Music is an important element of the culture, no doubts about it. This is one of the reasons why I enjoy participating in various music festivals all over the world. The festival I’m introducing you to today is even more special: not only it promotes aesthetic values but most of all it protects the heritage of the region that I come from. This is also why this post is published under ‘Home City’ category rather than the general one. The Story This festival, called Musica Sacromontana, has been established only 10 years ago and there is an important motive behind. Let me start with a short description of the place, where the festival takes place. The Basilique is run by the fathers of The Congregation of the Oratory of Saint Philip Neri and it is dated back the sixteenth century. The new sanctuary was approved by the bishop of Poznań then (Lubrański), and in the following centuries, the place played an important role in the life of the region, becoming a prominent center of the St. Mary worshiping and the musical archive. Making the long story short, this place of worship survived against the odds until the middle of the seventeenth century when the parish was given to the monks from the Congregation of St. Philip Neri, who has been known and still are, as the great supporters of music and liturgical songs. The turbulent history of this place is fascinating to me mainly because it shows what my country and my region went through in the last 300 years. This was a tireless effort of the local aristocracy and ordinary people in supporting the construction of the church and the monastery. It was against the wars, conflicts, plagues and a variety of other adversities. I love reading about it because I like to believe that my ancestors were brave, wise and determined in order to establish a place to develop their culture and faith. The disaster came with the Prussian Partition. The Prussians shut the place down. The Music Before the confiscate of the order in this place in 1876, the members of the congregation supported by the wealthy people of the region successfully collected an impressive archive of the musical works. The local library held a substantial collection of sacral music scripts of a great value. With the Prussian invasion, almost all of them got lost. Just as our favorite writer J.R.R. Tolkien says: “And some things that should not have been forgotten were lost“. It took almost 150 years until musicians and monks started recovering the scripts. It takes a huge effort and great organizational skills to search for the collection scattered in libraries throughout Europe. The Importance The association called Stowarzyszenie Miłośników Muzyki Swiętogórskiej im. Józefa Zeidlera established about ten years ago runs a large-scale research in Polish ecclesiastical archives and European libraries in order to recover the scripts and scores and bring them back to Gostyń. Some of the pieces found are of a great value. Along this difficult research, a wonderful idea of a festival came to life. Every year the audience of this festival is privileged to listen to one of the recently found scores. The works of this association are especially focused on one of the composers connected with the place: Józef Zeidler. His concerts, litanies, vespers, and other works are examples of classical music of the highest level. This is the reason why the association and the festival are of great importance to this area, the local culture and the history of the whole country. People who work in this association make an effort to save our heritage, or better say, the small pieces that were left. The festival Sacromontana has been enthusiastically received by the critics and throughout the years it was awarded by a variety of institutions in Poland and abroad (Srebrny Mikrofon Radia Merkury in 2007, Fryderyk in 2008 for The Best Album of Choral and Oratory Music, Les Orphées d’Or de l’Académie du Disque lyrique in 2015, and many others). The Concert Quite possibly you might think that the classical music is boring, and in worse case scenario, you might completely neglect it saying it is much too difficult to enjoy. I’m not going to argue it is otherwise. Indeed, to enjoy the classical music you need a certain background and experience. This is the reason why you should come to this festival. Musica Sacromontana gives you a smooth introduction to classical music. If you have never listened to classical music before this it a very good place to start. The association makes an effort in preparing a well-balanced repertoire and the musicians invited are excellent. The music played in this concert was easy to listen. It all started with three pieces by Górecki, followed by a lovely Divertimento by Mozart and concluded with Mass D-dur by Zeidler. Don’t get discouraged by the fancy names! This music is full of harmony. You will find there some strong emotions, but the classical music makes them easy to understand and experience. It is very suggestive and powerful which guarantees an evening full of excitement. Eventually, classical music is an important part of the European heritage and if you have never listened to any classical concert you miss quite a large part of the European culture. Here is my advice: if you wish to listen to the classical concert played by the celebrities in an outstanding environment, Musica Sacromontana festival is the best place to start. There is a free entrance to all concerts and the festival is organized annually in the last weekend of September and the first weekend of October. Save the date! My Experience I was lucky and I feel privileged: not only I lived in a big city with all cultural commodities but also my parents were smart enough to introduce these values to me in a very early age. For me, every concert of the classical music I listen to brings wonderful memories. I remember that an evening at the opera or a concert hall was a...

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Read the previous episode One of the evenings last week was especially enjoyable. We drove far north, crossed few little towns (Arbus, Guspini, Sanluri, Las Plassas) and found ourselves in a different subregion. The area located far from the sea differs greatly from where we stayed. Fluminimaggiore is only 7km from the shore and is surrounded by the mountains of about 1000 meter high. A new region called Marmilla was quite different. Its flatness and dryness was what striked most. Rocky hills are left in the south and the whole region is a great burnt plain. Every little hill gave us an opportunity to see far in every direction. Dried fields, olive groves, modest shruberry were pretty much all. After a few kilometres, there was a curiosity: the remains of the volcano that created a regular plain formatted about a hundred meters above the rest of the plains called Giara. Not only being volcanic makes it special: it has been formatted out of basalt few thousands of years ago which made it a surpassing in this dry land a rich reservoir of fresh water. Out of this height four different rivers have their sources and there are many natural wells. Such unusual natural conditions caused the appearance of a bronze age culture called the Nuragic civilization after nuraghe – a characteristic building remains just like the one below. Archeology The Nuragic Civilization had a few distinctive characteristics, however, most of the issues related to their social life and religion is obscure. Many of the scientific theories remain unconfirmed. They were living in a relative isolation for few hundred years and created fortifications and large villages in this area. As Sardinia has been conquered many times throughout of history by a variety of dominate groups like Phoenicians, Romans, Vandals, Byzantine Greeks just to become a playground of powerful kingdoms and duchies in mediaeval and modern times. As a result of such turbulent history, there is an exceptional mix of all elements of the past rulers. Therefore, there is plenty of archeological sites in Sardegna and I wanted to visit at least one of them. We started our journey at 16:00 but until 20:00 it was so hot I could hardly remember of what I saw. We entered an archeological site of Giara accompanied by two little local dogs. The view made us partially sad and partially fascinated with what we saw. The site looks like abandoned many years ago, there was only one wooden board with basic information about the place and the other ruins and remains were left as they were found. There was a road constructed out of basalt, few houses, and a high wall. Although the panorama was beautiful as we were watching vast plain below of a bleach colors, the place was unfriendly. A strong wind made this impression of hostility even stronger. The large part of information about the place came from Cesare, whose master thesis was based on the field archeological research he did more than thirty years ago. He was deeply touched with what he saw and shared spontaneously his own memories. I think the absence of care for this place made him very sad. He looked like a person whose mind was in the same place but trapped thirty years ago and who was trying to make sense out of what he sees. Quite unsuccessfully, I’m afraid. As the heat drained us in a few minutes, we continued our visit by car and visited a small town of Gesturi and further Barumini. A UNESCO Site A description by UNESCO is very helpful to clarify what nuraghe is: “During the late 2nd millennium B.C. in the Bronze Age, a special type of defensive structure known as nuraghi (for which no parallel exists anywhere else in the world) developed on the island of Sardinia. The complex consists of circular defensive towers in the form of truncated cones built of dressed stone, with corbel-vaulted internal chambers. The complex at Barumini, which was extended and reinforced in the first half of the 1st millennium under Carthaginian pressure, is the finest and most complete example of this remarkable form of prehistoric architecture”. First, we stopped at the main square of Gesturi when a local feast was taking place. The square was decorated with color little flags that made a loud noise ruffled by the wind. Old ladies were leaving the church with their hair covered talking in the dialect that is impossible to understand. Their local saint has had 133 anniversary of birthday and so the town was celebrating. Then, we went to visit a must-see place. The UNESCO World Heritage Place called Su Nuraxi di Barumini. Even it was 19:00 in the evening it was still hot. I could hardly understand the guide and eventually gave up. I was just hanging around in the remains left out of the biggest known nuraghe. It was similar to the experience of walking the Pompeii complex though this one was much more modest and primitive. The round houses cuddled together and crouched around the main protective tower looked like little chickens with a hen. The guided visit caught my attention when we entered the tower through a very small passage with unregular stairs only to discover the inner circulation of the air was very limited. I became pale in a second and felt really bad so the rest of the visit I spent sitting on the of the rocks. As I rest a bit I felt better and could ask some questions to the guide. A concert In front of the ruins, there was a concert of the folk music organized by a band from Sardinia. We and a hundred of other people were sitting in the dark and watching an illuminated stage. It all started with the first song by Tenores di Neoneli Orlando and Eliseo Mascia – a well-known folk band of international fame. The sound was exquisite as these men performed a throat singing. Their powerful voice was echoed by the oldest ruins in the area...

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Last Sunday, I spent at a music festival in Poznan called Ethnoport. This festival, organized for the 8th time, is focused on a promotion of ethnic music from all over the world. Every time, the organization committee is very successful in getting involved the musicians from a variety of countries who are experts in their ethnic music. I had a wonderful time at this festival last year so when the time came I bought a one day ticket. I’ve learned few important things at this festival that I wish to share with you. You don’t need to travel to see the world This might sound controversial, but it is he truth! Depending on where you live there are thousands of initiatives that bring the world to you. From food festivals, through street theatre ending with music festivals. So many of us simply cannot move around because of work or family businesses and there are plenty of opportunities to see the world close to you. Poznan city is quite successful in creating a good climate so artists from distant places come and visit us. I urge you to get involved in your local initiatives! Just to give you one word of encouragement I’ll tell you a story. Last year I walked the Camino. For over two weeks, I walked through three regions in the north of Spain: Castille and Leon, Asturias and Galicia. One may think that walking slowly a certain area will bring you close to the people and the culture of this area. And, generally speaking, it is the truth: the slower you go the closer you get, but in a case of the Camino the situation was different. A status of a pilgrim somehow excludes you from an extensive contact with the country. A few elements of culture, like local food, gets to you but as you are focused on a pilgrimage per se, learning the country is limited. I walked the Camino and I haven’t had any opportunity to listen to a traditional music. I eventually listened to it…in Poznan! Ethnoport brought a traditional band from Galicia – one of the regions I walked through. And for the first time I listened to this amazing sounds! Ethnic music is touching No matter from which country the band comes from, the traditional music is deeply touching. I find it hard to explain, but being exposed to a variety of ethnic music for the whole day (5 concerts in a row) I got the impression that this music is authentic. And through its authenticity it touches you at a very deep level. The tempo, the rhythm, and the melody combined together in a simple song tells you a lot about people who created it. Ethnicity through music is easy to experience. Stories, dances, instruments – it is all strictly connected to the region where it comes from. I felt wonderful at a concert by Máirtín O’Connor Band from Ireland. The musicians were talking about their homeland and for me this was very special because I went to this region twice and I loved it! A traditional Irish music is so joyful that people left their chairs and started dancing. For the artists, this was an amazing view and it looked like we all had fun.  Human body is the best music instrument It is interesting to watch the original instruments brought by artists. Some of them were created in a very specific conditions and are unique. The most common instrument, however, is a human body. If you listen to the sounds that artists are able to make, you will be stunned. My personal favorite is throat overtone singing. It is spread in Asia and in many other countries so I find it amusing that so many people were singing it for so long! Practical issues Did I convince you to participate Ethnoport in Poznan? Well, if I did I hope you’ll join us next year. The festival is organized annually at the beginning of June so save the date! The best way to experience the world music to the fullest is to stay at the festival for the whole day. I spent a Sunday there and listened to as many as 5 concerts, but I think it was worthy! If you need any precise information about the festival or if you wish to share your experience comment this post below. What is your way to learning the world when you are not traveling?   

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