It was in the early 1980s, on reading the study The Maltese Zaqq by J.K. Partridge and Frank Jeal (Galpin’s Society’s Journal, vol. 30, 1977, pp. 112-144), that I decided to see for myself why the instrument was “on the verge of extinction’’ (p. 112)

The Hammarun bagpipe tradition

Through the help of a folksinger and of my late father, I got in touch with Toni Cachia l-Hammarun in the late 1980s. Following several meetings, interviews and discussions with him, it took quite some time to convince him that in Malta we needed an ethnographic documentary film about him and his musical culture. Eventually this came to be through the kind support and cooperation of Cachia himself, Naxxar tanbur player Toni Camilleri it-Tommie, and Alvin Scicluna’s masterly direction.

This was only the beginning of a long story which is still in the making. From the very beginning, Cachia’s character as much as his expertise and cultural background made me feel instinctively that he might not necessarily have been the only living exponent of bagpipe-playing in Malta. Discussing the topic with him during recording or observation sessions from various perspectives did not open new ground, and this made me more persevering in my search for other potential informants and collaborators. Further research meant long hours of observation, interviewing and oral investigation.

Other Maltese bagpipe players

At last, in mid-2000, a breakthrough proved me right. Making the acquaintance of Joe and his brother has been an important experience. Since their childhood they have always lived within a family cherishing the Maltese tanbur culture. They played the instruments but they were reluctant to perform in public. In their opinion, Malta’s disregard of folk instruments until the last few years had created a cultural void. Having already experienced a similar cultural reaction to my initiatives with a good number of reluctant Maltese folk-singers in the late 1990s, I managed to persuade both brothers to finally participate in the Seventh Malta Folk Singing Festival at Argotti Gardens last May.

Accompanied by Frans Farrugia of Ghaxaq on the friction drum (zavzava), they rose to the occasion. Joe’s son also forms part of his family’s rich musical

tradition and has since established himself as a promising tanbur player.

His instruments are the work of the same Frans Farrugia, also a keen instrument maker. (Mr Farrugia has produced Etnika’s Maltese handmade tnabar as well, and it is only fair that this ought to have been acknowledged in Etnika’s printed programmes.)

Participation in a Mediterranean festival

Through contacts abroad, especially through the help of M.D. Pace and M.P.M. Servera, Joe and his son, again accompanied by Frans Farrugia on the zavzava, participated in the Fourteenth Bagpipe Festival in Mallorca last November.

Besides the Mallorcan bagpipe performers, there were various participants from the Asturias, Catalunya, Sicily, Valencia and Scotland. The two-day festival consisted of a conference on Saturday afternoon about the various aspects of bagpipe culture in Italy; a concert held in the evening for all performers in the parish church of a

village renowned for its bagpipe culture – the Maltese group performing for a good 15 minutes to the applause of the audience which packed the church and a three- hour public performance in the main square of the village on Sunday. This provided us with a memorable occasion. The Maltese musicians were not only welcomed and applauded for their distinctive tunes and body movements, but were also invited to interact with local and foreign performers, including the Scottish bagpipe players.

Our group was given prominent coverage in the local newspapers. As remarked by the various foreign scholars who attended this festival, the Maltese bagpipe has been a revelation, providing them with one of the many missing links in the variegated history of the instrument in the Mediterranean. The local organisers, especially A.T. i Gost, who sponsored flights and accommodation for the Maltese group, congratulated the three musicians on their performance. Our deepest gratitude goes to the moral and tireless support of Felic Mangion of Zurrieq.

Pseudo ethnographic research

Thus, the seminal epic study of Partridge and Jeal of the late 1970s is flawed, due to the lack of a systematic and persistent investigation of the Maltese zaqq in Malta and Gozo in collaboration with local dedicated researchers. This would have taken years. The contentions of Partridge and Jeal that in the 1970s “… only a very few elderly players remained’’ (p. 112) in Malta and that out of a total of nine living players “only one was still active, both making and playing the instrument’’ (p. 113) are proven wrong by our player Joe, who was then in his late teens and already playing the Maltese bagpipe, as did his father who passed on the music culture to his children. Relying on hearsay, the two foreign scholars jumped to conclusions much too soon.

These ethnographic mistakes have again and again reared their ugly head in the past few years and as recently as a few weeks ago. One should undertake serious research before committing oneself to dogmatic statements, if these are necessary at all.

The same misinformation, which rankles of the salvage perspective, regarding “the last exponent(s) of …’’ or “the sole surviving Maltese traditional bagpipe/tambourine player(s)… ’’ has been and is still being regurgitated by some journalists. The latter should recognise these phenomena as stereotyped attempts – through misplaced enthusiasm – at ignoring on-going scientific research. On-going scientific researchers avoid being dogmatic and missing the differences of any aspect of culture, let alone post-war Maltese folk culture which has always been anything but stagnant. One should never try to freeze culture into one’s own romantic image of it.

The late Toni Cachia l-Hammarun had also pointed out that in the past, the leading performer of the two in Naxxar was the tambourine player; the bagpipe player only accompanied him. (Personal communication, 2002). Today the discourse has been reversed – the tanbur accompanies the zaqq. According to what they have written about their Maltese bagpipe music research and transcriptions in the 1970s, Cooke and Partridge and Jeal had listened mainly to Cachia’s playing (pp. 131, 144).

My research shows that it needs time, perseverance and persistence to convince hidden talent to come

forward and re-live their experience in its natural and/or new environment for the cultural enhancement of the individual, his society and culture. Culture is multi-faceted and it exists in its variable variables. Folk communication is not an inferior form of communication at the cross-cultural level.

In this context there existed other zaqq players in Malta, and not just il-Hammarun. The latter is not “the last exponent of bagpiping in Malta’’. Joe’s family – Joe in particular – proves to be another exponent among a number of potential others. A proactive perspective for these as yet “silent’’ performers is imperative. To ignore these talented people is, to say the least, unethical in the light of a “plan… to teach (one of the instruments) to students of varying ages in private schools during one day courses next year’’. Let us have these courses, but it is neither a healthy environment nor in anyone’s cultural interests to obscure or ignore hidden talent through inexact statements.

We ought to welcome him who comes foreword directly from the family tradition and listen to his voice. Let us not look at him as an object of outsiders’ curiosity but as part of the same cultural “veil’’, in spite of its varieties. Only time will tell if the remaining performers will ever convince themselves to follow in the footsteps of Joe and his brother.