Escola de Montserrat

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The Escola de Montserrat , also known as Escola Montserratina , is the music school of the Montserrat monastery in Catalonia (Spain) run by Benedictine monks . With evidence from the early 14th century, it is one of the oldest music schools in the world. Today it is run as a music high school in the form of a boarding school for boys. From the beginning, the music school was very closely connected to the Escolania de Montserrat , the choral school of this Benedictine monastery. One of the aims of this music school was and is the vocal, general musical and general education of the boys for this choral school. In addition, the school offers instrumental training courses for piano, organ and string instruments, for example. Over the centuries, important composers, music interpreters and musicologists emerged from the surroundings of this Escola de Montserrat .

history

The earliest evidence of the Escola musical de Montserrat comes from the early 14th century, although the music has probably accompanied the cult since the beginnings of the monastery in the early 11th century. The earliest tangible musical facility in the abbey is the Escolania .

The first musician monks known by name were Jeroni Rotés (effective from 1515 to 1571), Jeroni Castell (effective from 1586 to 1621) and Joan Graner (from 1588 to 1600). In 1539 the old monastery church of Montserrat received an organ with 1113 pipes .

The Escola de Montserrat became historically well tangible in the 17th century with Bernat Baretja (16th century – 1628) and Joan Marc (1582–1658). Some choral works by Marc have come down to us. Overall, however, valuable productions from this period have been lost. It was followed by Jaume Vidal (1606–1789), Joan Gelonc (1620–1671), Francesc Rossell (1630–1676) and Dídac Roca . The most important composer of the Escola de Montserrat in the 17th century was the Marc student Joan Cererols (1618–1680). Some of his religious compositions based on texts in both Latin and Romance languages ​​have been preserved. In the 30 years of his activity, Cererols himself trained numerous church musicians who later took leading positions as Mestres de Capella in the main churches of the Iberian Peninsula . Benet Soler (1640–1682), from whom numerous compositions have come down to us , also deserves special mention . In 1611 the Count of Perelada equipped the monastery with a new, large organ.

Outstanding organists who emerged from the Escola de Montserrat were Pere Jorba , Joan Genís , Josep Sales , Joan Romanyà and Joan Rocabert . Both of the latter also emerged with remarkable compositional works. Martí Marsal was an excellent player on the "rabec" (three-string, historical violin), Joan Carbonell and Jeroni Casanoves were outstanding bassists and Francesc Rebull was a harpist of the best quality.

At the end of the 17th century, the Aragonese composer and music teacher Miguel López (1669–1723) worked in Montserrat. Almost all of the vocal and instrumental production has come down to our time from him. The music monks Joan Baptista Rocabert, Vicent Presiac (1673-1726), Benet Esteve (1701-1770) and Felip Jaumandreu (1727-1770), who were active at the same time , completed the Baroque period of Montserrat.

With Josep Antoni Martí (1719–1763), a new musical wind emerged in Montserrat in the middle of the 18th century. He introduced the values ​​and techniques of the Italian school to the musical world of Montserrat. Martí himself was the teacher of the composer and music teacher Anselm Viola (1738–1798). In this classic setting of the Escola de Montserrat , the representatives of the Classical Organ School of Montserrat Benet Julià (1727–1787) and Narcís Casanoves (1747–1799) should also be mentioned. All these composers together left a valuable, remarkable religious and musical work.

At the beginning of the 19th century, the Escola de Montserrat got into an existential crisis due to the Napoleonic occupation of Catalonia in 1811 and the first Carlist War . In 1811, the music archive and library of Montserrat was burned and destroyed by Napoleon's troops. Valuable codices and music documents were lost. The so-called Llibre Vermell de Montserrat , the red book of Montserrat, was preserved. The composer and organist Josep Vinyals (1771–1825) restored works by his teacher Casanoves that were lost in the fire in the music library in 1811 and also created new works. A total of three times, the Escola had to close its doors politically, but with Josep Vinyals, Jacint Boada (1772-1858) and Benet Brell (1786-1850) resumed their teaching and musical duties. From 1858 to 1889 the music school was run and run by non-monastic music experts and scholars.

In 1889 the composer Manuel Guzmán (1846–1909) took over the management of the school, which in a certain way entered the modern era. Guzmán and his successor Anselm Ferrer i Bargalló (1882–1969) reformed school and music education and led the institution towards the neo-Gregorian and neo-liturgical movement. Guzmán was the musical teacher of Àngel Rodamilans (1874–1936) and Anselm Ferrer (1882–1969). Students of the latter two were Ireneu Segarra (1917), composer of works according to the new liturgical guidelines, and Gregori Estrada (1918), organist, composer and musicologist. Both are considered musical representatives of the modern school of Montserrat .

Important graduates of the Escola de Montserrat

With the composer Antoni Soler (1729–1783), the composer and conductor Jaume Balius (died 1822) and the guitarist and composer Fernando Sor (1778–1838), three highly extraordinary musicians were trained in Montserrat.

In the field of musicology, Gregori Sunyol (1879–1946) emerged as a Gregorianist and paleographer . David Pujol (1894–1979) wrote several music theory studies and was the editor of the first volumes of the Mestres de l'Escolania de Montserrat . Under Gregori Sunyol, the monk choir of Montserrat learned the performance of Gregorian chants in the highest perfection. In addition, Sunyol was involved in the renovation and re-establishment of Gregorian chant in the French monastery of Solesmes .

meaning

In the second half of the 17th century and in the 18th century almost all organists, band masters, singers and also instrumentalists from important churches in Catalonia and the entire Iberian Peninsula had studied music at the Escola de Montserrat . Graduating from this music school obviously gave musicians the prospect of lucrative positions. Today's training at the Escola de Montserrat music boarding school is seen as an excellent basis for studying music at a conservatory. With regard to the importance of the Montserrat Music School, the first edition of the music lexicon The Music in History and Present from 1961 in the article “Montserrat” comes to the following conclusion: “The entire musical life of Catalonia is directly or indirectly influenced by the Montserrat Music School”.

List of Masters of Montserrat (retrograde)

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Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae Escola de Montserrat. In: Gran enciclopèdia Catalana.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Escola de Montserrat. In: Gran Enciclopèdia de la Música.
  3. ↑ a b c d e f Escola de Montserrat. In: MGG1.
  4. ↑ a b Escola de Montserrat: Official website of the Escolania de Montserrat.