# Nicanor Abelardo



## vesteel

I think he is popular in the Filipino classical music scene and _very_ obscure internationally so I thought I might just promote some of our composers here :lol:

He is best known for writing _Kundiman_ - basically a Filipino version of Lieder (Mutya ng Pasig is a good example). His style was very Romantic, his Piano Concerto, Cavatina, and Romanza are fine examples of this style. 
But I think his late works are most interesting here. During the 1930s he went to Chicago and was influenced by some modernist composers like Hindemith and Bartok. His style went from relaxing romantic music to a dissonant modern style fairly quickly. The Cinderella Overture is a great example of this.

He also wrote many other works, such as operas, zarzuelas, and I think an unfinished symphony too. But unfortunately most his works are unpublished and unrecorded because the arts is very very underappreciated here, sadly.


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