U.P. Naming Mahal

U.P. Naming Mahal is the university hymn of the University of the Philippines. The melody for the song was written by Nicanor Abelardo, an alumnus and former faculty member of the U.P. College of Music. Abelardo is considered to be one of the Philippines' greatest musicians. Because of the original scale of the hymn in B flat major, which is too high for the usual voice, UP Conservatory of Music (now UP College of Music) professors Hilarion Rubio and Tomas Aguirre reset the music in G major.

The original English lyrics (entitled as "U.P. Beloved") was taken from a poem by Teogenes Velez, a Liberal Arts student. The translation to Filipino was a composite from seven entries in a contest held by the University. The judges did not find any of the seven translations as fully satisfactory.

Modified lyrics

In 1997, A musical play entitled "Lean" was held to commemorate the 10th year since the assassination of a prominent UP student leader during the martial law, Leandro Alejandro. In this play, Gary Granada, the one who made the libretto of this play, remixed the tune of UP Naming Mahal in a contemporary rock version and gave it a new and more "nationalistic sounding" lyrics, reasserting the purpose of the Iskolar ng Bayan as a Iskolar ng Sambayanan, Tagapaglingkod ng Taongbayan.

Translation

The phrase "U.P. Naming Mahal" occurs as such in the following languages: English, Tagalog.