“Clavé invented macro-concerts, he had in mind what was happening in Europe, he knew that 12,000 people gathered in London’s Hyde Park in those monstrous concerts and that modern states were organizing these festivals, although he did it from the other side. , from the private and republican sphere,” says musicologist and Esmuc professor Anna Costal, curator of Año Clavé. Therefore, “yes, he invented the Sónar of the 19th century,” she says.
“He would have loved the use of electronics, he was always up to date, but, joking aside, he put these concerts into circulation with 4,000 people at six in the morning on a day in 1872. This is how a new contemporary Barcelona society was articulated. that broke the walls and opened onto Passeig de Gràcia with that new romantic fun. Of course he invented pop music as we understand it today! Beyond the fact that his character and his music became folkloric and now seems traditional to us, he was very modern.”
This Monday, the bicentennial of Josep Anselm Clavé (1824 -1874), musician, poet, businessman, activist, politician… and busy visionary, was officially inaugurated, as drawn by illustrator Ignasi Blanch in the bicentennial logo. The UB contemporary history professor Teresa Abelló, the musician and producer Marc Parrot and Costal herself spoke at the Anteneu Barcelonès, sharing their enthusiasm for the findings about Clavé and the complementary projects promoted by the Government.
A book will be published that brings together friends, intellectuals and family (from Clavé’s daughter to Francesc Pi i Maragall, Víctor Balaguer or Ildefons Cerdà); unpublished work will be recorded; A podcast will be made with his correspondence, “like when, having put on his chirucas, he walked through Madrid and said that he couldn’t find a square big enough in the capital for the concerts he did in Barcelona; or like when he talked about exile, imprisonment, exile: letters through which the history of the kingdom of Spain in the 19th century is explained,” adds Costal.
In addition, the exhibition that the same musicologist curated for the Palau de la Música Catalana will be made traveling and a map will be drawn with the choirs that Clavé founded during his lifetime, those that were founded later, those that survived and those that went down in history. And for this, public archives throughout Spain or even Cuba will be useful, but also any document or image that people keep in their homes. Parrot himself says he has a photo of his grandfather singing in 1940 in the Colla Nova in Poble Sec. “We all have a grandfather or great-grandfather who sang in a Clavé choir: let those memories come out,” Costal encourages.
“There was something revolutionary in what Clavé did,” reflects Marc Parrot, speaking of the founder of the choral movement in Catalonia (and Spain) and promoter of the associative movement of the working classes. “Even today it gives people the possibility of belonging to society,” says the singer who, together with the Sant Jordi Choir, has a commission from the Fira Mediterrània to bring the figure of Clavé closer to the young public.
He has immersed himself in Clavé’s personal history, in his work and the context of the 19th century… “At first we thought of simply turning the roots of music around, as we usually do at those festivals, with electronic instrumentation, but then We saw that Clavé’s career gave much more of itself, and we are creating a format that is still in process, but that has to do with theater, musical, performance… And the starting point is the real context of the Choir Sant Jordi today”, he advances.
For his part, Abelló remembers that Calvé is a disciple of a republican current and that in these choral associations that he is creating, he will channel a heritage from the working class world of that time. “A complicated world, with difficulties, that apart from the need to work, has the need for leisure. And that, in economically poor spaces, with limited resources, has the first outlet in the tavern. The working world is quickly aware of the problems it generates, getting the worker out of drinking is an obsession.”
As a politician, Clavé wanted to convey a speech. And apart from collaborating with republican publications such as Tramontana, he founded La Vanguardia, a federalist republican weekly that lasted for 12 issues, from October 1868 to January 1869, more than a decade before the current newspaper was published. of the same name. At its head he puts all his ideology: universal suffrage, free school, public libraries, freedom of the press, freedom of worship, abolition of the death penalty… “He was a man of ideals who wanted to transform the kingdom of Spain into a republic.” democratic,” says Costal.
“Clavé thought that culture was for everyone, and that everyone had a unique instrument, the voice, and everyone could sing, make music and enjoy the encounter in choral societies, places where they sang but also “we learned,” said Councilor Natàlia Garriga in her speech. “And finally, it was always clear that the street was a space for culture and that concerts could be held in squares and in the open air, such as Paseo de Gràcia, sharing with everyone. world its strength and giving visibility to the group empowered by music. That is why he organized massive festivals of which, over the years, reminders have emerged. If today we talk about the inclusive and cohesive value of popular culture, it is because of trajectories like yours.”
