The Renaissance of the Corsican Confraternities and their Musical Negotiations

This chapter explores the revitalisation of the Corsican confraternities (Roman Catholic lay brotherhoods) in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. I focus in particular on the polyphonic song repertories that the brotherhoods have preserved through the centuries and that remain central to their identity today. I begin with a brief history of the confraternities in Corsica, with particular reference to changes in their status in relation to the church authorities, their musical practices, and their broader social and political function. I then examine the reasons behind their recent revival and, with the aid of a selection of short case studies, describe the processes involved in reintroducing the confraternities into the life of both church and community and reacquiring semi-forgotten musical repertories. The confraternities have always preserved a degree of autonomy vis-à-vis the ecclesiastical authorities and in the 1990s and early 2000s this was exercised most keenly in contests over musical style. I examine the dynamics of the various oppositions—aesthetic, ideological, linguistic, and gender-related—that the confraternities have had to engage with as they have sought to redefine their position in the soundscape of the contemporary church.