Isang Daan

Meanwhile, in UP Los Ba�os, a music fest, or a songwriting competition, was held to choose a centennial theme song.

�Sinuggest siya ni Chancellor David (who?),� said Angelica Dayao, a senior Communication Arts student from UP Los Ba�os who composed the winning entry, Isang Daan, in the music fest which was held on Sept. 27, 2007 in UP Los Ba�os.

Sixty percent of the total scores of entries were already pre-judged, Dayao said. The remaining 40 percent were based on the performance on the finals night.

�Gusto niya magkaroon ng Centennial theme song ang UPLB,� Dayao said. �Lahat ng Centennial-related activities, systemwide or UPLB Centennial lang, gusto niya may theme song.�

At first, Dayao said she was not really interested in joining the competition. She said she was even �disheartened� at first because she once proposed a Centennial songwriting competition for an arts organization, where she is a member of, that is based in the Department of Communication Arts in UPLB.

�Unfortunately, walang budget. Di masyadong nabigyang-pansin yung proposal na ginawa ko,� Dayao said.

She only became interested in joining the competition around two weeks before the deadline. �Ako yung pinakahuling nag-submit ng entry,� Dayao said.

Dayao said one of her professors, Prof. Dukka, invited her to join the songwriting competition. Dukka is the director of the play they are currently producing as of this writing. Dayao said she usually makes the music for most of the plays which Dukka has directed.

�Nung ininvite niya �ko na sumaili, medyo may pagtanggi, pero di �ko rin matangghian kasi parang boss ko [siya],� Dayao said.

Dayao shared that most of the songs that she composed are for theater. �Nagco-compose din ako ng songs na pang-banda, pang-solos,� she added.

How was she able to compose Isang Daan?

Dayao said she composed the melody first before the lyrics of the song because her mind works better in music and harmony. Then, a lot of people helped her in creating the lyrics.

�Maraming nagbiday ng ideas. Mostly mga friends from communication arts program. Mga ka-course ko,� she said.

This was how she did the lyrics. She wrote down her ideas, mostly one-liners, on a sheet of bond paper.

�Ano ba ang masasabi ko sa Centennial ng UP? Bakit ba tayo nagcecelebrate? Ano ba ang nagawa ng university para sa akin as well as doon sa mga taong hindi naman student ng university?� Dayao said, adding that she just kept on writing on her bond paper without following any �structure, form or arrangement.�

She then showed her bond paper full of one-liners to her friends. �Nagsulat din sila ng mga one-liner,� she said. �[Pagkatapos] nag-encircle ako nung mga pinaka-nakaantig sa �kin,� she added.

After that, she started writing the lyrics following a �form,� which she then incorporated into the music she had created before. �Ganoon yung naging proseso ko ng paggawa,� she shared.

Dayao�s classmates, Adrian Crisanto and Joana Rica Sena, sung the demo version of Isang Daan. Then, Dayao said she wanted to add more singers so the song would produce an effect that a whole community is singing, so Dayao�s fellow Communication Arts majors, Miguel Encarnacion, Jeanette Soruico and Karlo Guevarra, joined Crisanto and Sena. The five of them performed during the Centennial kickoff last Jan. 8 in UP Diliman.

Dayao said she chose the five of them to sing Isang Daan because she thinks they can best invoke the song�s message.

�Kasi hindi ko intension na sobrang galling nung mga kakanta� kasi ayokong magkaroon ng impression na mahirap siyang kantahin ng mga tao,� Dayao said. �[Yung] tamang galing lang na pwedeng gayahin ng kahit sino.�

She also said that the idea of a theme song is that it should be sung by many that�s why it should be easy to sing. Dayao said her �philosophy� in making the melody is that it should be easy to recall and that the song need not have high-belting notes.

�Yung tama lang,� Dayao said.

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