BENJAMIN MELIA

Modern practice of the traditional fife
April 7 to 9, 2025

OBJECTIVES

Learn and perfect the modern art of playing the traditional fife.

PEDAGOGICAL CONTENT

This master class invites you to broaden your expressive palette to sculpt your artistic uniqueness.
To do this, we will look at :

  • The style of playing associated with the repertoires covered;
  • Ethnic ornaments such as rappel, picotage, finger-strokes, etc.
  • The different detachments;
  • The voice/fifre playing style;
  • Fifre/Human Beat Box combination technique;
  • Harmonics ;
  • glissandos and fingering
  • Hole percussion ;
  • Tongue-ram ;
  • Micro-intervals;
  • Circular breathing will be covered a little each day to get the right gestures under way … etc.

TIMETABLE: 10.00 am – 1.00 pm // 2.00 pm – 4.00 pm

REPERTOIRE

The above lessons will be re-invested in traditional tunes from the Pays d’Oc or in free or guided improvisation.
For the most part, we’ll be tackling the occasional tunes from the ‘Festo-Dieu’ in Aix-en-Provence (arranged by B. Melia), with the appropriate ornaments, variations and articulations.

  • Reino saba
  • Chivau Fru
  • Air dei danzaire II
  • Air du Guet
  • Air du Lieutenant du Prince
  • Passado

Source: This repertoire was collected by the Aix Tambourinaïre François Vidal for the book ‘Lou Tambourin’ in 1862. This corpus is still played by traditional musicians in Provence.

CONDITIONS OF PARTICIPATION

  • Minimum age: 15
  • Open to fife players (piccolo or transverse flute players may also join);
  • Recommended instrument: Fifre Ré from PO-Ginestière in wood or PVC (https://www.fifres.eu), from Cadeillan, from Leroy, those in aluminium from Coulon Duffy…;
    Minimum level: mastery of embouchure over two octaves. End of Cycle 2 and Cycle 3 at a conservatoire.

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BIOGRAPHY

Benjamin Melia began his artistic career playing in the streets at village festivals in Provence. He rounded off his training with studies at the conservatoire, seminal encounters (with Yves Rousguisto, Robert LLorca, etc.) and a taste for reading. He sees himself as the bearer of a musical gesture that shifts the imagination of Provence towards a wider cartography. Avoiding any kind of identity-based withdrawal, he claims an open and dialectic tradition, an antidote to the ‘postcard’.

An activist for cultural rights and a renowned soloist, he gives over 40 concerts a year, as well as lectures and master classes in France and abroad.

Benjamin Melia is a winner of the Concours de Professeur d’Enseignement Artistique, and holds a Diplôme d’Etat in traditional music and a Diplôme Universitaire de Musicien Intervenant. He regularly serves as a juror for examinations and administrative competitions.

> Current status of his musical commitment (selection):

Benjamin Melia has created original works by composers JM.Bossini, G.Garcin, S.Nicolay, A.Markeas, M.Montanaro, P.Vaillant, and Régis Campo for a work (planned for 2024) intended for a galoubet-tambourin ensemble and the Orchestre National de Cannes conducted by Benjamin Levy.

Guest soloist for Manu Theron’s creation of ‘Tramuntana’ for the ‘Festival Berlioz’, he is regularly invited to perform Henri Tomasi’s ‘12 Noëls de Saboly’ and ‘Messe de la Nativité’, notably by the Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice and the Capitole de Toulouse.

An occasional lecturer in ethnomusicology at the University of Nice-Côte d’Azur, he curated the ‘Musique du Pays Niçois’ exhibition for the Conseil Départemental 06 and the Corou de Berra association. He took part in research work as part of the renovation of the Musée Départemental d’Ethnographie du 13. He recorded Provençal instruments for the museum’s sound library and display cases.

He composed and performed in the show ‘L’ambition d’être tendre’ by choreographer Christophe Garcia. With over 100 performances throughout France, the show was selected and performed at the ‘Chainon Manquant’ Festival and awarded an ‘Audience Prize’ at the Festival Off d’Avignon.

France Musique devoted a video clip to the show as part of its ‘les instruments, mode d’emploi’ collection, as well as a programme entitled ‘Couleur de Monde’ presented by Françoise Degeorges.

> As artistic director of the Bélouga Quartet:

  • Commissioned 4 works for galoubet-tambourine ensemble with the support of the Sud region and the ‘Chantier des nouvelles musiques traditionnelles’;
  • Recording of the album ‘Belouga Quartet’, distributed internationally by ‘Buda Records’ and awarded a ‘Coup de coeur’ by the Charles Cros Academy.
  • Creation of the show ‘Pan’ directed by Philippe Berling in partnership with the national stage of the Théâtre Liberté in Toulon and the Théâtre du Pôle Inter Contemporain in Marseille;
  • Creation of Alexandros Markeas for large ensemble of Galoubet-Tambourin in partnership with the GMEM of Marseille and the ‘Chantier’.

Benjamin Melia teaches at the IESM in Aix-en-Provence and is artistic director of the Festival-Provence/Saint-Pierre in his home town of Saint-Raphaël.

Benjamin Melia on the fife

Un noël provençal « Turerelure »
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/7cc4FlFINP0
Festo Dieu
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/3dY0KuI-494
Balet
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/cwSB5-X9JRg