The most prolific composer of liturgical composed to emerge from the Davao musical landscape is Narciso Fernandez, an erstwhile religious sister of the Daughters of Mary of the Assumption (fma) whose arrangements, compositions, and lyrical works still survive today.
Dubbed by the local media in the 1970s as the ‘singing nun,’ (a takeoff from the blockbuster Hollywood movie with the same title played by actress Debbie Reynolds), Sr. Fernandez’s success earned her recognition and space in the Worldwide Who's Who for Excellence in Music, an authoritative publication of notable musical profiles around the globe.
(Released in 1966, the movie is a semi-biographical musical drama film of the life of Sr. Jeanne-Paule Maria ‘Jeannine’ Deckers, a Belgian sister of the Dominican Order who popularized the chart-busting song “Dominique,” a debut album that topped the 1963 US Billboard Hot 100.)
She is the second of a brood of nine in a family of musicians and singers, including another religious sister. Her two sisters and a brother play keyboards and are song leaders in parishes where they belong. She started playing and singing in the church during her high school years.
She studied Septem Artes Liberales at Assumption College of Nabunturan, Davao de Oro; earned a degree in Bachelor of Music in piano in 1969; and received her master's degree in Church Music and Liturgy from Saint Joseph's College in Rensselaer, Indiana, USA, in 1979. As a religious sister, she launched a career that would make her a pioneer of Philippine Liturgical Music in 2005.
The Catholic Herald, an archdiocesan publication in Davao City, describes her as the composer “whose compositions of the 70s till the 90s did not only make the liturgy vibrant but also meaningful. Her songs, both their lyrics and melody touching the Filipino soul, were sung in all the churches in the Diocese of Tagum as well as in most parts of Mindanao and in Visayas.”
Among her most notable and outstanding compositions are “O Maria, Rayna sa Pilipinas”
(Maria, Queen of the Philippines), “Pagpangatagak Na” (Let it Fall), “Himaya sa Dios” (Glory to God), “Palihug, Dawata Ginoo” (Kindly Accept Lord), 'Huni sa Kinabuhi’ (Melody of Life), and the Advent song ‘Umanhi ka, Mesias” (O Come, Divine Messiah).
She also composed elementary graduation song “Golden Moments” for the Assumption College of Davao.
In dawn observances of the diocese of Davao in the early 1970s in preparation for the Christmas season, Sr. Fernandez’s Advent song opens the liturgical celebration as the attendees stood to join the priest who’s marching towards the main altar to officiate the Mass.
Her devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mother even outside the cloistered life, is a pervasive theme in her compositions, particularly in ‘Mary, Woman of Faith,’ which goes: “Mary, woman of faith. Mary, help me believe. No one so faithful like you, none yet my whole life through. Mary, woman of hope. Mary, hope of the world. Oh! make my heart pure and free! Hopeful as one can be. Mary, woman of love. Mary, mother of God. Beautiful lady are you! My loving mother, too.”
After leaving consecrated life, she migrated to Hawaii in 2001 where she left musical imprints. She became director of music at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Honokaa, Hawaii, before moving to Maui. In 2003, the Davao-born musician also became director of Music and Liturgy of Maria Lanakila Catholic Church and served as chair of its liturgical committee.
Among her responsibilities were to lead the assembly in all masses with the music and singing, prepare the material for church services, and play piano and guitar. She also oversaw three different choirs for the church, organized the order of worship, and recruited choir members.
Sr. Fernandez published four books of her Cebuano-Visayan compositions. She is credited for finalizing and arranging the notation of the book, ‘God Had a Dream for You,’ written by Sr. Tammy Saberon, SSC, of the Missionary Sisters of St. Columban.
