Ta’ Verna folk group

I would like to thank Anton Attard for his comments regarding the karabazza (November 20). The instrument in question is made up of three percussive mallets and is a Neapolitan folk instrument that goes by the name of triccaballacca. Over the last 20 years or so it has become increasingly popular in Gozo among folk groups.

Attard says it was an “old Gozitan folk instrument”. This is where I cannot agree. The karabazza does feature in a rhyme in one of the folktales published by Ġużé Cassar Pullicino but not as a musical instrument (Stejjer ta’ Niesna, DOI, 1967, p.43-45).

In the rhyme starting Mazza karabazza, the word karabazza (not capital ‘K’ in Cassar Pullicino) is simply a word rhyming with mazza. Granted, it is associated with a mallet.

However, there is also a proverb where, though following the same thread of thought, Karabazza is certainly personified.

I think we can both agree that the word karabazza is definitely a part of the folk element and that because it is already associated with a mallet it is perfectly suited as the name for this musical instrument.

Having said that, I cannot agree to the instrument having any deep roots in musical folk culture.

In describing all the local instruments, I have tried to present proof with documentation, iconography and folk evidence.

There is no record of the karabazza as a musical instrument in any of the 18th-century dictionaries of G.P. Agius De Soldanis or Mikiel Anton Vassalli, or in 19th-century travellers’ accounts, or even in any other documents I found.

Finally, the very recent alternative names for the instrument, id-damdam and l-imrietel, were not ‘coined by people from the larger island’ but by Gozitans themselves who did not know a previous name for this new instrument.