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Giovanna Iacovazzi: Un Bruit Pieux, Fondation de Malte. 2012, 352 pp.

During my television career I had the pleasure to come close to most of the village każini in Malta and Gozo, each with their popular banda. This happened in the course of my two Sunday morning series, Bonġu Malta in the 1980s and Il-Ħadd mal-Maltin in the 1990s on TVM, when I often had the opportunity to reflect upon the anthropological challenges such musical organisations offered.

Giovanna Iacovazzi’s Un Bruit Pieux does much more than that. The author not only picks up the pious noises of the Żabbar blue and green banda rivals to illustrate their role in the life of the community, but she intricately weaves them into an academic fabric, transporting readers into le monde hispano-siculo-napolitain – where Alain Blondy, in the introduction, aptly places such folklore – to which Malta belonged.

The author is fascinated by all the fuss the każini seem to create in order to organise a religious feast; by the rival bandisti of tal-Grazzja and San Mikiel; and by the community itself, where men have a nickname and houses a forename.

This musical treasure trove in French, published by Fondation de Malte, reaches various thought-provoking findings

During the September festa, Iacovazzi was also intrigued by the followers of the different każini and by their sharing of Żabbar’s public spaces, including streets, facades and rooftops.

Marking these spaces by their clan colours, supporters of the two clubs vied for supremacy, often emphasising their messages through T-shirt slogans such as Supremazia assoluta, We lead, you follow and Ħadd ma jista’ għalina.

All this creates a relation, remarks Iacovazzi, between music and space. The author sees this relation as tying in notions of desire with those of patrimony. Each każin member has a role to play.

She concludes that the banda music is not an instrument of development, culture or economy but a ‘real’ living activity that renovates itself each year through the composition of new festa marches.

The book is spread over six chapters, with a number of attractive colour plates and a CD featuring snippets from eight popular marċi tal-festa to illustrate her analysis in the closing chapter. This academic study deals with such themes as the origins and influences of the Maltese festa music, village sites of memory, religious non-sacred music for civic and liturgical occasions and nationality.

Iacovazzi traces the origins of the Maltese banda to the 15th and 16th centuries, with the presence of the juculari music players varying in size from one village to another.

The author relates a chronicler’s description of trumpets and musical war instruments at the head of the procession for the feast of St Paul in Valletta in 1716.

Using the popular feast of tal-Grazzja in Żabbar as a backdrop to this in-depth social scientific exercise, Iacovazzi takes the reader on an interesting tour visiting the origins of the Maltese banda from Sicilian and Neapolitan traditions.

Between the 16th and 18th centuries, the two major musical centres on the Island – Mdina Cathedral and St John’s in Valletta – attracted the best musical Italian talent, among them Giuseppe Sammartini and Giulio Scala. The latter were among the first to teach polyphonic practice and singing in Malta.

The author ties up these historical events with the prowess of Maltese composers, like Francesco Azopardi and Nicolò Isouard, who used to study in Naples and return to perform in Malta under the Knights.

Sicilian bands invited to play during local feasts, and the presence of many Italians living in Malta during the Risorgimento, seem to have led to the birth of the local każini during the 19th century.

Iacovazzi also gives weight to the presence of British and local military bands in Malta at the start of the 19th century. She mentions the early case of Filippo Galea, who started his musical career as a clarinettist at the age of 12 with an English regiment to become, by 1851, the director of a Żebbuġ banda.

Another pioneer was Emmanuele Bartoli who, by the end of the 19th century, led the Maltese regiment band and directed the baned of Qormi and Valletta. Iacovazzi adds that at the time before anyone could direct a Maltese regiment band he had to sit for an examination in England.

In spite of efforts to anglicise cultural activities in Malta during the Language Question years at the start of the 20th century, Iacovazzi believes the strong Italian influence survived in this genre of music.

In conclusion, this musical treasure trove in French, published by Fondation de Malte, reaches various thought-provoking findings.

By producing popular music by the villagers for the villagers, the Maltese banda – as the author also states in her contribution to a recent French publication, Patrimoine et désirs d’identité (L’Harmattan, 2012) – remains a public expression of indigenous entertainment manifesting inherent identity characteristics.

With over 350 pages, including scores of musical compositions, this book offers an authoritative examination of this section of Maltese musical heritage and should serve as a platform for further academic interest.

It is a must for banda enthusiasts, musicologists and social science scholars.

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