Quatre caçons sobre poemes de Salvador Espriu

The four poems that I have arranged by Espriu are dedicated to the memory of Antoni Comas (1931-1981), Head of the Catalan Language and Literature department at the University of Barcelona, where I studied. Comas was an extraordinarily well-trained professor who was exceptionally prepared to carry out the difficult task of guiding his students, both scientifically and humanly.

It was from him that I learned of Salvador Espriu, the man and his unique poetry: the impact of this figure was so great that I was unable to arrange music to his verses for many years, until I composed Diversos són els homes (Men are diverse), dedicated to my wife, Begoña. When twenty five years had passed after Comas’ death, I decided to dedicate these four poems that Dolors Lamarca, Comas’ wife and his daughters Núria, Eulàlia and Mercè chose for their part and that I chose separately, yet with surprising coincidence.
The Four songs on poems by Salvador Espriu were composed between the 1 and 11 November, 2006 and were performed for the first time on the 19 of November, 2006 in the Caixa Laietana Auditorium in Mataró; we repeated the performance in March 2007 in the Main Hall of the University of Barcelona. The musical language used depends on the rich potential of Espriu’s poetry, in the search for an imprecise parallel, from harmony and the textural outline, to the rhetoric of suggestion and symbolism.

Francesc Bonastre