Music of Catalonia
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Catalan / Valencian cultural domain |
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The music of Catalonia comprises one of the oldest documented musical traditions in Europe.[citation needed] In tandem with the rest of Western Europe, it has a long musical tradition, incorporating a number of different styles and genres over the past two thousand years.[citation needed]
History
Among the earliest references to music from Catalonia date to the Middle Ages, when Barcelona and the surrounding area were relatively prosperous, allowing both music and arts to be cultivated actively. Catalonia and adjacent areas were the home for several troubadours, the itinerant composer-musicians whose influence and aesthetics was decisive on the formation of late medieval secular music, and who traveled into Italy and Northern France after the destruction of Occitan culture by the Albigensian Crusade in the early 13th century. The so-called Llibre Vermell de Montserrat ("Red Book of Montserrat") stands as an important source for 14th-century music.
Performances of opera, mostly imported from Italy, began in the 18th century, but some native operas were written as well, including three by
20th century
Around the beginning of the 20th century, two Catalan composers—
A tradition of Catalan
Folk and popular music
Originally from northern areas of Catalonia, Sardanes are popular dances, and were especially widespread at the end of the 19th century. Currently, two main types, the original sardana curta (short sardana) style and more modern sardana llarga (long sardana), are generally performed. While music is performed by a cobla musical group, sardanes are danced in a circle dance. Other less common sardanes include the sardana de lluïment and the sardana revessa.
The cobla itself is an 11-piece band, that includes genuine folk instruments such as the
which are also used in other regions of Spain. Coblas also frequently play as concert bands without the dance.Other popular music are the ball de bastons (stick dances), galops, espunyolets, ball de panderetes, ball de gitanes and the music of gralla (music) (a kind of Catalan shawm)and drums used in cercaviles or by colles diableres, etc.
Catalan music incorporates a number of unique instruments, including the flabiol, a type of pipe woodwind, tambori, a small drum, and the guitarra de canya, a xylophone-like instrument made of bones or reeds that is suspended from the musician's neck.
In areas around the river
is a popular dance.Sung in both
In the last half century, the
During the end of the
In the last 20 years, rock and roll has become popular, and a Catalan scene called rock català has appeared. Some very popular groups are Lax'n'Busto, Sau, Els Pets or Sopa de Cabra.[1] and more recently, groups such as Doctor Prats[2] and Buhos[3]
In the wake of Mano Negra and Manu Chao's success, Catalonia has also produced a number of popular fusion and world music bands, such as Dusminguet or Cheb Balowski. Ojos de Brujo, a band from Barcelona merging traditional flamenco with hip-hop, has also become popular.
Contemporary music sung in Catalan has been relatively successful, and includes music in genres such as pop (Antònia Font, Manel, Els Amics de les Arts, Mishima, Sanjosex) and hip-hop (At Versaris, Guillamino).
References
- ^ Montserrat, Galeano Haba; Josep, Recoder, Maria (1 January 2016). "Historia de la prensa musical especializada en rock en Cataluña (1985–2015)" (in Catalan).
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(help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ "Els terrassencs Doctor Prats fan el seu primer concert en directe a Faktoria" [The Terrassan group Doctor Prats give their first live concert in Faktoria], terrassadigital.cat (in Catalan), archived from the original on 19 September 2016, retrieved 19 March 2020
- ^ Radio 4; RTVE.es (1 March 2017). "Premi Disc Català de l'any 2016 | 'Lluna plena' del grup Buhos, premi 'Disc Català de l'Any' de Ràdio 4" [Catalan Album Award of the year 2016 | 'Lluna plena' ('Full Moon') by the group 'Buhos']. RTVE (in Catalan). Retrieved 30 September 2019.
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Further reading
- "Spain", in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie. 20 vol. London, Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 1980. ISBN 1-56159-174-2