Singing while working and working while singing have appeared to be, throughout history, the same social activity without a clear or categorical distinction. In this paper we explore this field in the industrial shoemaking environment in Menorca (Balearic Islands), regarding it as a social process of adaptation and resistance against contemporary…[Read more]

Taking the idea of a “radical ethnomusicology” from Ed Emery (2017), I want to expose that the fact there is not a normal academic situation for ethnomusicology in the Balearic Islands it is also an opportunity to develop a radical and transforming scholar field, and I also rise some questions that I believe a radical Catalan ethnomusicology…[Read more]

Review about Elvira Asensi book’s “Música mestre!”, about Valencian wind orchestras at the beginning of the 20th century.

A principis dels anys 90, amb el boom del Rock català, comença formar-se tota una escena musical pròpia dels Països Catalans, amb un model de funcionament diferenciat del de l’escena espanyola. Actualment, aquesta escena ha canviat, s’han obert noves vies: per una banda, l’eco del Rock català segueix vigent, mentre que per l’altra es…[Read more]

El cant de la Sibil·la és una tradició medieval que avui encara es canta a l’illa de Mallorca durant la nit de Nadal. Però existeixen traces que demostren el coneixement popular d’aquesta representació a l’illa de Menorca almenys fins al segle XIX.

The Chant of the Sibyl is a medieval tradition that is still sung in the island of Mallorca duri…[Read more]

El Cant de la Sentència és un dels elements dels rituals teatrals de Pasqua que havia estat conegut per tots els Països Catalans. Al petit poble menorquí d’es Migjorn Gran és l’únic lloc on ha perviscut de manera oral fins al dia d’avui.

The Chant of the Ruling is one of the Holly Week performances that was known in all Catalan Count…[Read more]

The changes introduced by the new models of production, established from the middle of the 20thcentury in many European factories, showed a shift in the musical behaviour and idiosyncrasy of those used to work in a pre-capitalistic environment. Many workers in the shoemaking sector experienced this dramatic change in first person. Although they…[Read more]

At the beginning of the 20th century, the singing-choir movement became highly popular in Mallorca. The general explanation about it, as in the others Catalan Countries, has followed the common idea that this movement was divided among republican/laborist choirs, related to Josep Anselm Clave model, or regionalist/nationalist groups, assigned to…[Read more]

Singing had a crucial role in workers daily life until recent times. Most people who worked in factories, textile mills, etc., were used to sing. It was a general form to communicate news, tell stories or expressing identity or feelings over a circumstance or event: in short, it was a way to create spaces of sociability and to draw the limits of…[Read more]

Singing while working and working while singing have appeared to be, throughout history, the same social activity without a clear or categorical distinction. In this paper we explore this field in the industrial shoemaking environment in Menorca (Balearic Islands), regarding it as a social process of adaptation and resistance against contemporary…[Read more]