Maltese Traditional Music
Għana & Prejjem

by Manuel Casha

DEFINITION

G. Cassar Pullicino in his publication " Il-Folklor Malti" or Maltese Folklore, describes għana this way: "Għana is an ancient heritage, passed on from father to son through many generations. This is apart from għana which is rhymed spontaneously called "Spirtu Pront" as we know it today."

Most għana is genuine and contains a passion which reflects the heartbeat of the people, and their endurance through the years as a nation. Our country people still practice it in their villages on warm, moonlit summer nights where they occasionally walk the streets singing and playing deep from the heart. (I have interviewed old għannejja who not only remember this but also took part in it in their youth). They sing the song of a loved one, sometimes they sing of the sadness of unfulfillment in life and other times of disappointment, of dashed hopes and dreams.

The great majority of the nation sings, sometimes at the seaside for the feast of San Girgor or Lapsi, or on the eve of Victory Day, on the 8th of September. Sometimes under the trees of Buskett on the eve of l-Imnarja and now and again in the wine shops over a glass of wine. And the people crowd around għannejja, rhyming and singing, and rejoice together in the music.
 

PREJJEM

In the 20th century prejjem have become an art-form in their own right and in some ways penetrate deeper than għana as far as universal appeal, purely because music is more universal than language. It is interesting to note, that some għannejja claim that prejjem are there to beautify and decorate, and not necessarily to give the għannejja more time to think, as they often think their reply halfway through their opponents għanja (stanza). It is interesting to note that the true meaning of "Spirtu pront" is għana without prejjem intervals. In other words għana with accompaniment only and no prejjem, which forces the għannejja to think quicker.

AKKUMPANJAMENT: Accompaniment is normally provided by two guitars keeping a synchronised droning rhythm guided by the Prim (Lead guitar) which plays an improvised melody in between each għanja. All three guitars can be tuned in different frequencies but played in tune by changing the chord formation according to the frequency, creating a wider harmonic span. We look at this when we look at tuning. But for now let's accept the sound and move on.

GHANA GENRES

The most common are :
 

There are more types in fact, but let us look at the main ones.

SPIRTU PRONT

Spirtu pront means impromptu. Made up on the spot. This type of għana is sung in quatrains. Four octosyllabic lines rhyming a,b,c,b. Spirtu pront has a usual duration of an hour. The LINE-UP is usually made up of four għannejja. The first għannej directs his għana to the third in the the line up, and the second to the fourth.

The FORMAT is usually: three guitarists with the prim in the middle, with four għannejja standing behind guitarists. The għannejja sing on a topic which could be developed along the way or in some cases, premeditated. It is not considered sporting to premeditate a topic, although in a lot of cases topics which might have needled an għannej in a previous session, may be continued in the most subtle way.

Generally they sing about topics which are topical or humorous. Għana Spirtu Pront involves a lot of punning, inference, hyperbole, proverbs and old adages to illustrate a point. In fact it is considered unsporting to clarify statements in a session, and what is said must be subtly hidden between the lines, almost exclusively for the dilettantes and aficionados, alienating outsiders from what is being said. Quite often outsiders may enjoy the session and laugh along at some of the funny lines, without having the faintest hint of what the hour was about.

All quatrains must rhyme and it is considered shameful, even dishonourable to fail to rhyme. Spirtu Pront is usually accompanied on a key close to A in concert pitch terms, but the Prim usually transported a tone above the accompanying guitars, which takes it to the key of G. That is provided the guitar format is: PRIM G.ACC: A,A.

It is more traditionally correct to have this format:

             PRIM: G.
             ACC: 1 A
             ACC: 2 C

I shall expand on this later on when we look at prejjem and għana tuning.
Without doubt GHANA SPIRTU PRONT is the most popular form of għana presently.

TAL-FATT
 

GHANA FIL-GHOLI

Għana fil-Għoli is commonly known as "Il-Bormliża". This type of għana has a middle-Eastern influence which literally translated means "Għana in high...". I suspect that the term "high" here means high pitch or high key or falsetto. This could be due to the fact that this għana was also very popular amongst women in the past, hence it was sung in a higher pitch. In fact it requires a different type of prejjem, prolonging the change from one chord to another, allowing the għannej more time to hold the note, while showing the beauty of his/her voice. This type of għana is not so common now, and it is particularly reminiscent of the ritual wails and cries of the Middle-East, particularly North African countries.

I refer to the earlier reference to PAUL SANT-CASSIA's Middle-Eastern connection:-

GĦANA FIL-GĦOLI is sometimes referred to as IL-BORMLIŻA which is derived from the name of the city of BORMLA. I have discussed with several għannejja, why Bormla or Cospicua as it is referred in more modern times. I have been offered several explanations, none of which are conclusive. The most logical is the one offered by the recently deceased JIMMY CAMILLERI, who told me that the name BORMLIŻA came from the harbour city of Bormla, where Arab sailing ships used to deliver cotton and could be heard singing their religious chants, which the Maltese picked up on and adapted to their own like.
 

GHANA PUBLICATIONS

There are not many books of reference written on għana. Curiously most books of reference were written by non Maltese such as BERTHA ILG, CHEVALIER DE SAINT PRIEST, who in 1791 wrote a book called "Malte Par Un Voyageur Francais" in which he published three għanjiet told to him by librarian Giacchino Navarro. Englishman GEORGE PERCY BADGER, wrote a book in 1834 called: "Description of Malta and Gozo". HANS STUMME and BERTHA ILG published about four hundred quatrains heard at their time in Malta.

However I have read some excellent studies by Maltese scholars who have delved deeply into this art-form, both from a heritage point-of-view as well as a socio-anthropological study of the Maltese people. RANIER FSADNI and PAUL SANT-CASSIA have both written some excellent papers on the subject.

MANWEL MIFSUD wrote a fine article in Leħen il-Malti, called "L-għanja Maltija għal-lum". "Maltese għanja for today." He not only asks for għana to be appreciated as part of our national heritage but also offers some alternatives how we could cultivate and teach it by passing it on to our children.

In his books on Maltese Folklore G. CASSAR PULLICINO goes into the għana art-form in some detail and explains the various genres and the part għana used to play in past Maltese society. I believe there is a copy of his book "Il-Folklor Malti" in the Library. I highly recommend it.

CONCLUSION

I believe we have arrived at a point where we need to make up our minds as a nation whether we are going to preserve għana as a through Maltese music art-form. Time has eroded many of our customs and traditions already this century. It is time to accept għana as more than a tradition but our own musical heritage...which we should treasure and cultivate for future generations.