MANILA, Philippines - With strains of her own music filling the Cultural Center of the Philippines where she ruled magnificently for 17 years, National Artist for Music and former Cultural Center of the Philippines president and artistic director Lucrecia R. Kasilag was given a final tribute by the country?s foremost artists and cultural workers in fitting state necrological services last Thursday morning.

President Macapagal-Arroyo, in a message read by chair Vilma Labrador of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), said Kasilag?s legacy was ?a wealth of musical compositions.? She described Kasilag?s output as ?the music of our soul.?

Kasilag?s fellow National Artists bowed one by one before her casket?Napoleon Abueva and Arturo Luz (Visual Arts); F. Sionil José and Virgilio Almario (Literature); and Salvador Bernal (Theater Design).

NCCA executive director Cecile Guidote-Alvarez called Kasilag the diwata at diosa ng musika (fairy and goddess of music).

She stunned the CCP audience with a sorrowful ethnic chant that recalled Maria Callas? wailing scene from the opera, ?Medea.?

Former Sen. Helena Benitez, chair of the board of trustees of Philippine Women?s University (PWU), Kasilag?s alma mater where she became music dean, called the National Artist ?a big credit to her race.?

Dear teacher

Imelda Romualdez Marcos, former First Lady and founding chair of the CCP, remembered Kasilag as a conscientious teacher who constantly reminded her that the music scholarship she got from the PWU during her student days was ?a privilege.?

?I was frequently absent from my class because of my obligation as Miss Manila, which was then rocked by controversy,? Imelda recalled. ?To me, Tita King is an outstanding human being, an outstanding friend and an even more outstanding artist.?

She said Kasilag was behind the design of the CCP flag. When she told her the CCP should have a flag, Kasilag suggested the design should incorporate Imelda?s oft-repeated values of ?the true, the good and the beautiful.?

Marcos said she discouraged Kasilag from adopting the design since ?people were making fun of me.?

But Kasilag pushed through with it, recasting the troika of values into Tagalog and symbolizing them in the flag with their initials?like the Katipunan flag?with the initials written in ancient Filipino syllabary.

The CCP flag has continued to be used today, and Marcos pointed to the giant CCP coat of arms that incorporated the design of the CCP flag hanging above Kasilag?s bier on the CCP stage.

Looking at the coffin of Kasilag, Marcos said: ?Ma?am, you have always been a dear teacher, mentor and friend. Ma?am, you are simply the best, and we love you.?

Kasilag kin

Responding for the Kasilag family were the nieces and nephews of the composer, led by Jorge Adalberto Kasilag Ochoa, who recalled that when they were young, they were all required by their aunt to take piano lessons as a prerequisite for a proper education.

?But years after, it became apparent that most of us didn?t inherit an iota of our aunt?s musical genius,? he says. But all throughout our family gatherings, we will remember her sense of humor and the kisses we would give her as we received our traditional envelops during Christmas time.?

Seen sobbing in the audience was Juliet Tribiana who, along with her sister Marit, served in the Kasilag household for 15 years, nursing the King.

Among those who gave music and dance tributes were Ballet Philippines, which performed an excerpt from Kasilag?s ?Ang Sultan?; pianist Zenas Reyes Lozada and the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra, which performed a movement from the composer?s Divertissement for Piano and Orchestra; the Philippine Madrigal Singers, who sang Kasilag?s ?Purihin si Yahweh?; and the PWU Philippine Music Ensemble, which performed Kasilag?s arrangement of the Visayan folksong ?Uwak.?

Benedictine Fr. Rodrigo Perez led the invocation and said Kasilag stayed true to the spiritual vision of St. Benedict and St. Scholastica. (Kasilag was also an alumna of St. Scholastica?s College, run by Benedictine nuns.)

To the music of her orchestra opus, ?Festival? from her ?Philippine Scenes,? Kasilag?s coffin left the doors of the CCP for the last time, for her burial place at the Manila South Cemetery.

She had strict orders not to be buried at Libingan ng mga Bayani, which is the resting place for National Artists.