Rovinj-Rovigno, you plan to visit or maybe you’ve already visited is every day a new experience for me. Feelings it awakes are so vivid. Listening to local songs, so many emotions, memories, nostalgia and life in each verse telling about past life, about hard work, fishermen swirled in the storm, farmers praying for rain. Nevertheless, when they would come home love for the song and for life would prevail over hardship. And they would sit on stone stairs which are located in every corner of the old town and sing, sing the old songs of Rovigno.
Once, when I lused to live my life with my senses closed, always hurrying, running after money and pretending to be happy with futile experiences, I couldn’t hear the music although I was listening to it. I could not really feel the scent of a breeze nor a bird’s song. I heard it but I couldn’t connect with it. Oh, how thankful I am now, now that I can stop, stop and hear the song sung by cobble stone, or by birds nesting under old roofs, songs which bring back a scent from the past. I can also hear the story of a turtle, of wooden, almost forgotten Batana boats and worn out ropes which have resisted many wild winds and storms. These feelings make permeate me creating new stories to be to told.
There are still so many types of songs alive in Rovinj-Rovigno, each of them reminding of something we all can perceive no matter which language we speak nor which part of the world we come from. Music is melancholy, love, joy and sadness, music is past and present, music is true. Let’s mention maybe the most popular type of singing preserved until our time, called “bitinade“. They were created by fishermen in Rovigno, long time ago. Their hands used to be always busy and sticky with sea water and algae, so they couldn’t afford a guitar or a flute. Their urge to sing was natural and strong, so they imitated instruments with their voices producing the back sound rhythm. A singer would complete this performance with singing the words. This form of singing is recognized as intangible heritage today.
Besides “bitinade“, there are also songs called “arie da nuoto” in the local italian dialect. These were and are very popular because sung at night and usually under a beloved window. Another type of songs were “Arie da contrada“, sung by men and women in the streets and fields. Already in 1878 Rovinj had a concert band and even earlier a music school. There were also ecclesiastic choirs and music mixed with the popular one. Besides the tradition of popular music, Rovinj also had operette and lyric music performed in the local theatre but also in the streets occasionaly. Some of composers and musicians made arich career in Italy later and became ambasadors for the heritage from Rovigno.
