Su Tenore de Ollolai

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Su Tenore de Ollolai is a vocal group from Ollolai, a village in Sardinia. The island lies in the Mediterranean, west of the Italian mainland and south of Corsica. It has its own language, Sardinian, which is protected alongside Italian. Because of this location and the mountainous interior, old customs were preserved in Sardinia, in music too. The group sings in the tradition of polyphonic male singing, which in Sardinian is called cantu a tenore.

Music and breakthrough

In School of Rock the group features with Arvure Ch'est Fozida, recorded in 1981. It is an example of music without instruments, in which everything revolves around voices that together form a single sound. Such singing is not pop music in the ordinary sense. It belongs to the community in which it is sung, to festivities and to the village itself, and not to the hit parades.

Influence

Precisely for that reason it is important for anyone who wants to understand the history of pop music. It shows that rhythm, harmony and group singing are far older than the studio and the electric guitar. Anyone who later listens to world music, or to pop musicians who sought their inspiration far outside America and England, sooner or later meets sounds from such traditions. The 1981 recording makes that audible without words.

Listening

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  Arvure Ch'est Fozida (Cantu a boghe 'e note) · Su Tenore de Ollolai, 1981