Author publishes 'A Musical Legacy: Malta-related music found in foreign libraries'.

Over the last 10 years, Anna Borg Cardona has been collecting details about Maltese music from travelogues, from the British Library in London and other archives abroad.

Initially, she did not think she would come across any music and musical instruments to do with Malta but as she persisted with her detective work, she found out that there had been a substantial number of instruments and makers of these instruments over the past couple of centuries.

"In Gozo they still make the rabbuba, also called zafzafa, which is a friction drum played with percussion instruments and the accordion, all still popular in the sister island.

"Such instruments are used especially during Carnival when rhythm and percussive sounds predominate".

Mrs Borg Cardona holds diplomas in the teaching and performance of music from Trinity College and has studied musicology and edited a number of 17th century manuscripts at the Mdina Cathedral archives.

She has just published her widely researched work, A Musical Legacy: Malta-related music found in foreign libraries. The design and layout were prepared by her son Michael, while the book was printed by PEG Ltd of San Gwann.

During her years of research, she came across music that was played in different strata of Maltese society, ranging from court dances to salon music to folk.

Folk music usually was not written down but the musical scores Mrs Borg Cardona discovered were either written down by the travellers to Malta themselves or else they asked musicians to write the scores for them.

For example, Edward Jones, a Welshman who was harper to the Prince of Wales, used to collect music from all parts of the world, including Malta.

One possibility as to why Jones collected such music was that he had several harp students and the repertoire of harp music was limited. He, therefore, used to adapt this music to be played on the harp, which has the same arrangement as the piano.

Why did she reproduce the musical scores in her book when most readers are unable to read the music?

"That is true, but I believe it is important that the music is made available in Malta. The next step would be a recording of the music for the public to better understand the richness of this musical heritage.

"A CD of the music would be a wonderful memento of these islands for visitors to take back with them.

"If Malta truly wants to tap the niche of cultural tourism, the performance of music and dance from various levels of Maltese society would fill a void which has been felt for a long time".

The author is hoping that a commercial or government organisation would sponsor a CD of these scores, which she intends recording.

The earliest music she has come across are five dancing scores dating back to the 16th century, going back to before the Great Siege of 1565. These sheets of music also include several of the dance steps originally presented by some knights of St John to the court of France. Dancers wore Turkish costumes when performing the dance.

The music from Malta documented by Edward Jones includes folk music, music played by the knights and high society.

"In the book I give the provenance of each musical score and the social background in which it was played. Of particular interest are two castanet dances.

"Various late 18th century travellers had pointed out that the Maltese in Valletta used to dance in Spanish style during wedding celebrations with 'castanets in hand'."

High society in Valletta was more influenced by the habits and customs of foreigners who visited the island while rustic folk probably retained previous Arab influences.

All of this traditional music can be played. Performing the court music as part of a music festival would be a lovely, grand affair not only for tourists but also for the Maltese public. There is also the music for the carnival sword dance known as il-Parata-as it was played in the late 18th and early 19th century.

"It could be that the earlier version of the parata music was based only on a constant rhythm," she said.

The idea to put all these musical details in book form came about after professor Godfrey Wettinger had presented her with some musical scores he had come across - a 16th century dance and one of the books published in 1807 by Edward Jones - that Prof. Wettinger had discovered in 1986 and which he also wished to see published. This is the first book ever detailing Maltese melodies and dance music.

As far as Mrs Borg Cardona knows there are no records in local public archives of similar music although one cannot rule out the possibility that other items in this genre could be found in private collections.