Transcript Forme del canto a Tenore

7th Framework Programme
ICT - Information and Communication Technologies
A system for making music
The forms of canto a tenore
Paolo Bravi, Marco Lutzu,
Sebastiano Pilosu
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Tenores Sardegna - Sòtziu Tenores Sardigna
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When one sings a tenore one is not singing some more or
less well known songs, with music and lyrics, to be
reinterpreted. Indeed in canto a tenore there are no fixed links
between music and lyrics, and neither are there any standard
melodies to go by.
 The singers have a system made of simple macrostructures
that allow them to create melodies and interpret poetic texts in
an original and always varied way.
 There are three main forms of canto:
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boghe ‘e note
boghe ‘e ballu
mutos
Boghe ‘e note
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Sa boghe ‘e note (which literally means sung at night, i.e. night song) is
probably the most important way of singing; it allows interpretation of
countless poetic texts in an ever changing way, through interpretative
choices by sa boghe and the other su tenore singers.
In boghe ‘e note one sings poetic texts made up of hendecasyllable verses,
sometimes alternated with septenary (seven-syllable) verses, organised in
the numerous strophic forms that the Sardinian poetry tradition presents.
The texts come from collections of poems written by the most important
Sardinian poets of the last three centuries, from the improvised poetry garas
that liven the local celebrations and that make up an immense corpus of
works for the singers, and otherwise one is dealing with poetic texts of oral
tradition, relatively short, without an author, that are known and sung.
Boghe ‘e note
Sa boghe ‘e note is made up of two internal sections called
 istèrrida
 zirada (these are the most common terms used).
 Su tenore, led by sa boghe, combines them from time to time
depending on the text, the singers’ taste, the context and the
function that each performance fulfills.
 Very roughly speaking the singing starts with one or more
istèrridas and then introduces several ziradas.
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S’istèrrida
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S’istèrrida is introduced by the soloist of sa boghe who normally
sings two, three or four verses, performing a melody with a free
rhythm, a melody based on the canons of sa moda of the village but
that depends on su traju (the personal style) of the singer.
His song ends with the root note of the chord that will be reached by
the intervention of the other three parts, su tenore. This note is
called su puntu.
As sa boghe ends his song, su tenore intervenes alternating with
him and creating a chord maintained and repeated at length, once or
twice depending on sa moda of the village.
Also the movements of the single parts are characteristic of sa
moda, even though they have variations that depend on the
interpretation of the individual singer or on the interaction with the
other two.
Orune: A boche longa
Orune, one village of Sardinia, s’istèrrida
is called boche longa
 In
Sa boghe sings two or more lines
Intervention of su tenore
After the singing of sa boghe, su tenore performs a sustained chord which can
be subdivided into two parts similar to each other, the first decidedly longer than
the second.
In a song the number of sas istèrridas is variable, often one or two are sung at
the start of the piece.
Just as often the song ends with one or two istèrridas.
More rarely one sings some istèrridas in the middle of the performance.
It can also happen that a song is made up only of istèrridas. In this case it is
known as a boche longa.
Sa Zirada
second section of sa boghe ‘e note is
commonly known as sa zirada.
 There are two aspects that most evidently
distinguish it from s’istèrrida:
 The
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the rhythm
the partial overlapping of the voices of su
tenore and sa boghe
Sa Boghe ‘e note in Orune
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The ways of performing sa zirada are diverse and change
from one village to another depending on the local moda.
 Take for example the boghe ‘e note in Orune.
 Normally sa boghe, once ended s’istèrrida (in Orune
boche longa), to pass to sa zirada introduces in his singing
a rhythmic evolution singing a hendecasyllable verse for a
soloist;
 Always through a rhythmic articulation, he sings a second
hendecasyllable and normally on the sixth syllable of this
(only sometimes on the seventh or on the successive
ones) su tenore intervenes (bassu, contra and mesu
boghe) and accompanies the singing of the second
hemistich of the verse performing repeated chords called
corfos (we will call this part zirada 1).
Sa Boghe ‘e Note in Orune
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After a brief measured pause, sa boghe begins singing again and this time
su tenore accompanies him starting from the third or fourth syllable
(depending on where the stress of the line falls) of the hendecasyllable
verse, until the end of the same.
This final part, which we can define as zirada 2, may be repeated one or
more times, even numerous times, on the basis of the stylistic choices of sa
boghe.
However, at any time sa boghe may interrupt this sequence picking up the
rhythmic soloist voice that introduces sas ziradas and thus starting again
from zirada 1 which will always be performed just once to pass straight
away to zirada 2.
This cyclical system may be broken up by inserting one or more istèrridas.
In the case in which the composition also has seven-syllable verses
(settenari), sa boghe repeats a part of the seven-syllable verse to bring it up
to the length of a hendecasyllable verse.
Sas Ziradas
Sa boghe sings a hendecasyllable verse
Sa boghe sings a hendecasyllable verse Zirada 1
Intervention of su tenore
Sa boghe sings a hendecasyllable verse Zirada 2
Intervention of su tenore
Example: ORUNE Boche ‘e Note
T
E
M
P
O
From Sa Boghe Longa to Sa Zirada
Another way used in Orune to pass from
sa boche longa to sa zirada is the
following: when su tenore enters sa boche
longa with the long initial passage, sa
boghe may sing upon su tenore
introducing the rhythmic evolution in the
way of zirada 2; su tenore then follows him
supporting his wish to change the song.
Example: Tenore Nunnale 1min. 13” – 1min. 17”
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