Rosendo's life was full of memorable experiences and his personality endeared him to many people. This area of the website will display thoughts, memories, or other offerings that those who were affected by his spirit or creativity might wish to share. His musical accomplishments are documented in some detail here, but he also enjoyed sports, joke books, sit-coms (Hogan's Heroes, etc.), comedians (Buddy Hackett, Victor Borge, etc), action movies (Charles Bronson, Clint Eastwood), and especially traveling to Ohio and Cape May, NJ to visit with family. Always smiling, Rosendo lived a colorful life. Please feel free to contribute an experience or an impression that can be posted for all to enjoy.
To the Family of Rosendo Santos:
This is to share with you some very fond recollection of Rosendo Santos.
I owe a great deal to Rosendo Santos who, as my first teacher in Music Theory - solfege and dictation, gave me quite a solid foundation in developing my musical skills. He was of course a phenomenal genius and just being associated with him as mentor was enough inspiration for me to strive for excellence. He was an instant role model in terms of talent, versatility, and humaneness. Later he again became my teacher in Band Arranging. He was a very open and progressive pedagogue. He would hold our class outdoors, under the shade of the trees at the back of the UP administration building, which is now the UP ampitheater. As soon as we finished our "seat" work without the benefit of a piano, he would look at our manuscripts, critique them in the most constructive way, then spend the rest of the class period chatting, and even exchanging green jokes which he always had a bagfull of.
At one time, he and I rode on a bus from the UP campus in Diliman to Quiapo. After settling in our seats, he started sketching a kundiman. By the time we reached Quiapo, the piece was finished, complete with words, melody, piano accompaniment and all the dynamics. The trip usually took between 30 to 40 minutes of some rough riding through the proverbial Manila traffic.
In my senior year, when Rosendo was already abroad, I was invited to conduct his Hiyas ng Nayon at Maryknoll College (now Miriam College). We had a number of very successful performances with the all-female high school kids.
During my student days, I was a french horn player in the UP symphony orchestra and Rosendo was our timpanist. He would also be designated occasionally by Director Ramon Tapales as a substitute conductor. We had a regular pop concert season at the St., Paul's auditorium in Manila. Rosendo did most of the orchestral arrangements, including the movie theme of the "Bridge on the River Kwai". Rosendo was actually some kind of a composer factotum for Director Ramon Tapales with whom he enjoyed a productive association. He was viewed by everyone with great respect because people looked at him as someone who could do anything in music. He also played the trombone, the contrabass, sing, etc. After Rosendo left the conservatory, Director Ramon Tapales gave the task of producing orchestral arrangments and other similar tasks to Hialrion Rubio (my first composition teacher) and after Rubio retired, it was transfered to Prof. Lucio San Pedro, with me as assistant. I was invited to join the faculty immediately after my graduation in 1965. As junior faculty, I was doing some of the orchestral arranging for the UP symphony orchestra, and I was also given the position of assistant conductor of the UP Mixed Chorus (now the UP Concert Chorus). Even to this day, I feel some degree of pride in thinking that I was able to inherit some of the things that Rosendo used to do for the Conservatory of Music.
After finishing my studies abroad, I was kept indirectly in touch with Rosendo through Dr. Ruby Mangahas, then the dean of the College of Music. I succeeded Dr. Ruby Mangahas as dean in 1978.
Ramon P. Santos |
