A FILETTA: PASSIONE

A FILETTA
JEAN-CLAUDE ACQUAVIVA | segonda, compositions
FRANÇOIS ARAGNI | bassu
JEAN-DO BIANCO | bassu
PETR'ANTÒ CASTA | segonda
PAUL GIANSILY | terza
JEAN-VINCENT SERVETTO | segonda
MAXIME VUILLAMIER | bassu

It sounds cool yet sun-drenched at the same time: Paghjella, the centuries-old three-voice a cappella music from Corsica. It is the foundation of A Filetta’s craft. The segonda voice in the middle of the song leads the ensemble. The bassu forms the resonant foundation, and the terza layers rich ornamental melodies on top.

The Paghjella male choir singing tradition was added to the UNESCO List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2009 and is believed to have originated in the combination of two very different musical styles: Gregorian chant, sung in cool sacred spaces such as the small Romanesque church of San Pietro e Paolo in the village of Lumio, and folk music, as sun-drenched as the landscape around Lumio. Here, in north-western Corsica, resides the rehearsal room of the group A Filetta, formed in 1978. Co-founder Jean-Claude Acquaviva is still a member. He has written many songs specifically for the ensemble, including the programme “Passione,” which is one of the classics in A Filetta’s repertoire. Other texts come from the Latin liturgy for Good Friday. As spontaneous and improvised as the music might sound, it follows a precise tradition with many local characteristics – for example, from Ruglianu at the northern tip of the island or Tagliu in the east. “Passione” is thus also an inner journey through a region that, despite mass tourism, has retained an immediately perceptible spirituality beyond any religion.

Lamentazione di Jeremiae
A l’alivetu
Ghmerto

L’orme sanguigne
E lode di u sipolcru
A sintenza

Figliolu d’ella
U lamentu di Maria
Stabat mater
Sub tuum

Requiem
Lacrymosa
Rex tremendae

Perdono mio Dio
U sipolcru
U lamentu di Ghjesù

CONCERT INTRODUCTION
Una Nowak, reading