About Harana


In this endeavor, the most trusted instrument is the guitar where it’s intimate sound complements the Spanish-influenced songs, not to mention the breezy and quiet air of a tropical night.

While the practice of harana has died, this recording arranged for and performed on solo classical guitar, preserves the music of a long-gone era of men unafraid to express their feelings through a serenade.



2) If the lady joins in the singing. It is a little known fact that some harana pieces, such as Maala-ala Mo Kaya (track #4) is a good example, actually have sections where the lady is invited to sing her part.


I once asked a Manang (elderly Filipina) who lived in a rural area why she thought the practice of harana has died. She apparently was serenaded many times in her youth. She wryly replied “Hijo, I think it’s rather difficult for a man to sing under the window of a woman who lives on the 12th floor.” Unscholarly maybe, but it was Manang’s way of saying that modernity has killed it. Harana was conducive only in a rural setting, a quiet breezy evening, the moon visible, the stars twinkling, and the reasonable window height of a small hut.