Spirtu ghannej : una revision sobre forma, ritual, genero y modernidad en el canto popular Maltes

Abstract

Expression through singing is a deeply rooted attribute in the popular culture of Malta. The range of musical manifestations of the archipelago, however, shows itself limited to a tight group of forms and styles, the practice of which is grouped under the particular denomination of ghana. Travel through the scarce known data about its history acts as a significant precedent to the study of its characteristics, where it stands out not only the necessary musical attributes, but also the values that transmit a meaning to the reason of its social function. Through this intervention, Maltese singing creates important identities, both hierarchical and gender national, emphasized at the same time by the adoption of a ritual in interpretation. Finally, it will be necessary to put an emphasis on the transformation that this popular practice has gone through in its coexistence with a parallel process of political and cultural modernization in the country. A process which has even affected the own perspective that the ghannej has of himself and has inevitably altered with it the components of his interpretation.