Etnika and Maltese folk song

Reference is made to Showtime's interview with Andrew Alamango, founder of Etnika (August 1). I strongly object to his flat statement that "with ghana, neither the form nor the lyrical content has ever evolved. It's as though they [sic] are doing it out of habit".

Historical records and diachronic and/or synchronic studies by Anna Borg-Cardona, Charles Camilleri, Guze Cassar Pullicino, Philip Ciantar, Stanley Fiorini, Mikiel Fsadni, Ranier Fsadni, Guido Lanfranco, Paul Sant-Cassia, Godfrey Wettinger and the undersigned prove the contrary! Cassar Pullicino (known as "Guzé" rather than "Giuseppe Cassar Pulliccino'' (sic) and Camilleri are the same people Mr Alamango refers to as having "researched the subject extensively''.

Etnika's world music and ghana are two different genres and Mr Alamango proves to be neither sensitive to an important old aspect of our culture and a contemporary one nor is he understanding the improvisation (with its various levels of metaphorisation and language play) which is an intrinsic element of Maltese folk singing and of that of other Mediterranean countries.

In his interview, Mr Alamango is repeating his unwarranted dogmatic comments of two years ago when your reporter wrote that Mr Alamango wants "to try something new in the belief that evolving on the ghana is the only way to ensure its survival'' (The Times, July 17). About this I have already objected personally to Mr Alamango on September 22, 2002 on the occasion of Etnika's performance at St James Cavalier, to which objection he replied that he must have been "misquoted!"

Ghana has survived because it evolved. Is Mr Alamango now being misquoted by Showtime? Can readers of The Times know anyway if Showtime's interview is a faithful transcription of Mr Alamango's words? Perhaps Mr Alamango could also enlighten us whether his repeated comments are his personal view or that of the whole Etnika group which includes Steve Borg and Guzi Gatt, who are members of Kadenzi, the Maltese folk singers' and folk musicians' society established last October.

As I have already said elsewhere last year, readers of The Times are thus being misinformed about Maltese folk singing. This runs contrary to what Steve Borg, Etnika's researcher, defined last year as being the "three main factors" of Etnika's "mission statement... that of being original, educational and entertaining''. To avoid ignoring or misinterpreting what is accepted by the contemporary Maltese community, I suggest Mr Alamango read contemporary scholars of the mark of Hoppál and Ispas.

Ispas condemns the "specialist" who "exceeds his qualification, or if he states value judgments pretending to be absolute truths of a scientific authority... which he is not entitled to do, a subjective angle may be detrimental not only to the results of research, but especially to the subsequent stages of data collection, undertaken by other specialists..." (See, "Some Considerations on Ethnic Issues in Folklore Today," Authenticity, Budapest, 2002, pp. 23-24).

The concept of variations is one of the major issues in folkloristics. Mr Alamango's amateurish attitudes on Maltese folk singing as appearing in the media are damaging Etnika's credibility in the eyes of knowledgeable Maltese and foreigners. Why denigrate folk singing and folk singers? He has only to look around and focus on spirtu pront discourse to see that content is evolving right in front of us! The lament as sung by Mr Alamango's "exception[al]" performer is nothing but l-ghana tal-fatt in form and structural content! There are other folk singers who do write verses and sing them with artistry and emotion just as this "exception" prepares his lament.

Mr Alamango has often been quoted as saying that his group and himself are professionals. Bent as he is on a mythologised aspect of Maltese culture, I wish he were as professional in his outlook of our own culture. The folk singers whose performance he does not appreciate might have directly or indirectly sponsored Etnika's recent performances!