Tenore de Orosei

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

Tenore de Orosei is a vocal group from the village of Orosei in Sardinia. The group sings in the tradition of the cantu a tenore, a polyphonic folk singing that is characteristic of the island, especially of the Barbagia region. The UNESCO committee recognised that singing style in 2005 as intangible cultural heritage. The Tenore de Orosei is known as one of the best-known groups performing this style.

Music and breakthrough

Four men stand in a tight circle and each has a role of his own. The boche sings the solo and delivers a poem in Sardinian; the mesu boche, the contra and the bassu form the chorus. That chorus sings no words, but sounds such as bim-bam-bom. The bassu sings the same note as the solo voice, the contra a fifth above it. The contra and the bassu use a special throat technique for this, so that a deep, rough sound arises. Each village sings it in its own way, so that you can hear from the sound where a group comes from.

Influence

The 1998 recording in School of Rock, Cara Cantu Ser Bella, is made in the style called voce seria. Such singing shows that a four-part choir without instruments can create a sound world of its own, one that lies far from pop and rock but still belongs to the same history of singing.

Listening

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  Cara Cantu Ser Bella (Voce seria) · Tenore de Orosei, 1998