Mediterranean polyphonic songs
Towards the Light

Alessandro Curti, Jarosław Fret
Pieve di a Serra (Corsica)
The “Pieve di A Serra” it’s a region in the centre-eastern side of Corsica that include over 20 villages with a very low population density, and it spreads from 1700 mt. height till the sea. It’s actual Confraternity – of the Holy Cross – is formally born in 1992 and it’s both a Christian and secular attempt to promote mutual help in a rural environment under a serious depopulation thread. Their vast singing repertoire is mainly displayed with a three voices polyphony and a very characteristic way of delivering it; the secular side of it include mainly paghjellas (traditional lay Corsican form of singing), while the religious repertoire can accompany various liturgical ceremonies, like the mass of the dead or the Holy Week.
A fragment of their Office of Darkness (sung during the Holy Thursday) found its placement in Teatr ZAR’s performance “Caesarean Section – Essays on suicide”.
- Dio vi salvi Regina
- Psalm 21
- Psalm 50
- Veni Sancte Spiritus
- Ecco bella del mio core
- Libera me domine
- Psalm 2
- Dio vi salvi Regina "Dio vi salvi Regina" - the tiltle means "Might God save You, oh Queen", it's probably the most known polyphonic song in the whole isalnd, cosidered to be by most people the hymn of Corsica; this vesrion is sung by the singers of Pieve di a Serra.
- Psalm 21 Part of the Office of Darkness, sung during the Holy Thursday's ceremony. Cunfraterna Di a Pieve di a Serra
- Psalm 50 Part of the Office of Darkness, sung during the Holy Thursday's ceremony. Cunfraterna Di a Pieve di a Serra
- Veni Sancte Spiritus "Veni Sancte Spiritus" sung by the group Tempus Fugit of Bastia
- Ecco bella del mio core "Ecco bella del mio core" - "Beauty of my heart", secular song belonging to the tradition of Corsican's paghjella
- Libera me domine "Libera Me Domine" by Cunfraterna di Pieve di a Serra.
- Psalm 2 Part of the Office of Darkness, sung during the Holy Thursday's ceremony. Cunfraterna Di a Pieve di a Serra
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