The music for cobla

From the most traditional: 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 electròniques a 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) and small drum (tamborí), 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. 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, in better conditions.

Sant Llorenç del Munt

In 2004 I had the opportunity to premiere one sardana of mine in 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) text by Olga Xirinachs and music by Jordi Molina, which sang a group of 5 children choirs from the area of Tarragona, and was performed on 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 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

Sardana: General information

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

Another page on the sardana, from the Federació Sardanista.

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