Music and cinema reviews, meetings with scholars, documentation and research, workshops and live concerts: the Hymnos Foundation presents new initiatives for the valorization of liturgical, paraliturgical and profane polyphonic singing.
The first appointment is scheduled for October 22nd with the start of "Isculta, Abbàida, Cumprendi", a traveling exhibition among the municipalities of the Hymnos network with books, film screenings and guided listening sessions to promote music in dialogue with literature and cinema documentary and create spaces for debate and sharing: at 5.30 pm in Santu Lussurgiu in the Hymnos - Casa di Donna Caterina headquarters in via Bonaria Marco Lutzu, professor of ethnomusicology at the University of Cagliari, presents "Deus ti salvet Maria: L'Ave Maria Sardinian music between devotion, identity and popular music" in dialogue with Nicolò Migheli. The Lussurgese evening will be enriched by the songs of Su Cuncordu 'e su Rosariu by Santu Lussurgiu.
To kick off this new course of the Foundation, a series of activities are starting: music, meetings with scholars, research and a large multimedia archive, workshops and live concerts linked to the valorization of traditional polyphonic singing. The flagship projects are "Istudiantes", intergenerational multi-voice singing meetings, and the "Isculta, Abbàida, Cumprendi" event. The new initiatives for the valorization of liturgical, paraliturgical and profane polyphonic singing will involve the municipalities of Santu Lussurgiu, Aggius, Aidomaggiore, Bortigali, Nughedu San Nicolò, Scano di Montiferro and Sennariolo, which have joined the Hymnos territorial network.
«We have reached this goal thanks to the perseverance of those who have continued to believe in the potential of this great project which is the Hymnos Foundation - comments the president Maria Tiziana Putzolu - a far-reaching project which has seen the commitment of the municipal administration of Santu Lussurgiu, leading municipality of the Hymnos Network and of the mayor Diego Loi, of the Board of Directors of the Foundation, of the scientific consultants Ignazio Macchiarella and Giampaolo Mele of the Universities of Cagliari and Sassari, which sees the light also thanks to the contribution of the Sardinia Region for the initiatives of 2023 and 2024".
«In Scano di Montiferro on 14 October we started Istudiantes», adds Diego Pani, ethnomusicologist and project manager of the Foundation. «This is an ambitious project which aims to enhance, through intergenerational multi-voice singing meetings, the four-part singing of the Sardinian oral tradition through the comparison between the younger generations and singers of recognized mastery with workshops and study days ».
The meetings are accompanied by the collection of historical recordings in various formats, from cassettes to CDs to reels, which will be digitized in high quality to ensure their protection. The Istudiantes project will end on November 11th in Scano di Montiferro with a final evening open to the whole community. Each workshop path will end with an event open to the public. The laboratories of the municipality of Sennariolo and Bortigali are in the starting blocks for the same project at the end of the year.
The Hymnos actions will close at the end of 2023, close to the Epiphany, with an event dedicated to the Christmas carol of "Sos Tres Res", in which the choirs of the towns of Aidomaggiore, Nughedu San Nicolò, Bonnanaro, Castelsardo, Thiesi, Cheremule will participate . Among the many activities on the calendar is also the "A cappella - Hymnos meets the polyphonies of the Mediterranean" series.
A rich calendar of scientific events therefore, but also open to the public, for an ambitious project to safeguard and recover a great identity heritage of the Island.
