Josep Soler i Sardà

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Josep Soler i Sardà

Josep Soler i Sardà (born March 25, 1935 in Vilafranca del Penedès ) is a Catalan composer . Musicologist and music teacher .

life and work

Soler was introduced to music by Rosa Lara in Vilafranca del Penedès. At the beginning of 1960 he went to René Leibowitz in Paris. He soon returned to Catalonia and studied with Cristòfor Taltabull in Barcelona from 1960 to 1964 .

In Soler's clearly religious tonal language, three phases can be clearly delimited from one another. The early works follow the tradition of the Second Viennese School with the twelve-tone technique as the determining factor. The opera Agamemnon (1960) marked the change to a more personal and freer style in the sense of serialism . Creative processes ultimately resulted in free atonalism . The 1974 Requiem marks the end of this early phase. In the next 15 years Soler dropped serialism completely and gave way to absolutely free atonalism. During this time he devoted himself particularly to the fugue and other forms of the Baroque, for example in his six-volume work for organ and piano. From around 1990 Soler entered a third artistic phase. He developed a highly personal musical language based on the Tristan chord and the mystical chord of Alexander Scriabin . Works such as the Mahler songs from 1992 or the chamber operas El Misterio de San Francisco (2000) and Die Blinden (Els cecs) combine an expressionist renaissance with a clear Mediterranean aesthetic. The three dances from the Penedès from 1995 are also a typical work of this period.

Soler has composed more than 200 works. In 1956 his work Polifonías para piano (polyphonies for piano) was premiered. The Simfonia Sant Francesc (Symphony for Saint Francis), for which he received the Music Prize of the City of Barcelona in 1961, the Ballet Dànae (1962) for string instruments, the Concerto for Two Pianos (1962), the Prelude and Dances of the Penedès should be emphasized for symphony orchestra (1996), funeral music for chamber orchestras (1998), the operas Agamemnon (1960 awarded by the Monte Carlo Opera) and the temptation of Saint Anthony (1967) based on a text by Gustav Flaubert , Oedipus et Iocaste (1974) a text by Seneca and premiered in Liceu in 1986, Nero (1986) based on texts by Seneca, Suetonius and Tacitus , Midsummer Night's Dream (1991) based on texts by Shakespeare , Frankenstein (1996) based on Mary Shelley and many other works. In the field of religious music, the oratorio Passio Domini Nostri Jesu Christi (1968), the Passion according to Johannes (1968) and the Requiem from 1970 are to be mentioned. The instrumental area includes the seven string quartets (1955 to 1995) and the concerto for harpsichord and five other instruments (1968), La misteriosa rosa del jardí (The wonderful rose in the garden) for organ and other works. Finally, the two collections of songs must be named El Llibre d'hores (1961, The Book of Hours) and another collection of songs based on texts by Saint Paul.

In addition to his compositional activity, Soler was also active as a music teacher. From 1975 to 1981 he worked as professor of aesthetics and from 1982 to 1984 as professor of composition at the Barcelona Conservatory. From 1983 to 2010 Soler was director of the Badalona Conservatory.

Soler also wrote essays on various aspects of music: Fuga, técnica e historia (1980, fugue, technique and history), La música (1982, music), Victoria (1983), Poesía y teatro litúrgico del Antiguo Egipto (1983, poetry and liturgical theater of ancient Egypt), Escritos sobre música y dos poemas (1994, writings on music and two poems), Tiempo y música (1999, time and music; together with Joan Cuscó), Otros escritos (1999 other writings), Nuevos escritos (2003, new writings), JS Bach – Una estructura del dolor (2004, Johann Sebastian Bach - The structure of pain), Música y ética (2006, music and ethics) i Música Enchiriadis (2011).

Basically, both Soler's artistic and musicological work is characterized by a decided sobriety that allows the content of the respective work to emerge clearly. In the face of an increasingly unjust and marginalizing world, he also shifts his inner fear outward into his musical and musicological works. Despite this pessimistic attitude, he sees artistic solutions to the problems at hand.

Soler has received many awards. In 1964 he received the Prize of the Monte Carlo Opera, in 1962 and 1978 the Music Prize of the City of Barcelona, ​​and in 1982 the Premi de composició Òscar Esplà (composition prize Òscar Esplà). In 2001 he received the Premi Nacional de cultura de la Generalitat de Catalunya (Catalan Culture Prize of the Generalitat) in the music section. In 2009 he received the Spanish Premio Nacional de música and in 2011 the Premio Iberoamericano de la Música Tomás Luis de Victoria . In 2013 he rejected the Medalla d'or del mèrit en les belles arts (gold medal for merit in the arts) of the Spanish government because of his absolute dissatisfaction with the educational and cultural policies of the government of Mariano Rajoy .

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Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Josep Soler i Sardà. In: Gran Enciclopèdia Catalana.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f Josep Soler i Sardà. In: Gran Enciclopèdia de la Música.
  3. ↑ a b c d e section after: Josep Soler i Sardà. In Gran Enciclopèdia Catalana.
  4. ↑ a b section after: Josep Soler i Sardà. In Gran Enciclopèdia de la Música.
personal data
SURNAME Soler i Sardà, Josep
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Catalan composer, musicologist and music teacher
DATE OF BIRTH March 25, 1935
PLACE OF BIRTH Vilafranca del Penedès