Multipart Singing in Sardinia

Ignazio Macchiarella

Exclusive and Inclusive Practices

This book is a first, partial contribution on Sardinian multipart singing to the EVA serie. The volume does not intend to be an exhaustive guide but rather highlights key aspects of the variety and complexity found in multipart singing practices across the island, Sardinia.
It explores an essential distinction between two principles of performance: multipart singing adopting inclusive patterns (those that offer possibility for anyone interested to participate), and multipart singing based on exclusive patterns (those mastered only by selected specialist groups who comprise a predeterminetd number of performers). The volume and the audio-visual anthology are produced as part of the TeDiMuS (Digital Technologies and Multipart Singing in Sardinia) project, funded by the Autonomous Region of Sardinia (Regional Law 7/2007, for the “Promotion of scientific research and technological innovation in Sardinia”), and carried out with the support of Labimus (Interdisciplinary Laboratory on Music of the Department of Humanities, Languages and Cultural Heritage of the University of Cagliari).

European Voices: Audiovisuals is a series of the Department of Folk Music Research and Ethnomusicology of the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. An essential element of it is the partnership with institutions in which members of the Research Centre for European Multipart Music (EMM), based in this Department, are engaged. EMM members present here unknown audio and video recordings of multipart music and dance practices, primarily from fieldwork, with comprehensive explanations drawn up in close cooperation with music and dance makers.