A Filetta did much associative work and took part in performances in Balagne, particularly with the support of SVEGLIU CALVESE, a cultural association for the development of all cultural and artistic practices using the Corsican language in the region of Calvi.

In 1989, in collaboration with this association, A Filetta set up the first RENCONTRES DE CHANTS POLYPHONIQUES DE CALVI, “A’ l’iniziu c’era a voce”, an annual rendezvous for all performers of a cappella from around the world, whether traditional, classic, jazz, contemporary or other.

Rencontres de Chants Polyphoniques de Calvi/

 The Calvi Festival of Polyphonic Song – “In the beginning was the word.”

À l’iniziu c’era a voce

 We chose this paraphrase of St John’s Gospel, 1:1, as the subtitle for the first festival, in 1989, and it has much in common with the words of Henri Gougaud, which we quote this year for the 21^st edition: “More beautiful than they themselves is the song of men. Nothing proclaims more courageously their destitution, their faith and their unsuspected greatness.”

In 1989, a modest meeting between the group A Filetta and Su Cuncordu e Tenore de Orosei, organised by the association U Svegliu Calvese in the cathedral of Saint John the Baptist in Calvi, sealed a partnership which had, until then been informal, between the Corsican singers and a cultural association that was influential in the region; over time, it provided an anchor for these “sons of the wind.” The Rencontres de Chants Polyphoniques were conceived in a close collaboration which also led the two partners on many adventures of creation: from A Passione to Via Crucis, by way of Medea and Don Ghjuvanni in Commedia dell'Arte, one partner pushed, the other pulled, depending on the situation, and the exploration of artistic languages still continues.

In 1989, the subtitle of the Rencontres was an obvious choice: "à l'iniziu c'era a voce - in the beginning was the Word" for it really was the beginning of an adventure, with its hopes, curiosity, excitement and doubts, and with the intuition that this plural voice would find an echo in other parts of the world. If voices could spring from our mountains, then other voices could rise from other mountains, plains, rivers and seas that we hardly dared imagine. So we received Bulgarians, Georgians, Amerindians, Inuits, Tibetans, Africans, Indonesians, New Caledonians, Reunion islanders, Syrians, Moroccans and more. The world is still vast, even today, and there are many more areas to be discovered! We have heard voices and languages that we did not know existed: how many have been silenced, even eliminated, by coercive political regimes, by economic decisions in which the human element was hardly taken into account? But it happened that the fertile earth of democracy allowed these voices, that had been buried like hidden treasure, to flourish and to nourish our own humanity.

Twenty years on, the curiosity is still intact: and beyond the curiosity and the aesthetic emotion, it is the desire to share, the search for a truth and the faith in mankind that drives us. For through these voices, a tranquil nakedness, natural and without ostentation, is expressed. And that is where Henri Gougaud joins us: “More beautiful than they themselves is the song of men. Nothing proclaims more courageously their destitution, their faith and their unsuspected greatness.” So, from 1989 to 2009, it was the evangelist and the storyteller who raised the bridge under our feet: two men of the Word…

Have we been right around the world? Almost… whence springs the question: how many kilometres, hectares, years and men are contained in this “almost”?

Who can say?