Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1369939
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 9 MAY 2021 5 CULTURE Malta's Lost Voices songbook published by Filfla Records DRIVEN by the international gramophone industry and the impetus to produce records of Maltese music, local shop agents engaged the island's finest com- posers, songwriters, comic art- ists and folk singers to write original music to be recorded on disc. This resulted in over 160 records of music being produced between the years 1931 and 32. The music they produced included lyrical songs, com- ic songs and story telling as well as traditional folk-chant known, 'għana'. The popular- ity of these songs on records published in the interwar pe- riod was a social phenomenon at the time. Finally, the Maltese who had access to playback machines and could enjoy local music and dance in the privacy of their own homes. Filfla Records proudly pre- sents the release and publi- cation of 'Malta's Lost Voices Songbooks' a series of three songbooks, with musical tran- scriptions of songs selected form the Lost Voices collection of songs.The music transcribed for this book showcases the musical styles popular on the island at the time. Intended for music education students as well as the general public, the book includes transcrip- tions for voice and piano by Alexander Vella Gregory, tran- scriptions for guitar and voice by the author, and concept and design by Andrej Vujicic. Accompanying the music scores are photo-illustrations and anecdotes based on the author's research and related to the musicians and the styles featured. The original audio transfers of the thirty songs found in the series are acces- sible online through the Filfla Records Bandcamp link pro- vided. More writers to benefit from remuneration for their books THE National Book Council (NBC) is happy to announce that the Public Lending Rights (PLR) scheme has been extend- ed to a wider circle of authors, editors, translators, illustrators and photographers of books published in Malta. This is the result of an im- portant agreement reached with the University of Malta. Authors, editors, translators, illustrators and photographers whose books with a Maltese IS- BN are borrowed from the Li- brary of the University of Malta will now be remunerated each and every time their book is borrowed. The NBC invites all those who are not currently registered in the scheme to do so by follow- ing this link. The NBC regards this as another step towards the financial independence as a writer. The Public Lending Rights remuneration scheme was in- troduced by the National Book Council in 2015 for those au- thors, editors, translators, il- lustrators and photographers whose books are borrowed from all public libraries in Mal- ta and Gozo. PLR remuneration applies for both printed and e-books.