Following recent inaccuracies both in the press and in public statements, I wish to clarify a few points regarding the Parata, Malta's carnival sword dance.
We now know that sword dances were performed in Malta by both the Knights of St John as well as by groups of Maltese men. It is so far not certain whether the knights introduced this type of dance to the islands when they arrived in the 16th century or whether the Maltese were already performing sword dances prior to this. A group of knights certainly performed one such dance in 1564 (before the Great Siege) in Marseilles, for the young Charles IX and his mother, Caterina de Medici, following a request to be shown "the type of dancing which took place in Malta".
The first description we have of the sword dance performed by a company of Maltese men comes from a well-known travel book by the Count of Saint-Priest, published in 1791, which does not make any mention at all of the dance being a commemoration of the Great Siege.
As for the music accompanying the Parata, probably it was originally a rhythmic, percussive sound, without any melody. The first melodies we do know of were published by the Welsh harpist Edward Jones in the early 19th century. One of these was A Military Dance, which formed part of Maltese Melodies (1807). This was discovered in 1986 by Godfrey Wettinger in the Bodleian Library, and not by Steve Borg 14 years later. A second melody, A Maltese Pyrric Dance, appeared in Edward Jones's Terpsichore's Banquet (1813), and was discovered by the undersigned in the British Library. Both were subsequently published in my book A Musical Legacy (2002).
There were other Parata melodies over the years. Among them, one published in 1946 by Sibella Bonham-Carter, and another known as Ta' l-Gharbija, which was still being played on the flejguta up to the 1960s by Anglu
Zammit, better known as Il-Hahaj. These melodies have all been recorded by the Gukulari Ensemble, in Malta's Musical Legacy, and in their latest release, Doqqli Daqqa!
The Parata is a very old dance made up of a number of figurations and containing the symbolism typical of spring dances. It is a very precious part of our cultural heritage. The public deserves to be given the correct information.