Żaqq to the future

Two British men, who documented the Maltese bagpipe during their short stay on the island 40 years ago, will next week pass on their detailed research about what is probably the oldest żaqq to the National Archives. Steve Borg, who tracked down the pair during his doctorate research in England about the recovery of Maltese folk music, believes this is an opportunity to revive a tradition slowly dying out since the last century. The two men had visited Malta between 1971 and 1973. Karl Partridge, from Northern Ireland, invited his tutor Frank Jeal from London to come to Malta, where his father was stationed with the British Forces. Since both were interested in Irish folk music, they decided to document the Maltese bagpipe. “However, in Malta they came across a sense of apathy to document the instrument. “They noted that the Maltese specialised in detesting what’s Maltese and adored anything foreign, and they believed they were writing the tombstone for the żaqq,” Mr Borg, co-founder of the Maltese group Etnika, told Times of Malta. According to Mr Borg, the żaqq is the most complex Maltese traditional instrument and is not found elsewhere in the world. Although the bag is made...