Answer:
Westernized folk traditions in the Philippines root from the Spanish Colonial Period of roughly three hundred years from 1521 to 1898. The creation of a colonial state and economic system as well as the influence of Roman Catholicism shaped what was to be the mainstream, “lowland-Christian” Filipino society.
A major part of the cultural experience of the people centered on religious or Christian subjects. At the beginning, Western music was introduced by way of the Spanish friars who taught Gregorian Chant for masses and other Christian services. In Lumbang, Laguna, for instance, Fray Juan de Santa Marta in 1606 gathered about four hundred boys from various places and trained them in singing and instrumental playing. Moreover, in 1742, a singing school was established at the Manila Cathedral. At about this period, baroque pipe organs were constructed of which the one at the San Agustin Church (restored in 1998) in Manila and the famous Bamboo Organ of Las Piñas survive today.
Para-liturgical rituals and folk rites developed as indigenous traditions were transformed to utilize Christian symbols. Music in these rites progressed to dialectically combine Westernized forms with native/indigenous style
