BATANG LARO (CHILD PLAY)
Suite for Violin and Piano
Batang Laro, a suite of 7 pieces, was inspired by animated scenes of children playing native Philippine games in the composer’s imagination. The rhythmic motifs were drawn essentially from Philippine folk dances ranging from the tuppaya-patung of the Igorots (northern Philippine tribe), the habanera, polka, balitaw, jota, and moro-moro of rural folks in Central Luzon and the Visayas, and the inagung and tinambul of Mindanao.
The impetus for this work came from the composer’s desire to write accessible pieces for violin and piano that could be performed by his then 10-year old violinist son, Okir, and 8-year-old pianist daughter, Amihan.
The pieces were designed to draw his two children through graduated levels of technical difficulty as well as expressivity. The suite has also been adapted for solo classical guitar as commissioned by Angelito Agcaoili and Manual Soriano.
The composer made liberal use of these rhythms, incorporating them into his own original dance-like melodies. As such, the various pieces in this suite can lend themselves to choreographic inventions that can be performed with the music, along the lines of Philippine children’s games specified in each number:
Child Play #1 - Harangang Taga (Tag Intercept)
Child Play #2 - Laglag Panyo (Drop the Handkerchief)
Child play #3 - Helehan sa Duyan (Lullaby by the Hammock)
Child Play # 4 - Banog-Banog (The Hawk & the Chicken)
Child Play #5 - Buwan-Buwan (Moon-Moon)
Child Play #6 - Siklot (Toss & Catch)
Child Play #7 - Agawan Sa Base (Capture the Base)
A guide to the games can be found at the bottom of this page.
PHILIPPINE CHILDREN'S GAMES
(each of which are the titles of the 7 pieces)
Batang Laro (Child Play) - Suite for Violin and Piano
The following recordings are performed by George Whetstone on the viola and Cynthia Guerrera De Leon on the piano.
GUIDE TO THE CHILD PLAY SUITE GAMES
HARANGANG TAGA (Tag Intercept)
Number of Players: Six or More
Best Place to Play: Outdoors with Plenty of Space
This game is very similar to Patintero with just a slight variation in the number of squares that the two teams cover and it also has a slight variation in scoring. In certain regions of the Philippines though, harangang taga is the same as patintero. Some children also prefer playing this game on a dirt area and use water to make the lines. Thus it is usually played on a moonlit evening to prevent rapid evaporation of the water lines.
The players are divided into two teams of equal numbers. The ground is marked off in a rectangle about five or six meters, divided into four equal parts.
t1 to t4 — taggers 1- 4
t1_ ________|_________B = base (starting point)
| | |
| | |
t2 --|------+-------|
| | |
| | |
t3 --|-------+--------| H = halfway point
Winning the jack-en-poy or toss or "umpiang" entitles the players on that team to be runners. The taggers stand on lines 1, 2, and 3. Tagger 1 can go anywhere (that is, the inside & outside lines of the entire square whereas taggers 2 & 3 are only allowed within their horizontal lines) to tag the runners. The object of the runners is to get through all the lines: 1, 2, and 3 starting from the base across the halfway point & then back to the base without being tagged. Taggers 1, 2, 3 try to tag the runners as they cross the lines or as they get near them.
As soon as one of the runners crosses line 3 & back to line 1 without being tagged, the runner calls out "tubig" (water). This means a "night" (point) is scored in favor of the runner's team. If a runner is tagged while crossing a line or while trying to cross a line, the teams exchange places and it becomes the turn of the taggers' team to run. The first team to earn three consecutive nights are the winners.
Consequence: The losers carry the winners on their backs to and fro or the winners slaps the hands or make "pitik" (a process wherein one uses the middle finger to hit as hard as one can the knuckles of another person) of the losers for an agreed number of times.
LAGLAG PANYO (Drop the Handkerchief)
Number of players: 10 to 20 or more
Best Place to Play: Outdoors or indoors
All players but one stand or sit in a circle. Everybody in the circle must look toward the center and must not turn to look back. The odd player walks around outside the circle formation with a handkerchief which he drops behind one of the circle players. He drops it in such a way that the circle player is unaware of it being dropped. The seated players may feel behind them to check whether or not the handkerchief was dropped, or they will watch the one walking around, noticing if he still has the handkerchief in his hand or not.
Once the circle player behind whom the handkerchief has been dropped becomes aware of the handkerchief, he quickly picks it up and, as a rapidly as possible, chases the one who dropped it.
If the player who dropped the handkerchief is tagged before he reaches the vacant place left by the one chasing him, he must take the latter's place in the circle of players.
A player who does not discover that the handkerchief has been dropped behind him after one trip around the circle is chased by the dropper. He is struck with the handkerchief until he reaches his place. Then the same handkerchief-player drops the handkerchief in the next game.
HELEHAN SA DUYAN (Lullaby by the Hammock)
Number of players: Any number (and usually little girls)
Best Place to Play: Hammock
This is not a game in the usual sense where participants either win or lose. It is a common phenomenon among little girls who like to play the role of mothers, and jostle among themselves as to who can get a chance to lay her doll on the hammock which she will then swing gently to and fro to the humming of a lullaby in the imagined act of putting a baby to sleep. At times in place of a doll, one of them will agree to get into the hammock herself and submit to the rhythmic wave-like motion of the hammock and the lulling sweetness of the lullaby being sung by her playmate.
BANOG-BANOG (The Hawk & the Chicken)
Participants:
-
Banog or hawk, usually played by the biggest boy or girl in group
-
Mother hen, usually played by a girl
-
Chicks, played by any number of girls and boys
This game is a favorite among children aged 6 to 12. It is an imitation game, imitating the antics of the hawk that preys on chicken to feed their young. Before the game starts, the group selects a boy to play the banog and a girl to play the mother hen whose duty is to protect the chicks from the hawk's attack. The rest play the chicks.
When the game starts, the hawk and the mother hen face each other. The chicks stay in one line behind the mother hen, each holding on to the waist of the person in front of him/her. This line is not supposed to be broken. The chick that breaks out of the line opens him/herself up to the danger of being caught by the hawk. The game starts after an agreed count, then the hawk begins to crack down on the mother hen's defense to get to the chicks. He runs hither & thither, generally trying to confuse the hen and the chicks as to his area of attack. When he cannot catch any chick this way, he suddenly swoops down at the very end of
the line to get to the last chick that is usually unprotected. The mother hen dashes down the line to save her chick but this results in making the chicks behind her break the line and fall, thus making them easy prey for the hawk. The game continues until the majority of the chicks are caught by the hawk.
A variation of the game would be to allow the mother hen to get back her chicks. While the hawk is busy catching the other chicks, the mother hen will go to the hawk's camp & try to steal back her chicks. This makes the game take longer to finish & usually, the way it's ended is when everybody (especially the hawk & the mother hen) is too exhausted & everybody agrees to stop.
BUWAN-BUWAN (Moon-Moon)
Number of Players: At least 6-8 for the circle & 1 to play the buwan (moon) & 1 to play the bakunawa dragon (eclipse).
All the players except the buwan and the bakunawa stand in a circle facing in and holding each other's hands. The buwan stands inside the circle while the bakunawa stands outside. The object of the game is for the bakunawa to tag the buwan. The rest of the players try to prevent the bakunawa from doing so by holding on to each other & running around the circle as fast as they & not letting go.
For the bakunawa to get into the circle, the bakunawa asks one of the players, "What chain is this?" to which the player replies, "An iron chain!" An iron chain is supposed to be unbreakable so the bakunawa tries another player. A player who would like to let the bakunawa in could say, "This is an abaca chain" and lets go. This is done when the bakunawa is feeling tired from running around. Sometimes the bakunawa also tries to get in by going under the linked hands - if the player chosen as the bakunawa is fast & small enough, this can be easily accomplished. As soon as the bakunawa succeeds in getting in, the circle players will let the buwan out of the circle. The bakunawa then tries to break out of the linked hands again to try & get out to catch the buwan. When the bakunawa succeeds in catching the buwan, they exchange places or if both of them are too tired, another pair from the circle of players are chosen as the new bakunawa and buwan.
SIKLOT (Toss and Catch)
Number of Players: 2
Equipment Needed: Odd number of sigay sea shells, tamarind seeds, or pebbles and a flat surface or table.
Determine who plays first using one of the pre-play games above. Place all sea shells in one hand. Toss them in the air and try to catch them with the same hand with palm facing down. Toss them in the air again and this time, catch them with palm facing up. There will be sea shells on the table. Look for a cue sea shell. Place thumb over the index or middle finger and flick the cue sea shell so that it touches the other shell(s). The cue sea shell may bounce and make a contact with more that 2 sea shells. That is much better — hitting two all at once. Take all sea shells that make a carom to speed up the game. Continue this process until all the shells are taken by the first player.
If the first player misses to make the sea shells make a contact with the other sea shells, the second player picks up where the game stopped until the first round is over. The player who has the most sea shells wins the game. The game continues.
If the first player finishes the game without missing any sea shells the second player starts a new game. The first player hopes that the second player misses, so she can really be declared the winner.
AGAWAN SA BASE (Capture the Base)
Number of Players: As many as possible; the more the merrier
Participants are divided into two teams with equal number of team members. The object of the game is for one team to try & capture the base of the other by reaching the other's home base first & tagging a pre-decided item (e.g., a tree trunk, a rock, etc) symbolizing the opposite team - without getting tagged by the defending members of the opposite team. A safety line is drawn between the two teams. A member of an opposing team who crosses the safety line into the territory of the other team can be chased & tagged by the team that owns that base.
If the attacker gets tagged before he/she manages to get back to his/her safety zone or home base, he/she becomes a prisoner (POW) of the opposite team. He/she can be rescued by his/her teammates if one of his/her teammates manage to get close to the base & tag the POW without getting tagged himself/herself by the guard or one of the defenders in the opposing team.
The game ends when a member of an opposing team manages to tag the symbol of the other team or when all the members of one team are captured by the other leaving their home base free for the opposite team to attack & capture.
