City Narratives in Music: Creating musical works that reflect urban realities relating to Valletta

Urban narratives can be preserved, investigated, and extended through musical composition. This research demonstrates that cities like Valletta are not merely collections of spaces but the sum of their narratives—personal, communal, and historical—which face threats from gentrification, demographic displacement, and property speculation. By combining documentary sources, interviews, and fieldwork, the study created three distinct musical works: a piano concerto exploring physical city space as both result and catalyst for human activity; a symphony integrating identity, community ritual, folklore, and football; and an antiphonary work examining Valletta's spiritual dimension through sacred musical forms. These compositions reflect broader global urban challenges while remaining deeply rooted in local cultural contexts.

Vella Gregory, A. (2019). City Narratives in Music: Creating musical works that reflect urban realities relating to Valletta [Edinburgh Napier University]. https://doi.org/10.17869/ENU.2090688