Figure of the cultural resistance of the island, it was one of the largest interpreters, internationally recognized, of polyphonic singing, the Paghjella. He died on October 8, at the age of 66.
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One of the most beautiful voice of the Corsican song was killed. Petru Guelfucci died on October 8 in Marseille, a suites of cancer, leaving orphan The Paghjella, this polyphonic song of which he had been one of the ambassadors well beyond the island shores. He was 66 years old.
Before starting his international career, this child of Sermanu (Haute-Corse), in the Corsican Center, had been a political and cultural activist, participating in 1973 at the creation of the group Canta U Populu Corsu (“sings the Corsica people “). In its repertoire, songs very politically engaged and supporting the clandestine fight of the Corsican National Liberation Front (FLNC) cross, older, inherited from the agro-pastoral tradition.
At the end of the 1970s, while nationalist demands are growing, the riocquistu, cultural reappropriation, intends to revive the whole panks of the Corsican song which was until then incarnated at the national level by Tino Rossi. “It was a situation of Diglossie, the Corsican language had virtually disappeared from life in Corsica,” recalls Christophe Mac-Daniel, composer of Petru Guelfucci and a companion of the road for nearly half a century.
The fund recorded by Félix Quilici, from 1948 to 1963, a sound collection launched by the National Library of France comprising recordings of singers of various corsican microorgions, was one of the last solvers of this orality, that Petru Guelfucci, which Petru Guelfucci, alongside other musicians of Canta U Populu Corsu, like John Paul Poletti, Natal Luciani, Saveriu Valentini or Minical, wanted to save oblivion.
“Corsica”, one of the most beautiful corsican songs
If the south of Corsica is characterized by monodies, such as lamenti or vocress, heartbreaking songs that accompanied deaths, the Corsican Center and the village of Sermanu in particular offered another variety with polyphony with three Voice, U Basu, a seconda, a terza: the second that gives the tone of the song, the bass that supports it and the third party that enriches it. Three vocal incarnations of wisdom, strength and beauty.
By giving a more lyric orientation in the second part of his career, Petru Guelfucci decides to distance himself with Canta U Populu Corsu to advance solo and propose more intense and more intimate interpretations.
“In a way, he made the Paghjella accessible to the greatest number, he made it universal,” said Christophe Mac-Daniel, who wrote his title-flagship, Corsica, considered one of the More beautiful corsican songs, and who had unitholded the ballet of the same name from the star dancer Marie-Claude Pietragalla.
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