These are narrative chants that are traditionally performed by the Ifugao community, it is not ritual-associated, but are a way of storytelling, practised during the rice sowing season, during harvest time, and at funeral wakes. The chant is thought to have originated before the 7th century and comprises more than 200 chants that are each divided into 40 episodes, with a complete recitation of it lasting several days, with some of the words being old and not currently understood. 

 

The language of the stories is full of figurative expressions with repetitions and onomatopoeias, which can be difficult to transcribe.

 

The Ifugao’s culture is matrilineal, meaning that family relationships are traced through the mother, so in the chants, the wife normally takes the main parts, with the narrators being mainly elderly women who hold key positions in the community as both historians and preachers.

 

The lead chanter, munhaw-e, sets the rhythm of a Hudhud story with a long hum and begins the opening lines of the story. The rest of the chorus, munhudhud, takes the lead at a cued moment to chant the choral parts, and stops at an appropriate time for the munhaw-e to resume the narration of the next line. The munhaw-e’s parts have the story, while the munhudhud are only the repetitions of syllables, words, or phrases of the munhaw-e.

 

The chants tell of stories of ancestral heroes, traditional law, religious beliefs, traditional practices, and the importance of rice cultivation.

 

And, with Ifugao’s conversion to catholicism, their traditional culture has been weakened, and the chant has survived through the present day because it is not associated with indigenous rituals.

 

(“Hudhud Chants of the Ifugao – UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage,” n.d.)