Monday, May 14, 2012

ENCORE EN CORSE

A passionate musical heritage
Transmitted from father to son, hauntingly beautiful traditional Corsican chants improvised a cappella  by men serenading at village gatherings and religious processions pull heartstrings that hark to the island's unique cultural identity and sense of honor.

Since Antiquity the island has had a turbulent history of occupations and incursions. However, after five centuries of dominion under the Republic of Genoa, it knew a brief period of independence from 1755 until 1768 when Corsica, which had been ceded in 1764 to France by Genoa in a treaty, was taken over by France militarily. After the outbreak of the French Revolution a British-Corsican coalition forced out the French and established an Anglo-Corsican kingdom. The British withdrew in 1796 though, and the island fell back into the hands of the French and was annexed to France at the end of the eighteenth century.

Today la Corse or Corsica is officially called the "collectivité territoriale de Corse." Michelin's 2012 edition Corse Le Guide Vert characterizes the island as "un peu 'l'enfant terrible' de la France: à la fois attachante et rebelle, secrète et démonstrative, elle ne cesse de susciter les passions." (Corsisca is somewhat France's unruly child; at the same time charming and rebellious, secret and outgoing, it never ceases to arouse passions.)   

Vocabulary
encore:  still, again, even;  an audience's exclamation at the end of a concert asking for a repeated or additional performance
en Corse:  in Corsica
une affiche:  a poster, theatre bill



©2012 P.B. Lecron

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