Manobo buwa buwa is syllabic and is versified with around seven syllables per line. [See music transcription of the “Le-ugan di’t le-ugan” piece.] Some of the lines rhyme ostensively, using the natural voice. Musically, it is set to line form or litany type (i.e., a tune is sung the same for each line), utilizing few non-lexical words (as in the example “Le-ugan di’t le-ugan”).    

    Manobos have not invested much artistic effort in the buwa buwa because it is not meant to be seriously heard; it does not need one’s attention. It is not associated with the disclosure of one’s ginhawa, the vital principle of life, as tud-om is in contrast. For this reason, buwa buwa is often used casually as a lullaby to put a baby to sleep. Musically speaking, its melodic contour is undulating and has a leisurely rhythm and meter. It uses anhemitonic scales, the four-tone one in the example “Le-ugan” which tonal relationships are diagrammed on this page. In this song, the vocal persona (sung by a real woman) describes his appearance wearing “combat shoes,” “oversea cap” (=American baseball cap), and “long pants.”

Buwa buwa song resembles the style of acculturated songs kanta brought inland to Manoboland by the coastal Visayan-speaking settlers. Buwa-buwa is also often referred to as komposo (a word borrowed from Spanish Filipino). Buwa-buwa and kanta genres are not associated with the ritualized act of speaking-in-song that tud-om does. Yet, there are differences between the buwa-buwa and acculturated song kanta. Unlike the anhemitonic scale of the buwa buwa, the kanta genre is sung to the Western major-minor, heptatonic harmonic tonalities (accompanied by the guitar). Besides, kanta has a sharper metrical definition. Unlike the buwa buwa, which uses a noticeable number of non lexical words, kanta lyrics is all made up of lexical words that tell a story. Hence komposo is diegetic or narrating. The characters of the story, which can include the self, exists separately from the I-Thou speaking of tud-om.