo.
There is also a time limit and the contest requires that the composed hymn not exceed five minutes, even including the intro and its extro.
It must be recorded in MP3 format and burned on a rewritable CD to be submitted to the Provincial Tourism Office.
Prior to the judging period, it was suggested by Provincial Tourism Officer Lorraine Ngao-i that entries will be shortlisted by the council into 10 after all entries will be submitted.
The Board of Judges, meantime, will choose the top five entries based on the submitted audio.
In October this year, in time for the Indigenous Month, the judges will once again deliberate who among the top five entries will be declared winners.
As motioned, musicality, artistry and creativity would equate to 50 points, lyrics and content would be 40 points and audio quality would be 10 percent.
Further discussion on the matter will be conducted at the next meeting of the Kalinga Culture and Arts Council.
The council clarified that while guidelines are already drafted, changes will still be made once finalized.
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