mialinu

Tenores di Bitti "Mialinu Pira"

The Tenores singing (cantu a tenore) is one of the more ancient ways of singing in the Mediterranean area. Nothing about its origins is sure, but the historians maintain that this traditional polyphony goes back to 3000 years ago.... The singing is made a cappella by four male voices (oche, mesu oche, bassu and contra), the main feature of this polyphony is represented by bassu and contra because of their guttural and ancestral sound. The Tenores singing from Bitti, in the centre of Sardinia, is a vocal style which is fascinating. It immediately succeeds in sounding primitive and strong. It is no mere coincidence that the experts think that it may have had its origin in primitive times as an imitation of nature: the four voices of which the choir is composed is no more than the lowing of cattle, the bleating of sheep and the sound of the wind. These were harmonised and given poetic lyrics of age-old beauty.