The music for cobla

but with innovating projects such as the Simfònica de Cobla i Corda de Catalunya. Click the pix for a video, and here for some texts.

From the most traditional and paradigmatic: Cobla La Principal de la Bisbal

to the newest and inusual: Cobla La Principal d'Amsterdam

and even unorthodox: cobla' instruments combined with voices, traditional percussion and electronic bases at La Principal de la nit

Introduction

The cobla is an instrumental group of 11 musicians, popular in Catalonia, which provide the music for the sardanes, a popular dance in the region and, to a lesser extend, for symphonic concert music not attached to any dance.

It consist of 2 treble shawms (tible), 2 tenor shawms (tenora), 1 one-handed small recorder (flabiol) coupled with a small drum (tamborí) sounded by the same player, 2 trumpets (trompeta) , 1 valve trombone (trombó), 2 flugelhorns (fiscorns), and 1 string bass (contrabaix), a disposition which has remained unchanged for almost 150 years.

Although I started practicing the piano at the age of 10 or 11, it was not till later, when I was 17, that I really felt "attached" to music, and this was when I started to write music, first for piano, then chamber music, and very soon, for cobla.

My sardana compositions from my youth years

I was then dancing in one group of young people who met regularly to dance to the music of sardanes and it was quite natural to start writting sardanes, with the indinpensable help of the "Tractat d'instrumentació per a cobla" (cobla instrumentation treatise) by Joaquim Serra. The pitty is that the performing level of the majority of coblas was very poor and didn't rehearse at all (at least, the ones to which I had access), and regarding my compositions, they were performed in precarious conditions. Soon I stopped writting for cobla and started activities in the world of choirs. But from that time 4 sardanes survived, which I now reviewed extensively and at the same time could listen to some of them in better conditions.

I include here some technical data from the 4 sardanas composed at that age, between 1963 and 1965.

Sant Llorenç del Munt

In 2004 I had the opportunity to premiere one sardana of mine, during a concert devoted to music for cobla, namely a cantata written for children choir and cobla, "Cada castell una flama" (Each castle is a flame, on the subject of human castles or towers, so popular in Catalonia), text by Olga Xirinachs and music by Jordi Molina, which sang a group of 5 children choirs from the area of Tarragona, and therefore my sardana was performed in five occasions, on each of the 5 towns of the 5 choirs.

For the occasion I chose a sardana that I wrote in 1964 but had been never premiered. I reviewed it extensively, which resulted in more bars, new harmonies, and even a new title, "Sant Llorenç del Munt".

In the five occasions it was played by the Cobla Mediterrània, which rendered a magnificent performance, as you will see below.

The other 3 sardanas

I have reviewed my three other sardanas as well, however they have not been premiered yet.

In May 2005, the cobla of students in ESMUC, at that time conducted by Jordi León, played, in the course of a rehearsal, a couple more of my works: "El darrer plor", and "Margarida". And they sounded quite good having into account they played them at first sight!

"El darrer plor" has remained unchanged since that rehearsal (save for a few minor changes), but "Margarida" has got a more extensice facelift, therefore in the audio recording files below, you will find "El darrer plor" as played by the students's cobla, but the "Margarida" audio file is a recording with electronic sound coming from a Finale file. The same is true for the audio for "A una donzella".

Recordings and scores

The latest sardana I have written

In the year 2008 I wrote a work in three movements for gralla (shawm) and organ which I called "Suite Mediterrània" [click here for additional information], and now that I started to do a new version for cobla, I am rewritting and expanding it.
The first movement of the original work was already entitled "Sardana", and the new version for cobla will allow to play it as a complete "Suite", or only the sardana part as an independent composition called Mediterrània, which is the way it is presented here.

A curiosity about this work, is that it made me work on several additional things, as I explain in the e-mail attached here.

Sardana: General information

Page on the history of the sardana, and its present day situation.

An historical and critical look at Pep Ventura, considered "the father of the sardana". Article which appeared in the "Revista Musical Catalana" of July-August 2008.

An historical and critical look at Juli Garreta, considered "a genious of the sardana". Article which appeared in the "Revista Musical Catalana" of July-August 2008.

A research work of mine, whose title in its english translation would be The music of Juli Garreta, with a special emphasis on its orchestral music and, in particular, in its Suite en sol which, apart from what its title says, presents as well a general study on the life and works of this composer, which I wrote and presented to ESMUC in 2007, as a research work at the end of my studies.

Sardana and Cobla are no longer equivalents: this is the subject brought by the article which appeared in the "Revista Musical Catalana" of September 2008, The cobla-sardana pairing.

Another page on the sardana, from the Federació Sardanista.

And another page with varied information about the sardana, named
Boig per la sardana (crazy for the sardana).

And still another one about musical instruments, made by Roger Sellart, musician and teacher. This link directs you to the chapter on
The cobla and the sardana.

La Cobla.cat, A Webpage with informations, news, videos, and other activities related to our Coblas. Also with links to many of our Coblas's webpages.

Músics per la Cobla's webpage, with a goal to preserve and spread the catalan music, and specially, the music for Cobla.

Web page of Nydia, the TV broadcasted program of Canal 33, by TVC (Catalunya).