Last night we went into town to a concert at Capel Tabernacl given by a Corsican pulifoni singing group called 'A Filetta'. It was part of the current Festival of Voice / Gŵyl y Llais, running for the next ten days at venues around the city.
We heard a pulifoni a capella vocal group singing spontaneously in an Ajaccio bar the night before we set off for home, on our second visit to Corsica in 2007. It a unique genre of folk music, using close three part harmony, full of striking dissonances, complex ornamentation and grace notes. The lyrics in Corsican and Latin express sacred and secular themes. One of its main traditional liturgical forms is the funeral lament, but there are 'pulifoni' Masses, Christmas and Easter carols as well, as well as songs based on romantic and nature poetry.
Pulifoni is a musical form unique to Corsica and its popular revival, linked to Corsican nationalism, has brought the art new vigour, with an international following for its singing groups. 'A Filetta' travel the world to perform. This week, Poland and Germany, as well as Wales. I think we acquired our first CD of theirs at the airport shop as we left, and we left the concert with two more.
When you hear pulifoni singing at first it leaves you wondering where you've heard anything like it before, as it bears a resemblance to Bulgarian, Georgian and Romanian a capella singing, but it has harmonic surprises of its own and embellishments to the melodies resembling what can be heard in North African, Middle Eastern and Caucasian vocal tradition, not to mention synagogue chants and Qu'ranic recitation.
Corsica, being a Mediterranean island could have been visited by musicians and traders from all those regions over millennia, passing on their influence. On the other hand, it could by that music evolves spontaneously but separately in different cultures, where landscape and social setting are the primary creative stimulant. We noticed that on one of the new album purchased is a Georgian song the group has learned, perhaps because, due to their travels, the groups has recognised and now wants to celebrate common and very ancient musical roots.
Oh yes, 'A Filetta' performed immaculately and a good variety of songs both secular and sacred were sung. They were supported by a man who read translations of some of the lyrics, to evoke the ethos of this art form. An audience of about a hundred, was captivated by the atmosphere generated by the six male singers. The acoustics of a sizeable Welsh chapel meant that no amplification system was needed, even though they often sang quietly and tenderly. You could hear every breath and each distinct voice clearly. An audio feast in its own right.
With Sunday sermon ready to preach this afternoon, I took my Sony Alpha 68 for a walk in the park and caught sight of a couple of Mallard families with eight ducklings thriving, no longer with their downy coating, but brown feathers with white markings, quite charming. Clare's garden roses are looking wonderful at the moment, very photogenic. The pictures are here. And after a week of cool greyness, it's getting summery warm with cloudy blue skies, so I won't miss Spain quite as much, for a while, at least.
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