Keeping għana alive

As a youngster I was always fascinated by Maltese folk song, għana.

In my early teens, I remember Sammy Vella's and Evarist Bartolo's experimentation with għana in the very exciting and unorthodox Henri Dogg theatre group.

This must have made quite an impression on me since I chose għana as the central predominant theme in all my later Teatru Strada Stretta theatre productions which included Shakespeare, Goethe, Marlowe, Garcia Lorca, Bulgakov, Pushkin, Dario Fo and other classics.

I must mention years of beautiful collaboration with the late Il-Budaj and his exciting alter ego, Karmenu l-Baħri, a collaboration which culminated in many different għana activities at the University of Malta.

This created quite a stir in the early Nineties.

I am following Andrew Alamango's and Ruben Zahra's further studies and għana evolution with keen interest.

Their work and approach, albeit sometimes eclectic, is most fascinating and I can imagine what results will ensue if, God willing, they would continue this spurt of research and creativity.

Zahra also recently published an interesting Guide to Maltese Folk Music, including vintage recordings from the archives of Public Broadcasting Services.

I remember my father Carmelo telling me of a large amount of għana recordings in these archives. I am sure that one would unearth hidden gems if these archives continue to be unplugged, or plugged for that matter.

I attended Għanafest '08 organised by the Malta Council for Culture and the Arts, in which many għannejja participated. The festival was appropriately dedicated to the late Ġorġ Mifsud Chircop whose 'baby' this festival was.

I am sure that Zahra will continue to ensure the success which the festival enjoyed during these last ten years under Mifsud Chircop's 'scholastic' approach by expanding it to include also experimentation and novelties in għana evolution.

Towards the end of this festival, L-Iżgej gave his eagerly awaited performance of Il-Bormliża, a form of għana which completely epitomises the Maltese character, in its beauty of tragedy and in its tragedy of beauty. Unfortunately, the organiser opted to put in at this very precise moment the boogie-woogie 'wedding'-like music of Walter Micallef, which has absolutely nothing to do with għana or with għana experimentation, thus completely destroying the psychological empathy achieved by L-Iżgej and his għannejja. Unpardonable!

I sincerely wish Zahra and all the others success in this beautiful endeavour to give għana the recognition it deserves.

Nafra, Etnika, Kannella and others are in a position to help achieve this.