Orgel (Cannas in Cuntzertu)

In the thousand-year history of Sardinia, the presence and practice of music is confirmed by statuettes called bronzes depicting players of various instruments, and has been handed down over time, with a rich expressive flowering both vocal and instrumental, up to the present day.

The Launeddas stand out, testified by the ithyphallic bronze, dated to the seventh century B.C., a three-pipe instrument with which Polyphony was practiced in ancient times compared to official historiography and certainly also reflected in singing: a real pride to be recognized even officially.

Apparently simple and at no cost: three common pipes, of nature and spontaneous growth, marsh, but wisely chosen and carefully transformed, with extraordinary organ engineering, into perfect musical instruments with characteristic tuning and timbre and excellent quality.

A small, light instrument, with a range of sounds, from low to high, up to three octaves with the natural tuning only of the major type, in diatonic scale and without Modulations but truly complete in its system.

Three pipes of various sizes: from the longest, Tumbu, which, with its continuous and lower sound, supports the scaffolding and the general sound balance, to the two small ones, Mancosa and Mancosedda, as Alto and Soprano, to produce agile, fast, virtuosic sounds, in a sort of continuum.

Flowery counterpoint with emphasis on the Mancosedda to which the main melodic part is entrusted. The musical flow proceeds formally governed by groups of three simple units, usually of three bars, called nodas distinguishable by microvariants that make it compelling, breaking the static nature of diatonism and the impossibility of resorting to chromaticisms and modulation. To be added the great variety of Cuntzertu, or tunings, and rhythmic physiognomies, which give rise to musical forms such as, among many others, Mediana, Fiorassiu, Punt'e Organu,

Music has always been a means of aggregation for community events of great importance and, in Sardinia, the Festival is the very important moment of reunion of the whole community.

In "Cannas in Cuntzertu" I wanted to remember the various moments that begin in the morning with the Mass and the moments of prayer, such as the Alleluia and the Tantum ergo, the Procession with the sound of the Bells and the Ave Maria and the final dance in the churchyard still present as "Su ballu 'e Cresia" with the Launeddas alternating in the two tunings or "Cuntzertu" of D and G.

It was natural, to express these particular moments, to put together the two typical instruments, both in pipes, such as the Organ and the Launeddas, creating a very particular "Cuntzertu" but present in the tradition.

He boasts two splendid performances to be found on the net with Fabrizio Marchionni on the Organ and Luigi Lai and Gianfranco Meloni on the Launeddas. 

This composition is dedicated to Don Ignazio Orrù.

Vittorio Montis