As the festa season for 2014 is now coming to an end, with the last one being celebrated in Gudja in honour of Our Lady of Consolation on Sunday, I would like to give a pat on the back to all those people who voluntarily spare their free time in favour of our traditional feasts. This includes those who took it upon themselves to publish their feast souvenir programmes.

Besides information about the feast itself and the times of various activities related to band marches and concerts, in these publications one can also come across very interesting articles compiled by historians specialising in the life of the towns and villages through the ages.

Such contributions bring to light information that had been totally forgotten along the years or else was unknown.

One must not forget the messages in these programmes by the directors of the band clubs.

In particular, I would like to mention a write-up by band director Hermann Farrugia Franz, consisting of an analysis of the concerts held in village squares, published in the Gudja souvenir programme.

He suggests the type of music that ought to be selected for such concerts and maintains they should not turn into some sort of song festival or pop music selection and there should not be a whole rock band accompanying our traditional bands.

It would be more appropriate to play a selection from Verdi’s Aida and Pini di Roma from the pen of Ottarino Respighi and other pieces of this kind.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.