Banda Municipal de Barcelona
The Banda Municipal de Barcelona , as it were the city band of Barcelona , is an orchestra established by the Barcelona City Council in 1886 and consists of wind, string and percussion instruments. Since the beginning it has played the threefold role of (1) representing the city, (2) educating young musicians and (3) performing concerts. The orchestra has been based in the Auditori de Barcelona since 2007 . The composer and conductor Salvator Brotons has been the ensemble's musical director since 2008 .
predecessor
The city of Barcelona has always had a musical ensemble since the late Middle Ages. These ensembles were never organizationally consolidated in such a way that the city of Barcelona could always rely on an orchestra for representational purposes. The actual predecessor of the Banda is a 12-member ensemble founded in 1837, which was organized and directed by the conductor Francesc Ruiz . This ensemble was dissolved again in 1850. From 1851 to 1885, the following conductors followed, leading an ensemble of around 40 musicians: Francesc Fremont (from 1851), Rafael Berga (from 1858), Joan Capdevila (from 1863) and Josep Sampere (from 1870).
history
In 1886, at the request of Mayor Francesc de Paula Rius i Taulet, the City Council of Barcelona founded the Banda Municipal de Barcelona together with the Municipal Music School , now the Conservatory. Both institutions were initially closely interwoven. They were under a common director, worked closely together and had the same faculty. In the first ten years of its existence, the orchestra under Josep Rodoreda achieved a remarkable artistic quality. In 1888 at the world exhibition in Barcelona, the band won first national prize and second international prize. Rodoreda was replaced in 1896 by Antoni Nicolau , who literally converted the music school into a conservatory. The chapel itself was directed by Celestí Sadurní (1897-1910) and later by Cristòfor Castañé (1910-1914). Fewer and fewer musicians were assigned to these, so that the band could only fulfill its musical tasks at a minimum level.
In 1915, Joan Lamote de Grignon was appointed musical director of the ensemble. This demanded independence from the municipal music school and was able to increase the number of musicians in the ensemble to 64. His son Ricard Lamote de Grignon worked as an instrumentalist in this orchestra from 1926. A bright time began for the ensemble. Much of the repertoire could be specially adapted for the band. Richard Strauss conducted the orchestra in 1925 and took it on a tour of Germany in 1927. The new repertoire was presented in Catalonia, but also in France and Germany. At the end of the civil war , Joan and Ricard Lamote de Grignon were released through repression of their offices in the orchestra. In 1939 the management of the chapel was handed over to Ramon Bonell .
When the Barcelona City Orchestra was founded in 1944 , the banda was reduced to its brass section. But in 1958 the sound ensemble was reorganized again and brought to a base of 88 musicians. Orchestra conductors such as Joan Pich i Santasusana , Josep González (1967–1969), Enric Garcés (1969–1979), Francesc Elias (1979–1980), Albert Argudo (1981–1993) and Josep Mut (1993–2007 ) worked under such conditions ).
After a period of reflection with the aim of giving the formation new impulses, the composer and conductor Salvador Brotons was appointed as the ensemble's new musical director in 2008 and the Auditori de Barcelona was established as the orchestra's permanent headquarters.
literature
- Enciclopèdia Catalana: Banda Municipal de Barcelona. In: Gran Enciclopèdia Catalana . Retrieved November 10, 2019 (Catalan).
- Enciclopèdia Catalana: Banda Municipal de Barcelona. In: Gran Enciclopèdia de la Música . Retrieved November 10, 2019 (Catalan).
Web links
- Literature by and about Banda Municipal de Barcelona in the WorldCat bibliographic database
- Banda Municipal de Barcelona at Discogs (English)
- Banda Municipal de Barcelona on MusicBrainz (English)