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About Hinalad

About Hinalad

How did it all begin?

Project Hinalad, which translates “offered/committed/devoted,” was only a brainstorm of ideas in 2014, the year following the launching of Unang Huni, a collection of similar nature which Dr. Jean Cuanan-Nalam compiled and edited, and of which her co-editor, Dr. Dave Jan Fabe, contributed a substantial number of song compositions. They had planned to start off with this project, however, their busy schedules barred them from doing so.

At the onset of the 2020 pandemic, the month of March, Jean and Dave decided to make use of the quarantine period to pursue what they had discussed. After four months of writing their original songs and gathering some compositions from Cebuano composers, including former students of the Divinity School Liturgy and Music program, the targeted number of songs were all completed, and the rest was history.

Unang Huni was the first attempt to add more Cebuano anthems to the meager sources of church music material written in the local tongue. Hinalad marks as the second, this time, with more liturgical responses, more anthems, and with more Cebuano composers and lyricists involved. A few anthems have both appeared in UnangHuni and Hinalad but with different arrangements. Still  a few are presented in two versions (e.g. for small choirs, for big choirs) to give more options to church choirs in their music selection. The order of the songs are modeled from the conventional worship flow common in many Cebuano churches, beginning with Pasiunang Huni and ending with Tubag-Awit sa Panalangin.

From just merely a collection of Cebuano church music, we have expanded into a website that includes more worship resources.

 

What makes Hinalad music and materials unique?

All songs are original with texts in Cebuano.
 
 
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We have made a bold effort to use Cebuano musical terms, indicators, descriptive markings, and other musical expressions as far as possible for the purpose of making the sheet music more comprehensible to the Cebuano singers, the Cebuano choir directors, the Cebuano accompanists, and the Cebuano worshipers in general.

We believe that our local Cebuano dialect (and any local musical dialects for that matter) should not be undervalued in our (sometimes too Westernized) churches, in the same manner that the Gospel can be preached in any spoken dialect and through any music.

 

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Musical Style

With our belief that any musical style is a gift from God, we made it a point to showcase varied styles in the collection, ranging from chant-like, to polyphonic, to rock style, to hymn style, to cantata-like anthems, and a lot more. Along with the breadth of musical styles are also varying arrangements from choir unison or congregation unison, to solos, two-part, three-part, and full mixed choir.

 

 

Biblical References

Most of the texts used in the songs are based on Biblical passages. Some are paraphrased while some are directly lifted verbatim from the Bible, with Biblical references indicated on the first page of the piece.

 
 

 

Cebuano - English Translations

Each Cebuano lyric is provided an English translation in prose form for those needing the alternate version, including a short annotation about the song which we hope will be helpful to worship leaders, the congregation, and the choir in understanding the context and intentions of these precious compositions.

 

 

Rehearsal Friendly

Rehearsal marks are aligned at the beginning of the phrase where the new section begins (thanks to Maria Cristina Mendoza’s brilliant suggestion), not on measure following the pick-up notes. In doing so, the choir director needs not waste time in instructing a few words, such as, “Let us return to pick-up of rehearsal A.” This is especially applicable to sections that begin with anacrusis or pick-up notes.

 

 

Collection Features

The collection comes with useful tracks, such as listening tracks, accompaniment tracks, voice tracks as rehearsal guides (SATB), including lyric sheets, PowerPoint, vocal scores, and full scores. It is our hope that these features would facilitate a friendlier rehearsal atmosphere as the choirs strive to offer their best to the God of Sound and Silence.

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What kind of music do we offer?

 

 

We offer songs that are all original with texts in Cebuano. The songs are a collaborative work among Cebuano composers and lyricists who are either laypersons, ministers and/or church musicians.

Songs available include church choral anthems (SATB and SAB) and short liturgical responses (SATB, SAB or two-part/unison).

 

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