Lost Polyphonies of the Good Friday Procession in Rovinj-Rovigno (CRoatia)
Project leaders: Alessio Giuricin, Giovanni Cestino
In Rovinj-Rovigno (Croatia), a beautiful town on the Istrian coast, the Good Friday Procession was a solemn rite of Venetian origin that ceased in the early 1960s due to secularization and profound social changes occurred during the Yugoslav period. The procession involved the carrying of the cross and symbols of the Passion of Christ along a circular route from the Church of St. Euphemia to the foot of the old city center—later extending to more peripheral areas of the town—before returning by ascending the characteristic peninsula hill. The procession was accompanied by an elaborate musical ensemble performed by the finest singers of the local choir, know as “Corpo Corale del Pio Oratorio.”
Our connection with the Italian Community of Rovinj-Rovigno is through one of our members, Alessio Giuricin, one of the youngest and most experienced singers in the practice of local polyphonic music, as well as the founder and director of the vocal quartet “Nuove Quattro Colonne.” This community preserves the richest polyphonic heritage among the Italian communities of the so-called “Adriatic frontier,” represented by various genres of secular polyphony: including the bitinàde, the butunàde, the àrie da cuntràda (or “strett songs”), and the àrie da nuòto. Cultural secularization in the post-war period interrupted the practice of sacred polyphony, which had once been performed by the same singers. Among the polyphonic forms still practiced, the àrie da nuòto (an Istrian term for “night songs”) distinctly highlights the relationship between sacred and secular polyphony, serving as a trace of a cultural past now faded. In an ària da nuòto, the disposition of vocal parts, consisting of two tenors and a bass, replicates the three-voice sacred writing. Moreover, some àrias directly derive from pre-existing devotional or liturgical pieces. The ària da nuòto known as Ognor is a perfect example, having preserved the features of a true contrafactum of earlier sacred polyphony.
While Alessio Giuricin and Giovanni Cestino were conducting ethnographic research on the àrie da nuòto to reintegrate their performance into their original settings (a crucial aspect of this practice), a more direct connection between these and the Good Friday polyphonies emerged through an interview with Bruna Rocco Doblanović, a Rovinj native who still remembers the traditional singers performing the old Good Friday repertoire. She draws parallels between this repertoire and the àrie da nuòto, even identifying the most awaited and characteristic piece of the Good Friday Procession, Popule meus, as an ària.
In addition to the memories of witnesses such as Bruna Doblanović, the repertoire of the Good Friday Procession survives in a significant number of documents preserved at the Archive of the Church of St. Euphemia in Rovinj-Rovigno. Among these are the part-books that singers carried with them during various Holy Week services and, of course, during the Procession. Compared to later transcriptions and recordings, these part-books were used more as memory aids than as actual scores to read. The repertoire included original pieces attributed to local composers, such as the previously mentioned Popule meus by the Rovinj canon Giovanni Masato, performed at specific points along the procession route, and was completed by the singing of the Miserere, which accompanied the entire procession.
Following meticulous archival research—which also allowed for a precise reconstruction of the procession’s historical route—this repertoire was performed once again in its original context in Rovinj-Rovigno on August 2, 2023. With the support of Ecomuseo-Ekomuzej Batana and collaboration with the local choir SAC-KUD “Marco Garbin,” the ITER Research Ensemble organized a captivating walk-concert that integrated the traditional performance spaces of the àrie da nuòto into the historical procession route. The two repertoires were presented seamlessly, with performances by ITER alongside the SAC-KUD “Marco Garbin” and by the Vocal Quartet “Nuove Quattro Colonne” and the Trio “Viècia Ruveîgno.” The same program, enriched by the valuable participation of the local wind band, Limena Glazba-Banda d’Ottoni Rovinj-Rovigno, was later performed as a concert inside the Church of St. Euphemia on April 20, 2024.
This project exemplifies the integration of practice and research, extending beyond the realm of choral repertoire. This research, of which ITER is an essential component, has broadened understanding of the performative role (historically and currently) of the urban architectural context in the practice of Rovinj’s multipart vocal heritage and has fostered deep interaction with other musical realities, reflecting a strong identity and a rich cultural history. In this context, the group once again engaged with a highly specific repertoire, which, however, was no longer perceived as an element of local identity by the community. From this, ITER gained immense human and musical enrichment, contributing to and sharing with the community a small part of its historical rediscovery.
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