Last weekend, the 19th Modernista Fair was held. This year, the event was dedicated to the soprano Conxita Badia and the composer Maria Lluïsa Ponsa. Taking advantage of their tribute, today and next Friday, we will talk about music in the time of these women, which is also Gaudí’s era. Paradoxically, however, the first question we must ask may seem strange… 

Did “Modernista” music exist? 

At first glance, Modernisme is a period characterized by a great number of musical references in all the arts. However, Modernista music itself is difficult to define. Xosé Aviñoa, the leading author on the subject, even writes: “We now face the central question of our work: can the existence of Catalan Modernista music be decisively affirmed?” (1). 

The well-known musicologist Roger Alier also raised, from the outset, the need to clarify whether Modernisme “had its own music, identifiable as such, or whether the best we can do is speak of ‘music in the time of Modernisme,’” or in other words, is Modernisme “a concept that is almost more historical than musical”? (2). 

Style or era, a period of splendor 

Without delving into scholarly debate, what we can affirm is that, thanks to the protagonists of this style or era, Catalonia experienced a great musical splendor, which coincides with the awakening of Catalonia’s sense of identity. 

Indeed, in 1888, the year of the Universal Exposition, Barcelona opened up to the world. Even so, the musical atmosphere of Barcelonans at the time “was not – in Aviñona’s words – by any means what could be called solid and mature” (3). However, around 1910, the situation had changed substantially. Instead of a “provincial” city, it had become an “international” center (4). It was the time of the emergence of influential associations and entities such as the Orfeó Català, promoter of the Palau de la Música Catalana, as well as a multitude of musical associations throughout Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, and Valencia (5). 

Logically, none of this would have been possible without a host of leading musicians: Albéniz, Enric Granados, Pau Casals, Amadeu Vives, Enric Morera, Antoni Nicolau, Juli Garreta, Josep Clavé, Lluís Millet, Felip Pedrell, etc. Musicians, and as we said at the beginning, also women like Conxita Badia and Maria Lluïsa Ponsa. A list that continues with Narcisa Freixas, Carmen Karr, María Barrientos, Margarida Ofila, or Paquita Madriguera. 

Thanks to them – and to her – we can answer the initial question: did Modernista music exist? We’ll do that next Friday. 

Notes 

(1) Aviñoa, Xosé (1985), La música i el modernisme, Ed. Curial, Barcelona, p. 350 

(2) Alier, Roger ( ), “La música en el modernisme”, Enciclopèdia.cat, see “Preliminars”

(3) Aviñoa, op. cit., p. 14-15 

(4) Ibid., p. 339-346 

(5) Aviñoa, Xosé (1999), Història de la Música Catalana, Valenciana i Balear, IV. Del modernisme a la Guerra Civil (1900-1939), edicions 62, Barcelona.