There's a fine line between sound and silence, between pain and beauty . In Sardinia, this line is called attitu: an archaic, harsh funeral song capable of giving form to mourning and transforming it into communal resistance.
This subtle margin is the foundation for the performance of "Sounds and Rites from Old and New Villages," the concert that the Duo Cordas et Bentu, consisting of Francesca Apeddu (flute) and Maria Luciani (guitar) , will perform on Thursday, September 18th at 7:00 pm in the Sala Sassu of the "Luigi Canepa" Conservatory in Sassari. Admission is free, but far from banal.
"Sound, like ritual, is a threshold": these words open the reflection that accompanies the concert, a project that moves between performance and research, contemporary composition and ethnomusical roots. And it is precisely from extensive fieldwork that the inspiration for Apeddu was born: a work that began with the recording "Tales from Sardinia" and was influenced by the studies of ethnomusicologist Francesco Morittu, who led her to the mountains of Barbagia and the coast of Ogliastra, in search of the last voices capable of intonating the attitu.
A vocal practice still alive in the collective memory : laments that are not only pain, but also language, memory, protection. Contemporary musical writing is grafted onto this fragile heritage, entrusted to composers who have chosen to dialogue with tradition, without sanctifying it or bending it to folkloristic clichés.
The program is rich and largely unreleased : many of the works are world premieres, composed specifically for the duo or dedicated to them. Among these, Alfredo Franco's Hymnos stands out, a sequence of evocative miniatures that, with titles like Cocci di memoria and Inter-mezzo orfico, already declare their connection to the theme of ritual and threshold.
From the delicate timbre of Giovanna Dongu's Tre Schizzi to the direct revival of the attitus in Franco Cavallone's pieces (inspired by the repertoires of Scano Montiferro and Ossi), each composition bridges past and present. Francesco Morittu's piece Attítus, divided into four movements, is perhaps the most emblematic moment of this cultural project: a score that confronts head-on the relationship between ancient rituals and contemporary sensibilities, between the "movida" and the "Boghe d'Anghelu."
Closing, the suite Songs and Dances from the New Village by Serbian-American Dušan Bogdanović, which intertwines folk melodies and modern writing, bringing the ritual into the universal dimension of dance and vitality.
Thursday's event will not just be a concert, but a moment of cultural restitution and collective encounter .
Sounds and Rites from Old and New Villages presents itself as an act of memory and awareness: the demonstration that sound can still be a gesture of community, a way to rework, understand, and transform what passes through us.