Oral poetry survives as a living tradition in the Maltese Islands. It is still one of the main sources of popular folk entertainment. The Maltese word for orally-performed poetry is ghana, or song, which covers a wide range of poems in sung form with musical accompaniment by guitarists.

These folk compositions are of three types:

(1) extemporised (spirtu pront), short (four-line) stanzas normally sung by a group of two or more singers as a song-duel which can take various forms - for example hitting back, stanza for stanza, with guitar interludes, or an impromptu reply by the second man within the same quatrain immediately after the two lines presented by the first singer - this is called ghanja maqsuma (broken or shared song;

(2) long elaborate narratives in verse, generally known as fatt (deed, event), either on well-known local heroes or on sensational or tragic events (ballad type), or on recent humorous topics;

(3) songs in high register (ghanja fil-gholi), also known as la bormliza, i.e. Bormla style - Bormla (Cospicua) being one of the three historic cities facing Valletta across the Grand Harbour - short haiku-like poems normally sung by two persons and requiring a full voice capable of sustaining long phrases. This style of singing has now practically died out in Malta, but survives as a living art among Maltese emigrant singers in Australia.

The characteristic form of Maltese quatrains is the four-line stanza, rhyming a b c d, each line consisting mostly of eight, sometimes seven, syllables. The argument used, whether serious or humorous, is followed closely by the audience; clarity of expression in the performance is expected, no less than correct rhyming and maintenance of subject. Assonance rather than rhyme is sometimes employed.

In this respect Maltese quatrains have no connection with the songs of Sicily, consisting mainly of eight endeca-syllabic lines. However, the four-line stanza is not unknown in Sicily, and sometimes occurs in Greek and Spanish popular poetry, while the same form and rhyme schemes are employed by the boatmen of Rabat and Sale in Morocco.

In 1953 a Folksong Competition, organised for the local Agrarian Society by the present writer, was held on the occasion of the popular Imnarja folk festival. It continued to be held over the following years and it is now recognised that it had a lasting, salutary effect.

To quote from Ranier Fsadni's perceptive article "The Modernity of Maltese Ghana" (Sunday Times, August 30, 1992): " it (i.e. ghana singing) became more elaborate This formal elaboration was a consequence of the first Maltese folklore festival, held in 1953, which not only inspired the new rules but also changed the way the ghannej or singer regarded himself

"1953 was the decisive date, for it set off a process which changed the way ghana was perceived by the middle classes and how the ghannejja came to see themselves and the role they played

"They were now the subject of some attention from intellectuals, being asked to sing at festivals and hotels, and even sent abroad to represent Malta on cross-cultural exchanges. Ghana as an entity became mythologised, the soul of tradition which had to be preserved"

A new generation of folk singers and guitarists has indeed modernised the folk art and raised the standard of ghana performances. Many singers, as well as their supporters, possess their own tape-recorders and exchange tapes conatining recordings of their extemporised songs with emigrated friends in America, Canada or Australia.

Occasionally, local singers tour towns and cities in Australia or Canada at the inviattion of Maltese migrant communities. Tourism and modern mass media, such as cassettes, radio and TV, also contribute to keep the tradition alive.

(SOURCE: MALTA This Month, Nov. 96; Advantage Advertsing Ltd., Regency House, Republic Street, Valletta, Malta)