The traditional music of this weekend's carnival parata dance has been revived for the first time in many years with pieces composed by Ruben Zahra.

The parata is a Maltese sword dance, performed at the opening of carnival and commemorates the victory of the Knights of the Order of St John over the Ottoman Turks.

About 30 scouts of the Hamrun group were yesterday rehearsing in Freedom Square, Valletta, under the direction and choreography of Vince Zahra.

The Malta Council for Culture and the Arts (MCCA) commissioned Mr Zahra to revise the music that was discovered in a collection of transcriptions entitled Maltese Melodies, or national airs and dances.

This anthology was published in 1807 by Edward Jones, the harp master and bard to the Prince of Wales. A Maltese identified these melodies in 1999 at Kings College University, London and made them public in 2000.

The 10th melody from this collection is entitled A Military Dance and the score is accompanied by the following postscript: "At some festivals, it is usual to see groups of Maltese dressed in white, decorated with ribbons and each of them armed with a sword and small shield: these men to the sound of the Pyrric Dance, act a kind of mock battle..."

"It is quite evident that the annotation refers to the parata. We have an indication of the music that accompanies the dance in the early 19th century or maybe even earlier. Ivo Muscat Azzopardi gives a detailed account of the choreography in a short article, which appeared in the literary journal Il-Malti in 1952," Ruben Zahra said.

The MCCA's executive director, Paul Mifsud, said the council was working to step up the profile of traditional music and dance and its status in the island's history and culture.

"For this reason we are presenting an authentic piece of heritage, restored and revised for the contemporary audience," he said. Ruben Zahra's arrangement of the parata is set for viola, accordion, guitar, tuba, tanbur and zafzafa.

The parata will be performed during the children's carnival activities on Saturday at 9.30 a.m. and during the carnival show on Sunday at 2.30 p.m. Tickets can be obtained from the booth at Freedom Square, opposite the Malta Tourism Authority's information office, from today between 9 a.m. and noon and 4-7 p.m.

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