Nuorese Cultural DistrictFrancesco Ganga Cucca (b. 25 March 1897, Nuoro–d. 1 December 1924, Nuoro) was a teacher, painter and musician.
Francesco Ganga Cucca ‘Maestro Predischedda’
Description
The life of Francesco Ganga Cucca is wrapped in myth and legend.
A teacher by trade, he was known as ‘Maestro Predischedda’ and it would seem that the Sardinian nickname ‘Predischedda’ (in Italian ‘Pietruzza’, meaning ‘pebble’) referred to his practice of making unruly students kneel on little stones.
Despite his unconventional teaching method, Ganga Cucca enjoyed a certain social esteem.
Some of his students went on to enjoy success, like the painter Carmelo Floris, whose artistic talent was noted and encouraged by the teacher.
Salvatore Satta immortalised Ganga Cucca with a vivid description in his novel The Day of Judgment (1977), in which the teacher appears as ‘Maestro Manca, known as Pedduzza’. This affectionate portrait portrays a man who combines a passion for drinking with the virtues of culture, and the teasing of the regulars at Caffè Tettamanzi gets muddled with the admiration of the students who listen rapt as he plays his guitar in class.
Unfortunately, little of his production has escaped oblivion. Among what survives we find the song ‘Zia Tatana Faragone’ (Aunt Tatana Faragone), a hymn to wine known for its popular incipit, ‘Sa bida la professo / Chin d'una dimizzana’, and the ‘Omaggio all'Albergo Savoia di Nuoro’ (homage to Nuoro’s Savoy Hotel), which calls to mind the ‘Trionfo di Bacco e Arianna’ written by Lorenzo de’ Medici, known as Lorenzo the Magnificent, in the late fifteenth century.
Ganga Cucca was also one of the founders of the Nuoro Carnival, for which he would dress up in an oversized loden coat cinched at the waist with a cord in imitation of a monk wearing a habit.
Last but not least, he was a music lover, playing guitar and violin and composing serenades, dance tunes and even funeral marches, like the one played by the Nuoro Philharmonic and conducted by Peppino Rachel at his own funeral. This episode is testimony to not just his eccentric, unconventional personality but also his self-parody and ability to face all the vicissitudes of life with epicurean lightness.