British Forum for Ethnomusicology

Review: [untitled]
Author(s): Caroline Bithell
Reviewed work(s):
Chants de Passion: Au coeur d'une confrrie de Sardaigne by Bernard Lortat-Jacob
Source: British Journal of Ethnomusicology, Vol. 8 (1999), pp. 116-122
Published by: British Forum for Ethnomusicology
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CAROLINE BITHELL
Review
essay
BERNARD
LORTAT-JACOB,
Chants de Passion: Au coeur d'une
confrerie
de
Sardaigne.
Paris: Les Editions du Cerf,
1998.
343pp.,
53
plates,
38 tables /
plans,
musical
exx.,
appendices,
notes, song texts, glossary and analytical
index, bibliography, discography,
CD. ISBN
2-204-05897-1;
ISSN 1243-
1311
(pb).
In his latest
book, published
as
part
of Cerf's series "La voie
esth6tique",
Bernard Lortat-Jacob
-
director of research at the Centre National de la
Recherche
Scientifique (CNRS)
and of the
ethnomusicology
laboratory
at the
Musee de L'Homme in Paris
-
takes as his
subject
the
confraternita (lay
brotherhood)
of the Oratorio di Santa Croce of the
village
of Castelsardo on
the north coast of
Sardinia, province
of Gallura
(see
also Lortat-Jacob 1990a,
1990b,
1993).
It focuses on the
polyphonic Holy
Week
song repertory
of the
confraternita
(the "Songs
of Passion" of the
title)
and the
part they play
not
only
in the ritual of
Holy
Week itself but in the life of the
community
as a
whole.
Beautifully designed
and
produced,
this book is a
joy
to hold. Its
generous
illustrations include
wonderfully atmospheric
black and white
photographs by
Bachisio Masia and
drawings by
Nino Sanna. A translation and
adaptation
of an
earlier edition
published
in Italian as Canti di Passione
(1996),
the
present
volume
(18x25cm)
is smaller than the former
(21x31cm)
but still
spacious.
While the number of
photographic plates
has been reduced from 97 to 53,
further
interpretive
elaboration and a new introduction have been added.
The author first visited Castelsardo in
1983, having
heard
recordings
made
by Diego Carpitella
and Pietro Sassu
(1973),
and he was
immediately
struck
by
an
unexpected familiarity
of the singers with the
sacred,
for instance, churches
being
commandeered for rehearsals and altars often
supporting
bottles of wine
with which the
singers kept
their throats well oiled and their senses
heightened.
Several more
years passed
before Lortat-Jacob was able to
spend
his first
Holy
Week at Castelsardo but then, in 1993, he was invited to become an
honorary
member of the
confraternita.
Religious
brotherhoods are first attested in Sardinia at the
beginning
of
sixteenth
century, although they
are believed to have existed since the
fourteenth.
They
underwent considerable
development throughout
the
Mediterranean world
following
the
publication
of the
proceedings
of the
Council of Trent
(1563),
which
strongly encouraged lay
initiatives.
Present-day
Castelsardo, consisting
of the old town and its two newer
satellites,
has a total
population
of
c.5,500 people.
The
confraternita
currently
has
ninety-two
members
(confratelli), ranging
in
age
from
teenagers
to men in their 80s and
drawn from
among
the
ordinary village
men
-
believers
(in
the broad sense of
BRITISH JOURNAL OF ETHNOMUSICOLOGY VOL. 8 1999
pp.116-22
REVIEW ESSAY: Bernard Lortat-Jacob - Chants de Passion: Au coeur d'une confrlrie de
Sardaigne
the
term)
but
laymen.
Of
these, approximately
half
sing,
even if "those who are
considered to be real cantori can be counted on the
fingers
of one hand"
(208).
Each item in the
polyphonic
canon is
performed by
an ensemble of four
singers,
each of whom takes
responsibility
for one voice in the
four-part
texture
consisting
of
bogi, contra,
bassu and
falzittu.
The
origins
of the
repertory
have
been traced
by
Macchiarella
(1990)
to scholastic
polyphonic practices,
based on
the
principles offalsobordone,
which were disseminated
throughout Italy
in the
sixteenth
century by
the school of Rome and were
probably
introduced to
Sardinia at the end of the sixteenth
century by
educated
clerics, subsequently
evolving
in accordance with the conventions of the oral tradition
through
which
they
continue to be transmitted.
Lortat-Jacob is concerned as much with
questions
of social
organization
and the
politics
of the
confraternita
as with the musical matter itself. The
historical
perspective
is
kept
to a minimum. This is an
ethnography
of the
present-day confraternita, benefiting
from the
insights gained
over
many
months of
living among
the
singer-confratelli.
Some of the
photographs
-
of
white-robed,
hooded
penitents
in narrow
stone-flagged streets,
or of the
Miserere
singers
before the altar
grouped
around the skull which serves as their
emblem
(the
cabbu di lu
moltu, symbol
of
death)
-
threaten to
transport
the
reader back into a
quasi-medieval world, yet
this is no
reconstruction,
but a vital
and vibrant
part
of an otherwise "modem" world.
The volume is divided into three main sections. Section 1,
"D'une Passion
a l'autre"
("From
one Passion to the
next"),
includes chapters on: the
liturgy
and
popular culture;
the
song repertory
of the
confraternita;
the
place
of
song
in
the
liturgical calendar;
the
cycle
of
Holy
Week
rituals; preparation,
rehearsal
and the education of a
singer;
technical and aesthetic
aspects
of
song;
and
polyphonic principles.
Section
2,
"La Passion de l'autre"
("The
Passion of the
other"),
focuses on
interpersonal
relations,
including
sections with such titles as
"The art of
being together",
"An acoustic
image
of the self'. "Differences and
exclusions", "The
spiritual
dimension of
song",
"Conflicts and
strategies",
and
"Of the art of rumour". Section 3, "Mat6riel,
transcriptions
et
analyses"
("Material, transcriptions
and
analyses"),
offers detailed
analyses
of the main
items of the
repertory
with full musical
transcriptions.
The texts of the
songs
are
also
given,
with French translations.
"Technique
and aesthetics"
(in
section
1)
is one of the most
absorbing
chapters
and contains more detailed technical
analysis
than in
previous
publications.
Of
particular
interest are the
differing
aesthetic and musical
perceptions.
For
instance,
the notion of a
"high"
note for the
singers
involves
not
only pitch
but also vowel
quality: although
in Lortat-Jacob's
perception
two
notes of the Stabba (Stabat Mater) sung
on the vowels "i" and "o" are
equal
in
pitch,
to the
singers
the "i" is
perceived
as
higher
than the "o"
(124).
A similar
disjuncture
in sound-ideals is encountered when a
recording
of the Castelsardo
singers
is
played
to a well-known tenore
singer
from Baronia
(a
mountainous
region
of central
Sardinia)
who doubts whether it was
really singing
at all and
not
perhaps
an
organ
or a
piano (137).
117
BRITISHH J URNAL F ETHN M US I C LOGY VOL.8 199
Vowel colouration
plays
a vital
part
in the cultivation of the desired timbral
and wider harmonic-acoustic
qualities.
The
typical
deformation of the text
by
the
singers
is
explained
not
by
a deficient
knowledge
of Latin but
by
"the need
to
produce
the sounds which are most effective for
filling
the sonic
spectrum"
(129).
Such use of the
language
as "a
language
of sounds not a
language
of
sense"
(27),
reinforced
by
the
systematic
modification of vowels
by
each of the
voices in accordance with the
register
and timbre
peculiar
to that
voice,
which
in turn obfuscates the lexical sense of the text, is a
phenomenon by
no means
confined to Sardinia.
However,
among
these
singers
the art
appears
to be
particularly highly developed
and Lortat-Jacob's scientific
exposition
is both
thorough
and lucid.
Similarly, "finding
the right key"
is not
simply
a matter of
being
able to
reach the
notes,
but of
pitching
one's line within the
range
that allows the
particular
timbre
necessary
for the
production
of harmonic overtones at the
desired
intensity.
Moreover, the "right
key"
can
vary according
to
circumstances such as the
place,
the hour of
day
and the level of
tiredness;
on
some occasions the
"key"
-
which is also
symbolic
of the
"key" (or
means of
entrance)
to the
performance
as a whole
-
remains elusive.
Many
readers will
already
be familiar with Lortat-Jacob's
description
of the
quintina,
the virtual fifth voice which insinuates itself into the
polyphonic
texture of the four human voices as a result of a fusion of the harmonic
overtones
produced by
the other voices
(particular
harmonics
being
reinforced
by
their simultaneous
appearance
in two or more of the
voices).
This
process
is
clearly
illustrated in a series of
sonagrams.
For the singers, the
quintina
is an
almost
supernatural phenomenon.
A
symbol
of both the feminine and the
divine, it is sometimes seen as an incarnation of the
Virgin Mary.
It is also
experienced
as
tangible proof
that the
singers
have achieved
perfect harmony
-
on a
spiritual
as well as a musical
plane
-
and as such
belongs
in the realm of
the
metaphysics
of
polyphonic singing.
It is in this context that
song
is
sometimes referred to as "lo
spirito
diventato
corpo" ("the spirit
become
body
/
flesh"). Here,
the author offers an elaborate
analysis
of the
phenomenon
from
the
point
of view of acoustics. It is in
part
such deliberate cultivation of acoustic
effect
by
the
singers
that informs the author's contestation of the habitual
description
of these voices as "natural": on the
contrary,
he
argues,
the voices
are
seriously
"worked" in order to achieve the desired effect.
In the
following chapter
-
highly
technical but
generously
illustrated with
musical
examples
-
Lortat-Jacob offers an absorbing and accessible
analysis
of
the
principles underlying
the construction of this
type
of
polyphony.
He
elucidates the different chordal
possibilities
available to the
singers
in an
essentially
closed
system, guiding
the reader
systematically
to the conclusion
that
only
the intervallic relation between the
bogi
and contra need be known in
order to fill out the
harmony
of the other two voices. This
system
in turn allows
those
singers sufficiently
well-versed in its
grammar
-
albeit
intuitively
-
the
possibility
of
giving
a
characteristically polyphonic
treatment to
any melody,
whether modal or
tonal,
from
any
source. This
possibility,
married with a
renewed enthusiasm for
polyphonic singing
which since the
early
1970s has led
118
REVIEW ESSAY: Bernard Lortat-Jacob - Chants de Passion: Au coeur d'une confrerie de
Sardaigne
to
augmentation
of the
confraternita
by
members of the
younger generation,
has allowed for the
readoption
of a number of the "Church
songs",
which do not
belong
to the exclusive domain of the Oratorio but are now
sung polyphonically
by
four individual voices in the
style
of the "Oratorio
songs".
Holy
Week in Castelsardo is a
frenzy
of
activity,
the
high point
of which is
the
Monday
before
Easter, Lunissanti,
when the
confraternita
leads the
community
in a
potentially gruelling twenty
hours of
singing, processing
and
feasting.
These rituals are then
repeated
but in reduced form on
Maundy
Thursday.
For each
day
there are three cori
(singular: coro,
translated here as
"ensemble" or
"choir"),
each
consisting
of four
singers
and each
responsible
for
one of the three
songs
-
the Stabba
(Stabat Mater),
the Miserere
(Psalm 50)
and
the Jesu. In the course of the
day,
each coro
performs
its
song
several times and
at several different
locations,
both indoors and out.
However, engagement
with the Passion and its
song repertory
is
by
no
means restricted to
Holy
Week. Rehearsals for the
songs
can
begin
in the
preceding
Autumn and are held on at least two
evenings
a week for three
months
prior
to the Easter
period. Furthermore,
those with ambitions to be
chosen to
sing
in a coro have to
prove
their commitment to the
confraternita
through
the whole of the
preceding year by playing
an active
part
in its affairs.
These circumstances make it easier to
accept
the notion that the rituals of
Holy
Week
represent
the fulcrum
point
in the life of the town's
confratelli,
or indeed
the author's
opening
claim that "the entire life of the
village
of Castelsardo ... is
organised
around the
practice
of
polyphonic song".
The
singer-confratelli spend
a
significant proportion
of their free time
together: rehearsing songs, singing
at informal
gatherings, analysing
their own
and one another's
performances,
and
debating
wider issues related both to the
song repertoire
and to the
general workings
of the confraternita. Women are all
but absent from the
pictorial
record and from the
text, putting
in
fleeting
appearances
as
they step
forward to kiss a crucified Christ or look on from the
shadows of the church as the
procession passes.
Lortat-Jacob
proposes (echoing Carpitella)
that the Oratorio
("home"
of the
confraternita)
may
be seen as "a conservatoire of
popular music,
a schola
cantorum"
(30). Young
recruits know that
only
at the Oratorio can
they
be
initiated into both the
repertory
and the distinctive vocal
technique
of the
village singers.
The
chapter
on the
singer's apprenticeship
offers fascinating
insights
into the
processes
of initiation and
learning
and the
dynamics
of
rehearsals. The function of the rehearsals is not
simply
the
teaching
of vocal
technique.
"As for
every activity
associated with the
confraternita,
to
go
to the
rehearsals is above all to share one's time with the others and to offer one's
availability
for collective matters"
(115). Hence,
as Lortat-Jacob
proposes
elsewhere, "singing
bears witness not
only
to a
savoir-faire,
but also to a
'savoir-etre'
('way
of
being')
with others"
(182).
This
ideology
in turn informs
aesthetics: for local
listeners,
there is no such
thing
as a beautiful voice in its
own right,
only
a beautiful coro. "Acoustic
harmony
is a direct
product
of social
harmony
and cannot exist without it"
(10).
A
propensity
to excel at a
particular
voice often runs in families which reinforces the need for
co-operation
at the
119
BRITISH JOURNAL OF ET H N M US IC LOGY VOL.8 1999
level of the wider collective: a
family
cannot remain self-sufficient as far as
singing
is concerned but must
practise
a kind of "musical exogamy". However,
if it can be seen as
offering proof
of social
harmony, polyphony
is also
necessarily implicated
in situations of conflict. Given that it is considered
impossible
to
sing together
if
you
do not like one
another,
refusal on the
part
of
particular singers
to
sing
with certain others makes discord manifest.
As the book
progresses,
the reader is led to
appreciate
the extent to which
virtually every
action in the life of the
confraternita
is
permeated
with
political
meaning.
In the
period leading up
to Passion
Sunday,
when the Priore
finally
announces his choice of
singers,
the Oratorio becomes the site of subtle
power
games
as
singers
use a
range
of
strategies
to be allowed to
sing
what
they
want
and with whom
they
want. The Priore is faced with a conflict between
prioritizing
aesthetics or
prioritizing
the
spirit
of the
confraternita,
both of
which are central to its raison d'etre, in the
knowledge
that his decisions will
inevitably
cause offence to some
people.
In the context of these
power relations,
Lortat-Jacob describes the
different values
placed
on the different
days
of
Holy Week, songs
and voices.
Songs performed
on the
Monday
of
Holy
Week have far
greater prestige
than
those
sung
on
Maundy Thursday;
a Stabba is considered
superior
to a Jesu
(with
the result
that,
for
example, Monday's
Jesu
enjoys
a similar status to that
of
Thursday's Stabba).
The Miserere has the lowest status of
all, being
dismissed
by
one
particular group
of
singers,
who considered
singing anything
other than the Stabba beneath them, as "a
piece
of shit"
(106).
The Stabba is
most
highly prized
not because of its
superior
musical
complexity
but because
it is
sung
more
loudly. (In
the
repertory
as a
whole,
the narrow ambitus of each
part
favours
singing
at full
throttle.)
The valorization of loud
singing
relates
not to the listeners but to the
singers, constituting
one of the beneficial
aspects
of their
polyphonic experience
at a
metaphysical
level as well as
allowing
them to make their
presence
felt over and above that of their
peers
and
competitors.
At an individual level,
negotiations
are driven both
by
the
urgent
desire to
be one of the chosen
and,
at a
deeper level, by
an irresistible
passion
for
singing
(hence
the double
meaning
of the book's title
-
or
triple,
if one adds the author's
own
passion
for his
subject).
For the
younger singer, being
chosen to
sing
in
one of the
Holy
Week ensembles functions as a
type
of
public
d6but:
only
after
acquitting
himself successfully in this can he
legitimately
call himself a
singer.
The
significance
of this rite of
passage
is
expressed
in the
perception
of time:
people
remark that such-and-such an event took
place
"in the
year
that I
sang
the Stabba".
It is
only
a short
step
to the
appreciation
that
singing,
in the world of the
confratelli,
is linked to matters of honour. In a conflation of ethical and
aesthetic
values,
to be a
good singer
is to command a
position
of
power, having
proven
one's worth in
respect
of
courage
and stamina and at the same time
demonstrated a
facility
for collaboration.
Singers (almost by
definition
confratelli) occupy
a
correspondingly advantageous position
in the social
120
REVIEW ESSAY: Bernard Lortat-Jacob - Chants de Passion: Au coeur d'une confrrte de
Sardaigne
hierarchy,
being
much in demand for their
capacity
to transform an
evening
gathering
into a musical
(and
therefore
sociable)
event.
Just as the Priore has the
power
to offer reward or
impose
sanctions
by
his
choice of
singers
for the
Holy
Week
processions,
so the
singers
in a coro can
have a similar effect
by
their choice of
singing stops
on their route
through
the
streets of the old town. While the
majority
of
stops
are identical each
year,
the
remainder are left to the discretion of individual ensembles. Other
considerations also come into
play,
such as the acoustic
advantage
of
singing
between the stone walls of the narrow citadel
streets, producing
the effect of an
echo chamber.
(In
this
sense,
architecture
might
be seen to
play
a
part
as a
polyphonic principle
in its own
right.)
At
yet
another
level,
the
procession
is
conducted
by
the various ensembles as a kind of
competition
to see who can
sing
the
longest.
With the aim of
making
the other "teams" run out of stamina
sooner,
or
alternatively
find themselves in the
humiliating position
of
having
caught up
with the coro in front of
them, singers
can
prolong
or slow down the
procession
either by
repeating
sections of their
song
or
by adding
extra
stops.
Thus the author leads us
systematically through
the
way
in which the whole
process
is
punctuated by
a series of subtle
negotiations, involving
the choice of
singers,
the choice of
stops,
the choice of
key
and so
on,
each rich in
symbolic
meanings.
The reader is led to a clear
appreciation
of the manner in which
members of the
confraternita
appear
to be
preoccupied
not so much with the
metaphysics
of faith but with the
equally
ineffable
mystery
of how to live in a
community.
Further elaboration would have been welcome on certain
subjects,
for
instance, on: the decline and revival of the
confraternita
and its
practices;
the
recent
development
of democratic collaboration to achieve
proper "harmony"
between the voices rather than
displays
of individual
bravura;
the statement that
the best voices have often
developed through
the
practice
of canto a chitarra
(song
with
guitar);
and the
implications
for
politics
and tourism of the break-
away group
Coro di Castelsardo which
performs
items from the
Holy
Week
repertoire throughout
Sardinia and
beyond
but is no
longer part
of the
confraternita
to whom the
songs
to all intents and
purposes "belong".
Finally,
I
would have liked to read more about the relations between the confraternita and
clergy.
Has Castelsardo
enjoyed particularly
favourable relations which have
aided the
continuity
of its traditions? Are there other factors which account for
the survival of such a rich
heritage
in this
particular village?
Such issues could
have been addressed in a more
general
introduction.
The
scope
of the
present
work
is, however, already
wide. This excellent
ethnography
is
given
a multi-dimensional air
by
the
generosity
of
photographs
and other illustrations. The voice of the author alternates with ease with those of
confraternita
members and
quotations
and anecdotes are well chosen to
substantiate
points
made in the main text. The
accompanying
CD
brings
together
a selection of
stunning
musical
examples,
referred to
systematically
in
the
text,
which should serve as a revelation to
anyone
not
already
familiar with
this
very
distinctive
style
of
singing
in which both the commitment and the
vulnerability
of each
singer may
be heard and felt
clearly.
This book is
121
122 BRITISH JOURNAL OF ETHNOMUSICOLOGY VOL.8 1999
illuminating
on
many
different levels
and, together
with the author's earlier
writings
on the
subject,
makes a
very
welcome contribution to an under-
researched area of traditional music studies. We await with anticipation the
English
translation!
(All
translations from the French
by
C.
Bithell.)
References
Carpitella, Diego,
Leonardo Sole and Pietro Sassu
(1973)
Musica
Sarda,
Albatros,
VPA 8150-8152
(3
discs with 52
page booklet).
Lortat-Jacob, Bernard
(1990a) Chroniques
Sardes. Paris: Julliard.
(1990b)
"Savoir les
chanter, pouvoir
en
parler:
chants de la Passion en
Sardaigne."
Cahiers de
Musiques
Traditionnelles 3:5-22.
(1992) Sardaigne: Polyphonies
de la Semaine
Sainte,
Le Chant du
Monde LDX 274936.
(1993)
"En
accord, polyphonies
de
Sardaigne: quatre
voix
qui
n'en
font
qu'une."
Cahiers de
Musiques
Traditionnelles 6:69-86.
(1996)
Canti di Passione. Lucca: Libreria Musicale Italiana.
Macchiarella, Ignazio (1995)
Ilfalsobordone:
fra
tradizione orale e tradizione
scritta. Lucca: Libreria Musicale Italiana.
Note on the author
Caroline Bithell is Lecturer in
Ethnomusicology
at the
University
of Wales,
Bangor.
Her main areas of research to date have been traditional music in
Corsica
(with
some
comparative
work in Sardinia and
Malta),
oral traditions of
polyphonic singing
in the wider Mediterranean
region,
and the
politics
and
economics of "world music". Address: School of
Music, University
of
Wales,
Bangor, Gwynedd
LL57
2DG, Wales;
e-mail:
c.bithell@bangor.ac.uk.