Menu
Global Europe
  • Eastern Europe
    • Economy
    • Music
  • European Union
    • Italy
    • Ireland
  • More Continents
    • Ports in Southern Africa
    • Music in Central America
    • Asia History
  • History
    • Albania Recent History
    • Andorra Recent History
    • Armenia Recent History
    • Austria Recent History
    • Azerbaijan Recent History
    • Belarus Recent History
    • Belgium Recent History
    • Bosnia and Herzegovina Recent History
    • Bulgaria Recent History
    • Croatia Recent History
    • Czech Republic Recent History
    • Denmark Recent History
    • Estonia Recent History
    • Finland Recent History
    • France Recent History
    • Georgia Recent History
    • Germany Recent History
    • Greece Recent History
    • Hungary Recent History
    • Iceland Recent History
    • Ireland Recent History
    • Italy Recent History
    • Latvia Recent History
    • Liechtenstein Recent History
    • Lithuania Recent History
    • Luxembourg Recent History
    • Macedonia Recent History
    • Malta Recent History
    • Moldova Recent History
    • Monaco Recent History
    • Netherlands Recent History
    • Norway Recent History
    • Poland Recent History
    • Portugal Recent History
    • Romania Recent History
    • San Marino Recent History
    • Slovakia Recent History
    • Slovenia Recent History
    • Spain Recent History
    • Sweden Recent History
    • Switzerland Recent History
    • Ukraine Recent History
    • United Kingdom Recent History
    • Vatican Recent History
    • Yugoslavia Recent History
  • Arts and Literature
    • Albania Arts and Literature
    • Austria Arts and Literature
    • Belarus Arts and Literature
    • Belgium Arts and Literature
    • Bosnia and Herzegovina Arts and Literature
    • Bulgaria Arts and Literature
    • Croatia Arts and Literature
    • Czech Republic Arts and Literature
    • Denmark Arts and Literature
    • Estonia Arts and Literature
    • Finland Arts and Literature
    • France Arts and Literature
    • Germany Arts and Literature
    • Greece Arts and Literature
    • Hungary Arts and Literature
    • Iceland Arts and Literature
    • Italy Arts and Literature
    • Latvia Arts and Literature
    • Lithuania Arts and Literature
    • Luxembourg Arts and Literature
    • Malta Arts and Literature
    • Moldova Arts and Literature
    • Montenegro Arts and Literature
    • Netherlands Arts and Literature
    • Northern Macedonia Arts and Literature
    • Norway Arts and Literature
    • Poland Arts and Literature
    • Portugal Arts and Literature
    • Romania Arts and Literature
    • Serbia Arts and Literature
    • Slovakia Arts and Literature
    • Slovenia Arts and Literature
    • Spain Arts and Literature
    • Sweden Arts and Literature
    • Switzerland Arts and Literature
    • Ukraine Arts and Literature
    • United Kingdom Arts and Literature
  • Mass Media
    • Mass Media in Czech Republic
    • Mass Media in Denmark
    • Mass Media in Eastern Europe
    • Mass Media in Finland
    • Mass Media in France
    • Mass Media in Germany
    • Mass Media in Greece
    • Mass Media in Iceland
    • Mass Media in Italy
    • Mass Media in Lithuania
    • Mass media in Netherlands
    • Mass Media in North America
    • Mass Media in Northern Europe
    • Mass Media in Norway
    • Mass Media in Oceania and Australia
    • Mass Media in Russia
    • Mass Media in South America
    • Mass Media in Southern Europe
    • Mass Media in Spain
    • Mass Media in UK
    • Mass Media in Ukraine
    • Mass Media in Western Europe
Global Europe
Malta Arts and Literature

Malta Arts and Literature

Posted on August 13, 2020October 23, 2020 by globalsciencellc

Literature, drama and theater

Maltese cultural life has historically been strongly influenced by both English and Italian influences. A literature in Maltese can be said to have been initially initiated by the poet Dun Karm (pseudonym of Carmelo Psaila, 1871–1961). Karm has been followed by Mario Azzopardi (1928–2006) and a dynamic generation of playwrights and theater people, in many cases linked to the famous Manoel theater in Valletta.

Malta Population Pyramid

  • Countryaah: Population and demographics of Malta, including population pyramid, density map, projection, data, and distribution.

Music

Contemporary

Art music is closely related to Italy, where most composers and musicians received their education. Composers include Giuseppe Balzano (1616–1700), Mikelangelo Vella (1715–92), and his students Francesco Azopardi (1748–1809) and Niccolò Isouard (1775–1818), who composed 30 French-style operas for the Théâtre de l’Opéra-Comique in Paris. During the 19th century the music life was dominated by the Nani and Bugeja families.

Among contemporary composers are Carmelo Pace (1906–93), who wrote operas, cantatas and a well-known symphonic poem with motifs from folk music, as well as his student Charles Camilleri (1931–2009) with a large number of works for orchestra, chamber music and works for piano and other instruments. In younger generations, Joseph Vella (born 1942) and Dion Buhagiar (born 1944) are noticeable.

The Church in Malta has been the center of both sacred and worldly music. Manoel Teatru, inaugurated in 1732, plays opera, musicals and operettas. An opera house in Valetta was opened in the 1860’s, but was destroyed in 1944. In 1890 a higher music education was opened. Today there are several opera houses and symphonic orchestras with internationally renowned artists.

Folk music

Folk music has grown up in interaction between southern European and North African / Arab traditions. A significant part is songs (gana), which have traditionally been performed unanimously, soloist or antiphonally, by men at bars after the Sunday Mass and by women in the homes. A popular genre is Spirtu Pront, a playful competition between singers (għannej) who improvises on a given theme four-line, linguistically complicated, rhythmically rhymed verses into strong formulaic guitar accompaniment.

Famous singers include Karmnu Xuereb, “In-Namru” (1911–97), and Frans Baldacchino, “il-Budaj” (1943–2006). Other genres are good speech-Fatt, ballads about important events or people or current events, and boring or good fil-gholi (high vocals), songs sung by men in very high pitch.

Bagpipes (żaqq), friction drum (rabbaba) and tambourine (tanbur) were formerly common, but today they have been replaced by guitar ensembles, sometimes with mandolins, tambourines and accordions, as well as by the very popular brass orchestras introduced from Italy in the mid-1800’s.. With a repertoire of popular songs and works by Maltese composers, these have a prominent role in the major processions of saintly images that are the highlight of celebrations of holidays (festivals), carnivals, Christmas and Easter.

After independence in 1964, older folk music regained popularity, and yet another revival wave began at the turn of the millennium. through the Ethnica group.

Most folk dances are contra dances (il-Kuntradanza), following role models from the 18th century high -level dances. The folk dances have also been partially revived, the usual ones being il-parata (sword dance) and il-maltija, a performance dance that reflects the Maltese resistance to the siege of an Ottoman here in 1565.

Popular

During the second half of the 20th century a lively popular music scene emerged, with a large number of artists, groups and composers in indigenous genres such as kanzunetta (popular songs) and makkjetta (comic sketches), rock, pop, hip hop and more.

Performers include rock singer Freddie Portelli (born 1944), folk group The Greenfields, singer Fabrizio Faniello (born 1981) and pop group Chasing Pandora. Idol winner Kevin Borg, who lives in Sweden, is originally from Malta.

Among popular music composers, Aidan Zammit (born 1965) is noted with film and theater music.

A major jazz festival is held annually in Valetta.

Folk culture

Malta’s cultural culture is similar to that of buildings and utensils in much of southern Italy, but not least in the construction art, Arabic elements (such as the flat roofs) are traced. A memory of the uncertainty that existed before and during the time of the Order Knights is the characteristic concentration of the older rural buildings in urban-like villages, among other things. for reasons of defense, but also for climatic reasons and given the water supply, which has always been a significant problem for the islands – hence their aqueducts, terraces and water reservoirs. They also avoided living too close to the sea and its pirates. News that was introduced by the Maltese Knights and also spread outside the cities was e.g. the typical balconies and stair towers upstairs for the Maltese houses.

The land is disproportionately fragmented, and many users are tenants under the church, whose significance is striking in everyday life and in the landscape, but especially marked in connection with the celebrations, celebrating the village’s or city’s patron saints and becoming tourist attractions. The culmination of a party is the procession where the image of the saint is carried through the streets. In addition to around eighty such local festivals, a number of public holidays are also celebrated with processions, to which comes the carnival, which is now held first in May and for up to four days. The craft – silversmithing with filigree work as well as textiles, both woven and knitted, lace and embroidery – has old traditions but today mainly has the tourists as customers. The old-fashioned women’s clothing felletta disappeared after World War II, and the “folk costumes” shown by folk dance groups are often invented. Folk poetry, which is still alive, not least in the form of traditional songs, is, for the sake of the stories, closely related to Sicily but also to Greece, which suggests old cultural contexts.

Malta Arts and Literature

Recent Posts

  • Faroe Islands Arts and Literature
  • Liechtenstein
  • Geography of Latvia
  • Attractions in Budapest
  • Aland Arts and Literature
©2021 Global Europe