Work Sample 2

“IV. nasubli ng tren” from a filipino in new york for string quartet (2023)

performed by the JACK Quartet

This movement borrows from the Catholicized music-dance ritual from Batangas: subli. The frenetic dance of subli is accompanied by melismatic chanting and relentless drumming suggesting its pre-Christian roots. This movement uses this kind of energy to emulate the elevated trains in Woodside, Queens also known as Little Manila. Yet, in many ways, it also reflects the unending toil that Filipino immigrants face, often relinquishing tiny moments of joy, like the brief times when elevated trains pass completely and do not drown out the music I hear in Little Manila.