FOR THOSE ABOUT TO FOLK...
August 2006
NAFRA: A GUIDE TO MALTESE
FOLK MUSIC
Musician Ruben Zahra has dedicated much of his time towards reviving
Maltese folk music. He was behind the formation of Etnika, later
dropping out to pursue further studies and engagements in music
composition, working both in Europe and America. Music correspondent
Michael Bugeja meets him to find out more about his upcoming
performances; his new book about Maltese folk music, and why every
Maltese home should have a copy!
Growing up with a celebrated author and a poet for a father certainly
left a deep impression on Ruben Zahra’s love for the Maltese heritage
and culture. His endeavours to promote and revive Maltese folkore have
made his name synonymous with our island heritage, particularly the
musical aspect of it. It is not undeserved either, as ever since he got
the folk music itch during his childhood years, Ruben Zahra has been
striving to breathe new life into a vital part of our culture that was
perilously withering, even approaching extinction!
I recently met Ruben, who is an accomplished musician in his own right,
in a Maltese band club (quite appropriately I thought) in Birkirkara,
where he has been regularly meeting with a group of musicians and
dancers to rehearse his most recent venture, Icons. It is a contemporary
performance built around a liberal interpretation in song and dance of
Maltese heritage, represented by six prominent icons such as the
ghonnella and the Maltese Cross. He explains the concept and the set-up
of the event, the fitting choice of venue – it’s being held at the old
Opera House in Valletta – and also the logistics behind it and his hopes
of taking the show abroad. Involving Zahra’s own band Nafra, dancers
from Clarissa Borg’s Creative Dance Studio, selected visual projections
and a collective artistic interpretation, the performance will take
place this Wednesday 16 August at 9pm and should prove to be an
interesting and more importantly entertaining manifestation of Maltese
tradition with a modern perspective. Aside from Icons, Ruben, along with
his band Nafra, will also be performing on Sunday 20 August in the Seven
Suns Seven Moons concert, which will also feature a brass band
extravaganza and a 24-strong harmonica orchestra from Portugal.
And yet, possibly one of Ruben’s foremost achievements to date has to be
his recent publication, A Guide to Maltese Folk Music. Aside form the
practical side of music, Ruben totally immersed himself in the intensely
demanding task of researching, compiling and publishing Malta’s first
book of its kind about local folk music. Launched just a month ago, and
sponsored by MIDI plc, the Ministry for Investment, Industry and
Information Technology, The Malta Council for Culture and the Arts and
the Ministry of Education, Youth and Employment, the book was edited by
Steve Borg and published by PBS, whose archive proved a vital source of
research for the author. He spent many nights going through reels of
tape dating as far back as 1957, featuring performances by the likes of
Toni il-Hammarun, Anglu Zammit il-Hahaj and Mikiel Abela il-Bambinu,
amongst several others, in the process of selecting which tracks to
feature on the CD.
The idea of the publication was inspired by an attractive book-plus-CD
package Ruben bought at a performance hall during his years in
Hollywood, and he has adapted the concept to portray a two-dimensional
picture of Maltese folk music, highlighting a number of traditional
instruments – among them iz-zaqq, iz-zummara and il-flejguta
– as well as related traditions such as street cries, dances and nursery
rhymes. To an extent this may be give it the air of a research tome, but
the end result, rich in photographs and illustrations, simple in text
and enhanced by the content on the accompanying CD, is in fact quite
appealing to the general public, offering an insight into topics that
are largely regarded as relics in this modern day and age. One of the
main motivations behind the project was the abundance of publications
about traditional music from other countries and cultures, but none
about Maltese folk music, except maybe Edward Jones’s work in 1807 and
George Percy Badger’s music notations in 1838. The fact that these were
both written by foreigners underlines the importance of Ruben’s
endeavour, and finally, we have a Maltese publication about Maltese folk
music, written by a Maltese author and musician.
Talking to Ruben about the book and its contents turns into an
intrinsically inspiring conversation. Not only was it interesting to
learn about the bits that would normally require a particularly
inquisitive taste for folklore, it was also stimulating to suddenly
think back to those childhood memories of street hawkers, radio
programmes of ghana and other traditions that have now since
practically vanished, in the process making me realise just how much we
took them for granted in the face of progress without realising their
true worth. This - among other reasons - makes Ruben’s work all the more
significant; his book all the more valuable and its appeal all the more
imperative if our heritage is to survive for the centuries to come.
When he tells me that there are now at least five local musicians who
can play the zaqq, I don’t quite realise that this is a positive
statistic, and it is only after he explains that just a couple of years
ago, there was only one such musician that the real threat to our
heritage sinks in. Fortunately, thanks to a minority of largely ageing
(and some younger) enthusiasts, Maltese folk has been kept alive in the
smaller, more close-knit localities. The advent of Etnika, of which
Ruben was a founder/member, has also boosted the public profile of our
folk music. It is this spirit of revival that convinced Ruben to write
the book in English and not Maltese. He is not interested in seeing the
book simply shelved as part of a collection, and is confident that
making the publication accessible to the Maltese public, visiting
tourists as well as other cultures will help prolong the survival and
appeal of our traditions, our music and ultimately, our heritage. I
quite agree! If you only have one book about Maltese folklore at home,
make sure it’s this one!
Recommended weblink: www.rubenzahra.com
