22.08.2001

 
 

No. of stamps in the set:	5 stamps
Quantity:
Face values:	1c, 3c, 14c, 20c, 25c
Size:	35 x 35 mm
Presentation:	Sheets of 10 stamps
Colours:	Multi
Gum:
Paper:
Perforation:	13.75 per 2 cm
Print technique:	Offset
Author, design:	Gorg Mallia
Printers:	Bundesdruckerei GmbH

 First Day Cover:

 

Immersed as they are in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, our islands have, from time immemorial, been subject to all kinds of foreign influences that have in many ways permeated and influenced our social fabric. This maxim can also be applied to our traditional folk instruments.

These instruments, some indigenous, were slowly but surely being erased from habitual usage. They were close to becoming but a vestige of bygone days, another sidelined apparel that had seemingly done its time.

Locals tend to have a very vague idea of what our own folk instruments look or sound like. Some, such as the reed pipe, 'iz-zummara' have even assumed vulgar connotations. Nevertheless, in these days of the global village there is a worldwide phenomenon where people are on a soul-searching exercise, identifying, resuscitating and promoting their local culture that pronounces diverse cultural traits.

This exercise of self 'awareness has also reached our shores. An effort was made recently by a group of individuals, to document, produce and play these folk instruments. Not a mean feat, considering that some instruments, such as the cane whistle flute, 'il-flejguta', and the reed pipe 'iz-zummara', had practically died out from national memory. Our own bagpipe, 'iz-zaqq', had until recently only one existing player, this being a frail  eighty-four-year-old man from Naxxar, Toni Cachia, known as il-Hammarun.

The arrival of the British regimented brass bands in the early 19th century heralded the establishment of band clubs in Malta. These, in turn, substituted the traditional instruments with imported brass ones. Indri Borg, the Maltese composer himself, had shed away a 'flejguta' in favour of a clarinet.

Our gentry found it fashionable to identify itself with opera, our clergy with the cantatas, leaving only our commoners to contend with our folk music, 'id-daqqa'. Being illiterate and indistinct in society, as they were, did certainly hinder any possibility of our indigenous instruments making an impact and a marked presence at any significant official celebration.

Country people refer to this music as ''il-mu|zika mhux tas-swali'' , literally meaning 'not played in music halls'. For indeed, the establishment deemed it unworthy of being played in theatres or halls. The few locations where one could hear this music were at open air folk festivals, such as during Mnarja, Lapsi and Carnival.

'Il-flejguta', the cane whistle flute, was usually played by peasants whiling time away when guarding their fields during the crop season. The Maltese bagpipe, 'iz-zaqq', is the most complex of all, Its bag is usually made from goatskin or calfskin, its chanter made of two cane tubes and a horn that projects its drones It was usually complernented by 'it-tanbur', the frame drum,  common all   over   the   Mediterranean.     The friction drum, 'iz-zafzafa',  survives in  the Nadur a nd Ghaxaq Carnivals, if only as a medium that suggests ridicule.

A Maltese adage runs as Bu|zobba, billi kellu ddobba, 'Master Bu|zobba made the best use of what he had.' 
And rightly so, for all the Maltese traditional instruments are made from locally sources material: ashwood , cane, string, animal skins and cow horns. This does not imply that they are makeshift and rudimentary. These instruments, built and played in the main by farmers, livestock breeders, stone masons and fisher-folk, humble as they are, constitute a significant aspect of our national cultural identity.
 

Text by Steve Borg
 
 

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