A Filetta: Passion

It sounds both cool and sun-drenched: Paghjella, the centuries-old three-part a cappella music from Corsica. It forms the basis of the art of A Filetta. The Segonda voice in the middle of the sound leads the ensemble. Bassu provides the resonant foundation, while Terza lays richly adorned melodies on top.

The Paghjella male choir was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2009 and likely emerged from the combination of two very different forms: Gregorian chant, sung in cool sacred spaces such as the small Romanesque church of San Pietro e Paolo in the village of Lumio, and folk music, bathed in sunlight like the landscape surrounding Lumio. There, in the northwest of Corsica, is the rehearsal space of the group A Filetta, which has been active since 1978. Co-founder Jean-Claude Acquaviva is still involved. He has composed many songs specifically for the ensemble, including for the program "Passione," which is one of the classics in A Filetta's repertoire. Other texts come from the Latin liturgy for Good Friday. The music feels as if it is spontaneously improvised. Yet it follows a precise tradition with many local peculiarities, for example from Ruglianu at the northern tip of the island or from Tagliu in the east. "Passione" thus also represents an inner journey through a region that, despite mass tourism, has retained an immediately palpable spirituality independent of religions.