Josanne Cassar

It is rare to find so much talent in one family, but singer Doreen Galea and her husband musician Sammy Galea managed to raise three sons (Dominic, Ben and Manolito) who are all equally gifted.

The collaboration of the Galea family has given birth to an innovative project which will be a gift to treasure for all those who love our mother tongue. Ommi is a priceless collection of the best of Maltese romantic poetry which composer Dominic Galea has set to music with original melodies, all of which are sung by his mother Doreen. Manolito is the recording engineer while Ben and Sammy join another 12 musicians who played on the album.

The idea for the album was born in 2005 when Dominic took credits in the Maltese language during his University studies. Struck by the beauty of the literature, he decided to combine his two passions while also fulfilling a wish to produce an album for his mother. The executive producer Steve Borg (who also co-founded Etnika) was brought on board for his expertise in Maltese literature. The project, which has been endorsed by the Akkademja tal-Malti and the Kunsill Nazzjonali tal-Malti features 15 songs from the first half of the 20th century.

These were the embryonic years of a native literature striving to express itself in a language that, albeit spoken by the inhabitants for many centuries, had only recently been given official status. Most of the 15 songs presented here were published as poems in Maltese language publications, including Il-Malti, and Il-Pronostku Malti and were penned by such national poets as Ruzar Briffa, Gorg Pisani and Dun Karm.

During the launch of the album, Doreen Galea explained the often difficult process of recording the album, particularly as her mother passed away during the time. She described how the feelings and emotions of the poems had to be interpreted with attention to their meaning and the responsibility she felt in remaining faithful to the beauty of the poetry itself.

Xidew il-Qada (the oldest known text in the Maltese language, more commonly known as Il-Kantaliena) was one of the most challenging pieces. After struggling with it for a while, Dominic finally managed to write the music in one sitting and Doreen managed to record it in one take giving it a depth of feeling which does justice to the poet Pietru Caxaru.

Known for her jazz background, Doreen feels that Ommi, with its fusion of jazz with folk, perfectly captures the essence of her personality as a singer. “I have never been mainstream; I have always wanted to be original and different.”

Speaking about how she interpreted the song Xita (by Mary Meilak) with its line after line full of “x’s” you realise what a true artist Doreen Galea is; how she uses her voice and adapts it to the meaning of the words. “I made my voice soft and light, like the soft sound of raindrops falling.”

From a composition point of view, Dominic points out that writing music to a poem is actually inspirational especially when it is written by poets of such calibre. “The accents and cadences are so exact that it actually makes my job as a composer much easier”.

Asked whether the CD could be used in schools to make it easier for students to study Maltese poetry, Dominic Galea admitted that, while this had not been considered, it would certainly be worth exploring.

Ommi is available for sale from all leading record shops.