A music scene developed and active throughout the year
Fond of musical representations, concerts and shows, Corsicans are lucky to be able to enjoy numerous theaters but also enchanting monuments invested on the occasion of festivals: churches, chapels, convents, citadels, etc. Throughout the year, and especially in the summer, various events brighten up the local cultural life: they can be classical performances, such as the Canari opera singing festival, or more trendy events that attract new generations from all over the continent, such as the Calvi on the rocks festival. In any case, it is an opportunity for visitors to spice up their stay while discovering a lively and festive aspect of the local culture.
Polyphonic music, at the centre of Corsican identity
Polyphonic music is directly inspired by Corsican memory. One of its most singular features is the polyphony or the a capella singing executed with several voices. Within the Corsican polyphony one meets an important number of variants which differ as for the form (sung joust, number of voices...) and the approached topics. There are sacred and profane polyphonies. Their origins go back to remote and imprecise times: the songs of mass, in the Corsican tradition, were and still are in certain churches, interpreted with several voices by men. Listening to "paghjelle", with the acoustics of Corsican chapels, is one of the most moving spectacles one can attend during one's stay. There are three types of voices that structure the singing: "u bassu" the low voice, "a siconda" the main voice, and "a terza" the ornamentation voice. The voices interpenetrate each other. I Muvrini are the best known singers, but Corsica has many soloists and groups of outstanding quality; let's mention A Filetta which combines sacred songs and very accomplished creations, Canta u Populu Corsu and its very committed songs, Petru Guelfucci, the Men's Choir of Sartene directed by Jean-Paul Poletti, and so many others! We also listen to I Chjami Aghjalesi', very popular, Surghjenti and Soledonna, one of the rare female groups. In the "classics", Antoine Ciosi is a master! Among the youngest, we can note the group L'Alba and the group Giramondu with their affirmed musicality.
Ghjuvan Claudiu Acquaviva, leader of the mythical group A Filetta
The current leader of the group A Filetta creates a large part of the texts and musical arrangements that have earned him unanimous recognition from his peers. He collaborates with other recognized artists such as the singers of IAM or Bruno Coulais. He is also at the origin of the foundation of the international festival Rencontres de chants polyphoniques de Calvi. Beyond his artistic commitment, the man is a fervent supporter of human rights and a more just society. To meet him!
Alain and Jean-François Bernardini, modernisers of traditional Corsican song
They are the two creators of the famous group I Muvrini, "the little sheep" in Corsican, founded in 1970. Initiated at an early age by their father Ghjuliu, the brothers first succeeded in convincing Corsica and then the mainland, where they now perform in the biggest concert halls (Zenith, Olympia). The group is regularly awarded, with eight gold records and two victories of the music. Recognized and appreciated, they work with the great actors of the French song (Jacques Dutronc, Michel Fugain) and international (Sting). The group has its own recording studio in the village of Taglio-Isolaccio in Castagniccia and its own record company AGFB. They have succeeded in reviving traditional Corsican music by modernizing it and mixing it with world music and variety. Jean-François is also the founder of AFC Umani, an organization that advocates non-violence through numerous radio, newspaper and television broadcasts.
Petru Guelfucci, singer of Corsican polyphony across the Atlantic
Born in 1955 in Sermanu, he is one of the emblematic figures of the revival of polyphony and Corsican music in general. In 1973, in the middle of the nationalist movement, he met Jean-Paul Poletti with whom he founded the group Canta u Populu Corsu which inspired the polyphonic formations of the island. His journey led him to criss-cross Corsica in order to save the island's linguistic heritage and to give back the desire to the new generations to learn and sing the Corsican language which was then threatened. After the rupture with Canta u Populu Corsu in 1987, Petru Guelfucci launches a solo career and takes the head of a new formation, Voce di Corsica, group of Corsican polyphonies. It is with it that Petru Guelfucci will know the success, not in France but in Quebec! The album Corsica, original music of the ballet of the same name created by the star dancer Marie-Claude Pietragalla, meets a formidable echo: it is named golden disc and sold more than 100 000 copies in Quebec. Petru Guelfucci passed away in 2021. He was the director of the Centre de Musiques Traditionnelles de Corse and divided his time between his singing career and his village of Sermanu where he took care of his mill and his beehives.
Tino Rossi (1907-1983), the Napoleon of romance
Velvet voice and love songs may seem a little outdated today, but Tino Rossi, whose destiny was far from ordinary, remains a legend, in Corsica as well as on the continent. He was born in Ajaccio, at 43 rue Fesch, where his father ran a tailor store. From his childhood and his adolescence, we only remember his exceptional voice. After a lean period, his career begins in 1932 thanks to a 78 rpm very sought after by fans today: O Ciuciarella. From Petit Papa Noël to the arms of Marinella, his songs make him know success and glory: 1 014 titles recorded, more than 300 million records sold, 24 films, 4 operettas ... Described by his relatives as a cultured man and full of humor, he will remain until his death always very attached to his Corsica, beloved island that he will have well contributed to make known. His descendants still occupy his magnificent property of Scudo, sheltered behind the long wall of enclosure where are collection pieces on his career.
Ballroom and traditional dances
The dances of couple in Corsica go back only to the XIXth century and, although less known than the polyphonies, they occupied an important place in the heritage of the island of Beauty. The most honored was for a long time " a cuntradanza ", the contredanse, then the mazurka or the polka. Later came java, paso-doble, waltz and tango. Among the more local and traditional dances, the "marsilliana", the "tarascone", the "quadrille", the "monferina", the "conca" and the "caracollu" reserved for women for funerals, or the "tarentella" which was danced in a circle. The name " tarantella " comes from the spider called tarantula: the dance was a ritual therapeutic practice performed by people who had been bitten, accompanied by members of the village, in order to avoid falling into a state of lethargy that would have led to death. The most spectacular dance is the "moresca", a great figuration of the legendary battles against the Moors, usually danced on the occasion of the carnival or the patronal feast.
Corsican "theatricality
The theater milieu, if we understand it in the classical sense, remains rather modest in Corsica in terms of professional troupes, equipment and dramatic institutions. Nevertheless, there are many forms of theatricality in Corsican popular culture: one thinks of the activities that cement the traditional life of local communities, such as wakes, poetic declamations, the carnival, seasonal festivals and other rites of religious life, but also, in a more contemporary way, burlesque and militant theater.
The theatrical form has indeed played a certain role in the "Riacquistu", especially in the 1970's, because it was a way to reappropriate and spread the Corsican language, threatened with extinction. The theater - often burlesque - then appeared as a means of taking up, diverting or valorizing elements of the local cultural identity (representations or village stereotypes, values, characters, etc.). This production borrows much from the comedy and the bourgeois theater of the 17th and 18th centuries of French and Italian inspiration (Molière, Goldoni). One of the fathers of this tendency in Corsica is undoubtedly the playwright, storyteller and actor Ghjannettu Notini of San Petru di Venacu (1890-1986), nicknamed the "Corsican Molière", whose texts are still much taken up today by the organizations engaged in the preservation of the language. They are an integral part of the local ethnolinguistic heritage.
One also notes a good number of militant pieces, which draw more directly in the Corsican history and the national feeling. The precursor troupes of this genre are Teatru Paisanu ("theater of the country"), directed by Dumenicu Tognotti and Saveriu Valentini, whose play A rimigna (1974) was decisive, both from an aesthetic and political point of view. This show (in French "la mauvaise herbe") relates a dark and traumatic period in Corsican history: the bloody and public execution of several Corsican resistance fighters, including a child under fifteen years old, following the French conquest of 1769. Today, the styles and themes are diversified and the theater keeps a great importance in the popular culture, with for strong moments the international meetings of the Aria in August, the festival of the dream of Porto-Vecchio and all the year in Bastia and Ajaccio.
