A meeting with Marc’Andria Castellani

Who is Marc’Andria Castellani?

Without a doubt, first and foremost, a cultural activist. I have a boundless passion for my homeland, its language, its history, its culture and, of course, its music. Today, we are acutely aware that this heritage is under threat of disappearing. I try, in my own small way, to work to ensure that it survives.

From singing to writing, or from the voice to the pen?

I owe a great deal to my older brother, who used to play records by bands such as Canta u populu Corsu, the Muvrini and the Chjami Aghjalesi on repeat. Later on, I was able to watch musicians like Cecce Pesce and others performing in cabarets. I used to think it must be marvellous to be able to play the guitar like that. And eventually, rather late in the day, I started to take it up, bit by bit. Those student nights spent singing all night long served as my music school.

Are music and song universal languages?

One might call this transcendence; art itself crystallises an emotion; it expresses. Then there is the evocative power of music – the world, the colours, the atmosphere to which certain sounds transport you. In this sense, we have in Corsica a traditional heritage of staggering evocative power; one need only hear a Paghjella to visualise the stone buildings of a village, or hear the opening lines of ‘D’Alcudina*’ to catch a glimpse of the southern mountains. Furthermore, more directly,Corsica is a land of oral culture that expresses every moment of life through song. This brings us back to your question: the pain, and sometimes the hatred, cried out in funeral songs (Voceri); the criticism of an individual’s failings, which sometimes features in the verbal duels (Chjami è rispondi) or even the political attacks in election songs – have enabled the islanders to express through song things that they could only with great difficulty put into words, especially in a close-knit community…

*(an old song in praise of Mount Alcudina, which overlooks the Alta Rocca)

Culture and encounters: the greatest sources of inspiration and creativity

First and foremost, I love art and culture, and I consider myself – very modestly, in my own small way – a creative person. I love telling stories – our stories – and I adore composing melodies; all in all, that’s how songs come to life. Being part of the Balagna band’s journey and building a musical style – a world of our own – with my friends, through sharing and exchange, is a great source of fulfilment and a powerful driving force.

Then again, it might sound a bit silly to say, but I’m pretty sure that creativity thrives on suffering. If there hadn’t been this underlying fear of extinction in Corsica, I don’t think there would have been such a prolific creative output over the last fifty years or so. And to answer directly, I’d say that my primary driving force is the refusal to see the Corsican people disappear. I create because a culture that creates is a living culture, and if it does so whilst addressing contemporary concerns, it is a living culture that has not been reduced to folklore.

On air at RCFM for a programme dedicated to history: a mission I see as both a duty and a pure pleasure.

The programmes ‘Storia’, ‘Un ghjornu una canzona’ and the musical world that we have built with my friends from the band Balagna all stem from the same source: a boundless passion and curiosity for this land. We are part of the ‘Riacquistu’ movement – that is to say, the re-discovery of a Corsican culture that had long been stifled. The word is rich in meaning; humbly, we seek to understand our land and its sufferings, and to reclaim the fragile treasures that millennia of human life have brought forth, yet which a few decades of excess have been enough to erase… And I derive immense pleasure from doing so.