NODAS

Lorenzo Pusceddu could not have chosen a better title for the composition that signals his return to Ithaca after much wandering in the vast world of international music. Noda, in Sardinian, is a conceptually complex word: it does not indicate a simple musical note but a meaningful phrase within a composition. Multiple nodas, performed according to a principle of aesthetic and thematic continuity, constitute the backbone of the Sardinian dance. The same can be said for the poetic composition, founded on the ability of the author to create verses and embellish them with the most suitable metric choices. The “Fantasia di balli e canti della tradizione sarda” (Fantasy of dances and songs of the Sardinian tradition), which the composer wrote as an homage to his homeland, is based on the same concept. Music, in Sardinia more than elsewhere, is inextricably linked to words: in tenor chant and improvised poetry, in hymns to the saints (gocius) and in lamenting acts of the mourners (atitidu). In this work, Lorenzo Pusceddu recalls three symbolic pieces of the popular tradition, written in different eras by authors who are very distant from each other in terms of education and social class: the noble magistrate from Ozieri, Francesco Ignazio Mannu; the lawyer and writer from Sarule, Badore Sini; and the bohemian poet of Tonara, Peppino Mereu. At the core of these writing we find universal themes: love, friendship, sense of honor, and the yearning for freedom of an oppressed people. “A Diosa,” “Su patriotu sardu a sos feudatarios,” and “A Nanni Sulis” are now an integral part of the island’s genetic heritage, as are the notes of the Sardinian dance, the perfect rhythmic glue of this fantasy. Tell of your village and you will be universal, wrote Tolstoy. A recommendation followed by Lorenzo Pusceddu: his tribute to the musical identity of Sardinia is an ideal bridge, which will allow everyone to more easily reach the island of wind and nuraghes and get to know the true soul of the Sardinian people. Pier Sandro Pillonca Giornalista