Of the several cultural activities held this year to commemorate the 50th anniversary from the death of Dun Karm Psaila, perhaps one of the more fascinating is a CD album by the name of Għanja, which features 10 of the national poet’s works adapted to music by versatile composer Dominic Galea.

When I have made the poem my own, the music starts to flow freely

Setting poems to music is familiar territory to Galea, and while his most prominent output of this nature to date remains 2009’s Ommi album, featuring his mother Doreen singing adaptations of works by great Maltese poets such as Karmenu Vassallo, Ġorġ Pisani, Rużar Briffa and Dun Karm Psaila, as well as Pietru Caxaru’s Xidew il-Qada, (the oldest-known piece of Maltese literature), he had already included a couple of similar musical excursions on earlier albums.

Galea says he was always interested in the Maltese language: “I chose Maltese literature as one of my credits when I was studying music.

“Given my passion for music, it wasn’t long before the verses I was reading – works by the likes of Achille Mizzi, Rużar Briffa, Oliver Friggieri, Ray Mahoney, Joe Friggieri and many others – began to take on new forms as I re-imagined them in musical terms in my head.”

He admits he does not actually write verses himself, and this has led him to work with some talented writers and poets in the course of writing songs. Adapting poems to music, however, requires a different approach.

The pen is a mighty weapon, and one needs to delve deep inside the poem to feel its true meaning. “I immerse myself into what the poem is about and learn about what inspired the poet to write it. It is only when I have made the poem my own, albeit only temporarily, that the music starts to flow freely,” he explains.

And ‘freely’ is probably the best way to describe it, given that he wrote no fewer than 16 tracks in the space of a week, once the concept of writing an album based on Dun Karm’s poetry was established.

“The thing is, I was already familiar with his work, having studied it closely in previous years, so that gave me an advantage,” he said.

Not so simple was the approach Galea opted to take in writing the music for Għanja.

“When I came to compose the music for Ommi, I only needed to keep one singer in mind. I was obviously very familiar with my mother’s vocal range, her key and her particular timbre, and this made it easier for me to write.”

He took advantage of that situation by allowing different musical elements to seep into the music and give it different flavours. “I was able to infuse elements of jazz, folk and classical music into the tracks on Ommi, but with Għanja I took a different approach.”

Faced with the task of adapting Dun Karm’s poems to music, Galea decided to let his artistic passion take over: “I put aside any notion of vocals and went ahead with composing the music as I heard it in my head and felt it in my heart”.

Only when all the tracks were written did Galea begin to consider the vocal aspect: “I listened to the music again, taking into consideration the topic of each poem so that I would find the best voice to reflect and project the poem’s feel”.

The featured vocalists, namely Lawrence Gray, Mary Rose Mallia, Bayzo and Doreen Galea, all have unique timbres in their voices that lend different emotions to the tracks. Doreen has a mellow tone that suits her tracks perfectly, while Mary Rose has a bright vocal register.

Both singers bring something fresh to the songs they interpret, all the more so when they join forces on Stedina.

“As for the men, I think Bayzo has probably the most beautiful male voice to come out of Malta. We have worked together in the past, so I had to have him on this album.”

The youngest of the lot, yet also quite a veteran himself, Gray has also worked with Galea in the past.

“It was, in fact, because of his role in the musical Manwel Dimech that I wanted Lawrence on board; I needed that same patriotic verve for the song Lil Malta, and a youthful energy on Żagħżugħ ta’ Dejjem.”

Musically too, Galea sought to integrate other elements into the arrangements. “Rather than the chamber orchestra set-up we used for Ommi, I went for a more symphonic sound on some of the tracks on Għanja.”

And upon listening to the end result, one cannot help but notice the relatively more instantaneous appeal on the ear it possesses.

“To tell you the truth, that prominent melodic factor was one of the main things we looked for when it came to shortlisting the 16 tracks I had written down to the final 10 that made it on to the album.”

Interestingly, it has also played a big part in giving Maltese poetry a new angle of interest among students. “We have had positive feedback about how the musical aspect has helped students understand the poems better.”

With the official launch of Għanja firmly in his sights and a full live performance planned to take place at the beginning of next year, Galea says he is constantly working on new ideas.

“I always have a book of poetry on my piano, and if the mood takes me, I usually won’t get off the piano before I’ve finished a track.”

Further to his latest work, Galea has plans to release further albums based on the same concept as Għanja: “To date, I have written more than a hundred musical pieces based on poems by various Maltese poets, so the pace is already underway for the next project.”

Stopping short of revealing the identity of the next featured poet, Galea reminds me that there’s also his jazz trio project in the pipeline, “and I have also been approached by a number of poets interested in similar collaborations, but more about that later,” he said.

“For the time being, there is enough to think about”.

Released on Heritage Records and produced by Dominic and Manolito Galea at Lito’s Place in Floriana, Għanja’s release was possible through the assistance of the Ministry of Education, Żebbuġ council, the Kunsill Nazzjonali tal-Ilsien Malti, the Akkademja tal-Malti and HSBC, among others.

The album is available from Exotique, D’Amato and Sierra Distributors, or by sending an e-mail to info@dominicgalea.com.

www.dominicgalea.com

bugeja.michael@gmail.com

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