Malta: In-Land Transcript
Tal-Fatt
Joe: Fatt, its called a fatt. Fatt means
it actually happened.
George: L’ minoria, L’ minoria.... this is
the ghana tal fatt.
Frank: I mean the guess is, the educated
guess of course is that the very early song of the maltese was of course about
hardship all the time from time immemorial the prayers of the people to the
gods that they knew then Ashtar, Neptune and the rest. It’s all in there that’s where the roots are
but then of course with civilisations you will have influences from time to
time mixed together very subtly over thousands of years. Where is the root?
J: To start with when they are singing it
is so hard because its poetry.
G: Don’t forget that our language is over
one thousand years old and although we might lack some particular word or
words, this is made up (for) by the wide variety of its semantics. Ghana means
the words the music and the performance.
Religion
Cikku: They pass you in the streets you
know, they play guitars and singing, at night. Sometimes came the police run
after us. Because for police it was
something wrong I don’t know why, they were against it the ghana you know, not
the police only the churches too.
George: It was defined as the lower
classes exotic or improper behaviour.
It was associated with debauchery.
Eddie: So there was a great division, very
class social division. And therefor the
ghana and the ‘prejjem’ (singers) were totally cut off as part of the maltese
heritage.
Ghana Now
Frank: Why ghana now?
Joe: Even today in malta there are still
alot of people that won’t accept it.
F: It’s a part of our identity.
George: You would find ghana singing twice
or three times a week in the various wine shops....
J: But it’s a shame really, because every
countries got it’s own original music.
G: In summer we include ghana in what we
call the ‘festa maltija’.
Eddie: Now ghana is very accepted as part
of our heritage, we are all proud of it.
J: ...Really illiterate people....
G: The educated classes still do view many
of the singers as illiterate, stupid people.
J: Country people mostly.
G: A scavenger from Valetta, a bar owner,
an importer of cement, a good number of dockyard workers, restuarant owners,
pensioners.
Spirtu Pront
Frank: Ghana spiritu pront.
F: And that’s the most common and regular
ghana today.
Cikku: The guitar starts first not the
singers start first, the guitar starts first, after, the singers.
F: You always have more than one person.
They’ll agree on a subject.
Bamboccu: We use the proper maltese words.
G: And the metaphoric, satirical, ironical
implications of the language
B: In spirtu pront your mind has to work,
you know, all the time, every minute every second. Because everything in that
moment, in that moment, invented in the moment. Rhyming and answering. That’s
a fighting when we’re singing. We’ll be
four of us. I’m against you, he’s against her, cross like that.
E: Mostly it’s never about something
friendly.
B: .....And always opposition, 99 percent.
C: People, not give answers, not good
singer he he he...
B: If I say it’s a bottle, you say no,
it’s a glass
G: So you see it’s a literal duel.
C: No, not like a fight no.
E: Most of the times it’s on a friendly
basis. there’s no real fighting
B: We call it bota and risposta
Victor: To most of us it’s like a sports,
you know.
Cikku’s son: It is like sports.
V: Recreation, yes exactly. You go there
to relax, to sing and ......
C: Maybe come for a drink not for ghana ha
ha ha.....
Il-Bormliza
Frank: There were the originals, original
folk singing which is not very common or popular I might add, nowadays. For
insatnce one of them is what they call the l’ghana bormliz – ta bormla.
Joe: That really sounds like Arabic.
Really, really sounds.....to start with they start singing on the D7 not on a
G.
George: When I asked them to have the
bormliza at our festival, they just laughed at
me.
J: This is a very old style. It went out
of fashion years and years ago...
G: ....laughed at me, literally the whole
room........
J: I don’t mind, I don’t mind listening to
it, but if you listen to it you’ll have to listen to the voice, that’s all....
G: Well normally since he sings the
bormliza, he normally sings nowhere.
J: You can’t understand it and they’re not
rhyming, you know it’s not rhymed.
G: The Maltese prefer improvisation,
spirtu pront. Singers are so egoistic
they just ignore this type of singing.
J: At the moment there isn’t any voices
capable enough to sing on this.
G: Today they say, well you were right...
The Future
Il Pupa: Fatt majore, majore, majore...
George: An old time...
Bamboccu: There are kids...
Charlie: There is one kid, he’s only
young, he’s a kid....but he’s good.
B: I don’t think thisd ghana will ever
die, I think it will never die.
C: He’s only young we must encourage him.
Because we need youngsters like him.
G: Aren’t ghannejja (singers) normally old
people? A young guitarist, a young singer, a female guitarist.......Old time.
Frank: Nobody, especially the singers
themeselves they don’t think the ghana is being lost or....you know, it’s time
is over....