New video! Aisling Miller plays S’acabbadòra – Francesco Morittu

Recorded at the Lakenmetershuis, Ghent, March 13th, 2020.

Aisling was going to play as a supporting act for the Baltic Guitar Quartet, but unfortunately we had to cancel this concert due to Covid 19 – regulations.

Aisling won first prize with this video performance (unedited version) at the 2020 Baltic Guitar Festival online Guitar competition (group C) during the Covid 19 pandemic.

Guitar by Andreas Kirschner

Recording by Yannick Van Loo, Willem Rosiers and Koen Caspeele
Audio & videoediting by Koen Caspeele

Special thanks to: Willem Rosiers Fotografie – willemrosiers.com
Rombaux Muziekhandel Brugge – rombaux.be

The Piece

0:00 – I Presagio
1:12 – II Sa mazzòcca
3:34 – III Sonus ‘e momoria
5:23 – IV Danza de is animas bias

S’acabbadòra is Sardinian for “she who ends”, but a better translation is woman of death, a common woman acting secretly from religion. The piece tells the tale of a man nearing death. He will soon be visited by the woman of death who frees terminally ill from their suffering… According to the legend, there used to be one in each village of Sardinia until about 20 years ago. It was an age-old tradition of euthanasia.

The piece is written in four parts, each describing a phase of the work of the s’acabbadòra. It is written from the perspective of the dying man. He knows his family will soon call the acabbadòra to set him free from his suffering and pains.

In part one, the omen, the sick person waits fearfully in his empty room for the woman of death to enter in the middle of the night.

Part two is the wooden hammer… The woman finally comes. The sufferer fights against her hammer, but is of course too weak to defend himself and dies.

In the third part we hear sounds from his memory. During his last moments the sounds of launeddas that he has known since his childhood resound in his mind, like a dream.

These sounds become reality from out his window as the villagers gather outside in a round dance accompanied by a launeddas player. Once again life and death hold hands in a round dance that will never end.