Two British men, who documented the Maltese bagpipe during their short stay on the island 40 years ago, will next week pass on their detailed research about what is probably the oldest żaqq to the National Archives.
Steve Borg, who tracked down the pair during his doctorate research in England about the recovery of Maltese folk music, believes this is an opportunity to revive a tradition slowly dying out since the last century.
They noted that the Maltese specialised in detesting what’s Maltese and adored anything foreign
The two men had visited Malta between 1971 and 1973. Karl Partridge, from Northern Ireland, invited his tutor Frank Jeal from London to come to Malta, where his father was stationed with the British Forces.
Since both were interested in Irish folk music, they decided to document the Maltese bagpipe.
“However, in Malta they came across a sense of apathy to document the instrument.
“They noted that the Maltese specialised in detesting what’s Maltese and adored anything foreign, and they believed they were writing the tombstone for the żaqq,” Mr Borg, co-founder of the Maltese group Etnika, told Times of Malta.
According to Mr Borg, the żaqq is the most complex Maltese traditional instrument and is not found elsewhere in the world. Although the bag is made from animal skin, the Maltese chanter is distinctive.
The żaqq was popular in Mosta and Naxxar until the 1960s and most players had passed away without being documented by the time the two academics came to Malta.
In all, they found some nine bagpipers, but only one was active (Toni Cachia il-Ħammarun), and some of the instruments were out of tune. They also managed to track down 87-year-old Pawlu Gatt iż-Żubejn from Mosta, but when they tried to interview him, he was too frail.
Luck finally was on their side when they found a retired piper in Mosta. Dr Partridge immediately realised it was going to be “the most memorable recording” he had made.
The recording will be played for the first time in Malta since the 1970s at the National Archives in Hospital Street, Rabat, at 6.30pm on Thursday, when the bagpiper’s identity will be revealed.
When they left Malta, Dr Partridge and Prof. Jeal published their findings in the Galpin Society Journal in 1977.
A visiting professor passed the document to Mr Borg in the early 1990s in Marsascala, but it was only when he was carrying out his PhD research some three years ago that Mr Borg managed to track down the two men.
They told him they had prepared a document, including detailed drawings of the structure and dimensions of the chanters, which they wanted to pass on to a Maltese person interested in reviving the tradition.
Mr Borg suggested they give them to Malta personally to be preserved at the National Archives. On Thursday, they will present field documents, audio recordings, photographs, slides and folk music instruments, including żaqq, żafżafa, chanters, reeds and different components of the instruments that the farmers had given them in the 1970s to help with their documentation.
Mr Borg noted the importance of this gift as the instruments are authentic, not reproductions, and date back more than 40 years.
This could be an opportunity to revive the tradition for those localities where the żaqq died out, and for youth bands that play Maltese contemporary folk.
Mr Borg, who has a Masters degree in Cultural Management, is doing a PhD on the recovery of Maltese folk music and its dissemination through new media.
Based on guidelines issued by the International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives, Unesco seeks to conserve intangible heritage, including folk music.