The Construction of the Individual Style of Singing in the Sung Poetry of Southern Sardinia

Reflections upon a Critical Case

Abstract

In this paper I describe a case in which the very first steps in the construction of the singing style of a young Sardinian improviser encountered some difficulties and, in particular, caused some problems for the two-part accompanying choir during a poetry contest. I also report the protagonists’ comments and opinions on the topic, analyze musical aspects of the performance and propose some keys for the interpretation of the observed anomalies. These keys are based on both the peculiar situation of the improviser, who emigrated from Sardinia when he was 24, and of his native village, Burcei, which shows influences from the Barbagia area especially as far as poetical styles are concerned.