Josep Maria Mestres i Quadreny

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Josep Maria Mestres i Quadreny (born March 4, 1929 in Manresa ) is a Catalan composer.

life and work

His family moved to Barcelona when Josep Maria Mestres i Quadreny was a child. In 1942 he began to study Solfeig and piano with Leonor Sigg . He later continued his studies with Rosa Maria Kucharski . In 1951 he met the artists Joan Ponç , Antoni Tàpies and Joan Brossa at an exhibition by the artist group Dau al Set . With these three artists he took up a closer collaboration. In the same year he began studying composition with Cristòfor Taltabull , which he completed in 1957. In 1955 he had already completed a chemistry degree.

In 1952 he joined the Cercle Manuel de Falla . Here he made friends with the pianist and composer Josep Cercós and met Joan Miró . He carried out joint projects with these two artists. Cercós like Miró gained considerable influence on his artistic career. The first public performance of a still neoclassical work by Mestres i Quadreny took place at the International Youth Music Meeting in Bayreuth in 1953 .

In 1958 Mestres met the art organizer and entrepreneur Joan Prats i Vallès and in 1959 the composer Juan Hidalgo . These two personalities introduced him to the contemporary musical avant-garde ( John Cage , Anton Webern , Edgar Varèse and Robert Gerhard ). Mestres overcame his early neoclassical style. In 1960 he founded the open composers' community Club Cobalto 49 with Joan Prats, Juan Hidalgo and Joaquim Homs . Their aim was to create and distribute new music .

Under these artistic influences, Mestres i Quadreny developed a highly personal work. These include the Epitafis (1958), the Tríade per a Joan Miró (1961, "Triade for Joan Miró"), the Quartet de catroc (1962) and the orchestral works Antiodes (1964) and Digodal (1964). These orchestral works are based on playing with random processes and disorder in the music. In 1965 Peça per a serra mecànica (“piece for a mechanical saw”) followed. This work is considered to be the first electronic music production in Catalonia. In 1969 Mestres i Quadreny composed a piece ( Ibèmia ) using a computer program for the first time in the Catalan cultural area . He is also the author of incidental music. Here he worked mainly with Joan Brossa on the suite bufa (1966), L'armari en el mar (1978) and the opera Cap de mirar (1991). He later worked in a similar way with the artist Pere Jaume Borrell . He is also the composer of soundtracks to films by Pere Portabella No compteu amb els dits (1967, You don't count with your fingers) and Nocturn 29 (1969).

As an organizer of contemporary music, he promoted numerous initiatives and projects: he founded the Conjunt Català de Música Contemporània (1969, Association for Catalan Contemporary Music), the Laboratori Phonos (1973), the Grup Instrumental Català (1976) and together with the composer Carles Santos the Center Robert Gerhard de l'Auditori de Barcelona (2008, Robert Gerhard Center of the Auditori de Barcelona). He has organized numerous conferences and courses in Catalonia and abroad on new music.

With his growing recognition as an artist, he became a member of cultural and music institutions such as the Fundació Joan Miró (1977, Joan Miró Foundation), the Associació Catalana de Compositors (Association of Catalan Composers), which he headed from 1977 to 1979, the Junta Rectora del Consorci de l'Auditori (governing body of the Auditori de Barcelona) and the Consell Administratiu de l'Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya (Board of Directors of the Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya ) and the Fundació Phonos , founded in 1982 , of which he was President directed.

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Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Josep Maria Mestres i Quadreny. In: Gran Enciclopèdia Catalana.
  2. ↑ Josep Maria Mestres i Quadreny. In: Gran Enciclopèdia de la Música.
  3. ↑ a b c d e f section after: Josep Maria Mestres i Quadreny. In: Gran Enciclopèdia Catalana.
personal data
SURNAME Mestres i Quadreny, Josep Maria
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Catalan composer
DATE OF BIRTH March 4, 1929
PLACE OF BIRTH Manresa