Music, wrote George Bernard Shaw, is the brandy of the damned. Sounds clever but it is unsure whether Shaw ever saw any damned boozing on aquavit.

Music does not pigeon-hole easily – the highly intellectualised ‘classical’ music, from antique to contemporary, sits at one extreme  and the ‘popular’ genres on the other, with a thousand shades, including opera, in between.

A village band in the 1920s. All are wearing hats.

This feature showcases un­ashamedly the most popular end of the spectrum – music with few pretences, except those of giving equal pleasure to the listeners and to the performers.

A septet of British musicians in Malta in the 1930s. Photo: Hammet

The Boys’ Brigade in their uniforms in the 1930s.

A children’s jazz band in Malta in the 1930s. Photo: J. Fenech & Sons

Musical events prove popular in pre-war Malta – every occasion seems to have been right to bring your mandolin, or guitar or accordion with you, be it the village festa, a ġita on Comino or a family reunion.

The terramaxka – chitarra magica – was a common scene in pre-war towns and villages in Malta.

Crowding round the street barrel organ (for colourful reasons called terramaxka – chitarra magica, magic guitar) was an everyday sight.  

No strata of the population lacked performers. Girls of the upwardly mobile classes were expected to learn ballet, the piano or the violin. 

The King’s Own Band, possibly on a visit to North Africa in the 1920s.

A picnic in 1920s Comino, with musical accompaniment. Photo: Mikiel Farrugia

The Pinto Band from Qormi taking part in carnival in the 1930s.

The burgeoning band clubs in towns and villages taught wind, brass and percussion instruments to anyone interested. Regiments and large warships had their band, and so had some schools, like the Salesians Boy’s Brigade.

"The street barrel organ was an everyday sight"

The sailors band from HMS Caradoc performing in Grand Harbour in the 1920s.

The repertoire favoured by the locals varied from Viennese waltzes and polkas to Neapolitan songs, from easy transcriptions of catchy Italian operatic arias to naughty operetta tunes. The British in Malta preferred taking inspiration from American compositions for the masses – jazz, Charleston, boogie, the blues, though in pre-war years, British officers and residents frequented the Royal Opera House to rave and swoon over Puccini, Verdi, Bizet and Mascagni as assiduously as the Maltese bourgeoisie.

A jazz ensemble in Malta. The swastika on the drum indicates that the photo was taken before 1932, when the Nazis came to power in Germany.