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  • "Les Fêtes"

In "Les Fêtes" (Souvenir de Puigcerda) Séverac records his impression of the Festa de l'Estany, initiated at the end of the 19th century by the Catalan bourgeoisie in Puigcerdà[i]. Throughout this piece, I launch tracks with sounds that are currently part of this popular party, recorded by me in the 2022 edition. Listening to the current sounds of the Festa de l'Estany was the initial and definitive idea for this issue. This allows us to know the different traditions that have been incorporated into the party and how it has changed.

 

In this number, in my opinion, there is no clear incursion of the sardana in the introduction, but not of the cobla. It would be performed by the tible and the tenora doubling the melody an octave apart, very free, very ornamented and with resting points indicated with fermatas (Ex. 5) [ii].

Ejemplo 5. “Les Fêtes”, c. 1.Fuente: Séverac, Déodat de. Cerdaña: etudes pittoresques pour Piano. París: Rouart-Lerolle & cie, 1919, 20.

Before starting my performance, the speech with which the mayor of Puigcerdà, Albert Piñeira, gave the starting signal for the Festa de l'Estany of 2022 is heard, to put in situation the number. After the fermata of the first bar, the grallers (a Catalan popular music ensemble) intervene, who lead the current parade together with the giants (Ex. 5 and min. 0:54).

 

As we can read in the press, the Festa de l'Estany in those years consisted, among others, in the exhibition of colored lanterns and some of them were of Asian aesthetics (Mercadal Fernández and Quílez Castro 2016, 130 and 154). The first theme for me refers to this visual experience and not to the sardana as Pierre Guillot points out (Ex. 6 and min. 1:39) (Guillot 2010, 177). The second part of this theme would be the trumpets and drums, of which there is also reference in the press (Ex. 6 and min. 1:44) (Mercadal Fernández and Quílez Castro 2016, 127). Before this exotic theme, a track with South American music enters as a symbol of the multiculturalism that is currently part of the party. Later I interrupt the speech to listen to the ball de bastons (a Catalan popular dance), which leads to a rhythmic and percussive fragment, like a parade band (min. 1:50). The clattering, flares and percussion of the devils intermix later (min. 2:20). During the rest of the piece so do a band (min. 4:04) and fireworks that conclude the party (min. 3:18).

Ejemplo 6. “Les Fêtes”, cc. 4-11.Fuente: Séverac, Déodat de. Cerdaña: etudes pittoresques pour Piano. París: Rouart-Lerolle & cie, 1919, 20.

There are different quotations of military music in this number, not only where it is explicitly written by Séverac. In one of the fragments, he describes the reminiscence of the carabinieri (Ex. 7 and min. 3:49). Moreover, this is not the only work where Séverac uses this resource, they are also heard in Le Soldat de Plomb (1905) for piano in four hands and in Sous les lauriers roses for solo piano. During this fragment I launch two different tracks. One is the siren of the police car leading the party parade (min. 3:40). The second, in which the initial theme is diluted to give way to another small fragment that also has military overtones, we hear the percussion of the batucada, which is part of the actual parade (min. 4:02). 

Ejemplo 7. “Les Fêtes”, cc. 103-108.Fuente: Séverac, Déodat de. Cerdaña: etudes pittoresques pour Piano. París: Rouart-Lerolle & cie, 1919, 24-25.

In my opinion, this is the most hispanicizing number, which takes on tints that clearly lead to a fandango with the explicit reencounter with Albéniz (Ex. 8 and min. 5:10). Before this theme and taking advantage of the previous fermata, we hear a Bolivian band participating in the parade, again a symbol of the globalization and multiculturalism of the population (Ex. 8 and min. 4:54).

Ejemplo 8. “Les Fêtes”, cc. 143-147.Fuente: Séverac, Déodat de. Cerdaña: etudes pittoresques pour Piano. París: Rouart-Lerolle & cie, 1919, 26.

[i] For more information about the Festa de l’Estany see: Mercadal Fernández, Oriol i Quílez Castro, Enric. 2016. La Festa de l’Estany (1886-2016). Cent trenta anys d’història, tradició i llegenda. Puigcerdà: Ajuntament de Puigcerdà.

[ii] Pierre Guillot and Jaume Fàbregas, on the other hand, did see the flabiol imitation in this fragment. Guillot says that “Doubling two octaves, the flabiol, the small, strident Catalan flute, and the prima (or treble) prelude the sardana” (“Es doublant à deux octaves, le flabiol, la stridente petite flûte catalane, et la prima (ou tiple) préludent à la sardane”), Guillot 2010, 177. Fàbregas also points out that “In the second movement, “Les Fêtes,” measures 1-4, 212-213 and 268 have an improvisatory character, recreating the sonority of the flaviol, like the introduction of “En tartane”, Fàbregas i Marcet 2002, 41. 

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