Dictionary

cantu a tenore en · NOUN

Etymology

Borrowed from Sardinian cantu a tenòre (literally “singing a tenore”).

Meanings

1. (uncountable) A style of a capella vocal music native to Sardinia featuring a quartet of men singing a four-part harmony, and is characteristic for its use of throat singing.
   • If ever music could encapsulate the spirit of Sardinia’s rugged mountains and pastoral landscapes, it is canto a tenore. It is performed by a four-part male choir, the tenores, made up of sa oghe (the soloist and lead voice), su bassu (bass), sa contra (contralto) and sa mesu oghe (countertenor).[…]Canto a tenore is most popular in the centre and north of the island, with the best-known groups coming from the Barbagia region. 2022 July 7, Alexis Averbuck, Duncan Garwood, Gregor Clark, Lonely Planet Sardinia, Lonely Planet, →ISBN, page 418:
   • Zappa had been “astonished” by the recordings of the cantu a tenore, the chilling polyphonic singing quartets fashioned traditionally by shepherds. UNESCO enshrined the vocal skills and ancient songs as part of the “intangible cultural heritage of humanity.” 2023 May 23, Jeff Biggers, In Sardinia: An Unexpected Journey in Italy, Melville House, →ISBN, page 25:
   • Cantu a tenore (Canto a tenore in Italian) is a type of localized, multipart singing based on chords that is found in areas of the island of Sardinia (Macchiarella 2008).[…]The Sardinian term cantu a tenore describes the local variants practised in some 80 villages of the centre-north of the island;[…]On 25 November 2005 Unesco included the Canto a tenore in the Third ‘Proclamation of Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity’. 2017 October 5, David Horn, John Shepherd, Paolo Prato, Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World, volume 11, Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 741:

Forms

wikipedia: Tenores di Bitti