Rencontres de Chants Polyphonique, Calvi, Corsica
Hi, it's the Princess here to update you on our latest adventure! The last post left us high in the spiky mountains in the interior of Corsica so you'll be happy to hear we were safely delivered to Calvi by our wonderful bus driver Domenico who had driven us all through Sardinia as well - just in time for the Polyphonic Songs Festival!
Where to start. Our hotel was at the foot of yet another citadel in the centre of the old city on the edge of the sea. Amazingly the beach here has yellow sand - not the black rocks we had become accustomed to. The venue for the festival was an 18th century cathedral up on top of the hill. It was a short but steep hike up - totally worth it for the views and the huge acoustic! The first is a photo taken from the bus when we first arrived at Christoph Columb hotel and the second is the view from the top.
The program started off with an amazing vocal quartet from Puglia led by Enza Pagliari, who is justifiably famous in her own right. Their strong, strident voices bounced off each other and the cathedral walls creating a myriad of harmonics. They sang traditional Italian songs as I'd never heard them before - with drones and tight modal style harmonies. I think they were my favourite group of the whole festival. But there were more tasty offerings to come.
The next day Saucejas - 4 women from Latvia captivated everyone with their fabulous singing. Performing in traditional dress they sang traditional songs and gave introductions in very good English - even with some jokes! I mention this because almost everything else during the festival was announced in Italian with no translations which was a little frustrating for us 30 odd Australians plus other non-Italian festival goers.
The next day young Galician duo Caamano & Ameixeiras brought the house down - literally. Playing mostly their own compositions based on Galician traditional repertoire, the first song included a stomp box along with the accordion, violin and vocal. I don't know whether this vibration had anything to do with what followed...
The incident or La Catastrophe. During the 3rd song of their set a piece of the very old cathedral - a cement cornice - fell off. We saw it come down and hit the floor - smashing some chairs - 2 rows in front of us - next to where 2 of our colleagues were sitting with Enza. Whether it was the evil eye bracelets we were all wearing or some other goddessy stuff - luckily no-one was hurt! Every other night the cathedral had been packed to capacity but this night there was a group of empty seats right where it fell.
The survivors
There was an announcement in English (at last) - and the cathedral was evacuated. The festival went al fresco for the rest of the day on the steps in front of the cathedral.
Trio Nota from Marseille gave a stunning performance of Bartok, Kodaly and another composer's arrangements and compositions based on collected Hungarian folk material. Much of it was rhythmically intricate so it was great to hear them amplified in the replacement venue - a local auditorium just outside town - rather than in the cathedral's huge echo.
We had been singing/rehearsing every morning next to the church in town and also in choice spots around the citadel all through the festival. And we got noticed. One of the committee members approached Stuart and it was arranged that we would sing to open the concert on the Saturday. We were in! It was an honour to be involved in such an outstanding festival celebrating vocal harmony.
some more pics of performers including kora player Ablaye Kouyati with a French button accordion player, Golsa with her quirky compositions from Iran and the line up of the final concert.
Where to start. Our hotel was at the foot of yet another citadel in the centre of the old city on the edge of the sea. Amazingly the beach here has yellow sand - not the black rocks we had become accustomed to. The venue for the festival was an 18th century cathedral up on top of the hill. It was a short but steep hike up - totally worth it for the views and the huge acoustic! The first is a photo taken from the bus when we first arrived at Christoph Columb hotel and the second is the view from the top.
The program started off with an amazing vocal quartet from Puglia led by Enza Pagliari, who is justifiably famous in her own right. Their strong, strident voices bounced off each other and the cathedral walls creating a myriad of harmonics. They sang traditional Italian songs as I'd never heard them before - with drones and tight modal style harmonies. I think they were my favourite group of the whole festival. But there were more tasty offerings to come.
The next day Saucejas - 4 women from Latvia captivated everyone with their fabulous singing. Performing in traditional dress they sang traditional songs and gave introductions in very good English - even with some jokes! I mention this because almost everything else during the festival was announced in Italian with no translations which was a little frustrating for us 30 odd Australians plus other non-Italian festival goers.
The next day young Galician duo Caamano & Ameixeiras brought the house down - literally. Playing mostly their own compositions based on Galician traditional repertoire, the first song included a stomp box along with the accordion, violin and vocal. I don't know whether this vibration had anything to do with what followed...
The incident or La Catastrophe. During the 3rd song of their set a piece of the very old cathedral - a cement cornice - fell off. We saw it come down and hit the floor - smashing some chairs - 2 rows in front of us - next to where 2 of our colleagues were sitting with Enza. Whether it was the evil eye bracelets we were all wearing or some other goddessy stuff - luckily no-one was hurt! Every other night the cathedral had been packed to capacity but this night there was a group of empty seats right where it fell.
The survivors
There was an announcement in English (at last) - and the cathedral was evacuated. The festival went al fresco for the rest of the day on the steps in front of the cathedral.
Trio Nota from Marseille gave a stunning performance of Bartok, Kodaly and another composer's arrangements and compositions based on collected Hungarian folk material. Much of it was rhythmically intricate so it was great to hear them amplified in the replacement venue - a local auditorium just outside town - rather than in the cathedral's huge echo.
We had been singing/rehearsing every morning next to the church in town and also in choice spots around the citadel all through the festival. And we got noticed. One of the committee members approached Stuart and it was arranged that we would sing to open the concert on the Saturday. We were in! It was an honour to be involved in such an outstanding festival celebrating vocal harmony.
some more pics of performers including kora player Ablaye Kouyati with a French button accordion player, Golsa with her quirky compositions from Iran and the line up of the final concert.
Wow! What an amazing experience. I didn't realise that you were on and organised adventure I thought you were doing some pop up stuff yourselves. Love it. X
ReplyDeleteLooks amazing X
ReplyDeleteSounds like you might need to invest in a hard hat for any future cathedral visits! - Kate
ReplyDeleteSuperduper just to watch the pics.
ReplyDelete