The dances and music, explained
Il-Maltija, għana and the żaqq: Maltese folk dance and music for first-timers
What the folklore troupe's costumed dance draws on, what strolling mandolins and guitars have to do with Maltese tradition, and the older instruments — like the nearly-vanished żaqq bagpipe — that once carried this music before them.
See folklore night tickets on GetYourGuide ↗Malta's folk tradition, at a glance
| Tradition | What it is | Where you'll meet it |
|---|---|---|
| Il-Maltija | Malta's national country dance, in period dress | Folk shows and national celebrations |
| Għana | Traditional Maltese folk singing | Village festas, informal gatherings |
| Żaqq | A near-extinct Maltese bagpipe | Revival ensembles only today |
| Mandolin & guitar | The strolling accompaniment at Ta' Marija | Folklore dinner nights |
Il-Maltija: Malta's national dance
The dance most associated with Maltese folklore performances is il-Maltija — a country dance, or kuntradanza, that has come to be regarded as Malta's national dance. Its history is genuinely tangled: the folklorist Ġużè Cassar Pullicino traced a period in the 1820s when it was fashionable among Malta's high society before falling out of favour there and surviving mainly among ordinary people. A standard score wasn't published until 1952, by Baron Sceberras D'Amico Inguanez, and the dance had a prominent place at Malta's independence celebrations in 1964 — the same year Ta' Marija opened its doors. Dancers today perform it in costume representing eighteenth-century dress, which is exactly the register the folklore troupe at Ta' Marija works in.
Għana: the older singing tradition underneath it all
Għana is Malta's traditional folk singing, built on a distinctive, tightly-controlled vocal style rather than the more open singing most visitors expect from folk music. Its most commonly heard living form, spirtu pront, is an improvised rhyming contest between four or six singers — għannejja — accompanied by guitar, closer to a verbal duel set to music than a rehearsed song. It's a separate tradition from the costumed dance performance, rooted more in village festas and informal gatherings than staged dinner shows, but it's the same broad folk culture the evening sits inside.
The żaqq: an instrument that nearly disappeared
Before the accordion took over in the early twentieth century, Maltese folk music was carried by the żaqq, a bagpipe traditionally made from calf pelt, cane and animal horn. Its decline was sharp and recent enough to be well documented: by 1977 only nine traditional pipers were left on the island, daily use had ended by the 1970s, and the last widely known player, Toni 'il-Ħammarun' Cachia, died in 2004. It survives today mainly through small revival ensembles working to keep the instrument's sound and technique alive, rather than as a working tradition — worth knowing precisely because you're unlikely to hear one on an ordinary night out, folklore dinner included.
What you'll actually hear at Ta' Marija
The folklore night itself is built around strolling mandolin and guitar rather than the older, rarer instruments above — a lighter, more portable accompaniment that suits musicians moving between tables through a three-hour dinner service. It's the folk tradition in its more accessible, still-living form rather than a museum-piece reconstruction, which is a reasonable trade-off for an evening built to entertain a full dining room rather than stage a folk-revival concert.
Why the history is worth knowing before you go
None of this changes what happens at the table, but it changes how you watch it. A costumed dance built on a tradition that was genuinely fashionable, then genuinely at risk of disappearing, and now performed nightly for visitors reads differently once you know the gaps in the story — why a national dance needed a formal score as late as 1952, and why the instrument that once defined Maltese folk music now survives mostly in revival groups rather than restaurants.