The harp in Catalonia

During the middle ages and the Renaissance, the lute, viola and hurdy gurdy may have been the most frequently played string instruments in Catalonia, but the Gothic Catalan harp was already in use. It has now been recovered by Jordi Savall, one of today's most internationally renowned Catalan musicians, thanks to his difficult task of rescuing the repertoire from that period.

The appearance of the concert harp as a soloist instrument occurred from the 19th century onwards, with the creation of Sébastien Érard’s double-movement harps.

During that century, Catalonia was not yet home to composers who wrote specifically for the harp, but it did witness eminent performers who had received training in France, Austria and Switzerland. Such is the case of Clotilde Cerdà, also known by the stage name Esmeralda Cervantes (1852-1926), who wrote the book Història de l’arpa (History of the harp) in 1885. Nevertheless, it was most definitely Lluïsa Bosch i Pagès (1880-1961) who definitively introduced the harp to Catalonia. Daughter of Catalan parents who emigrated to Switzerland, she was the professor of harp at the Geneva Conservatory. She was an excellent performer and composer of educational works for this instrument, her Méthode d'exercices pour la harpe (Method exercises for the harp) (1910) was a course book in the conservatories of London, Lisbon, Naples, Paris and Saint Petersburg. She maintained close links with the music scene in Catalonia and actively collaborated with Felip Pedrell and Pau Casals.

The feminine tradition of harp-playing continued with Rosa Balcells (1914-1997). She began her studies in Barcelona and continued them in Paris with Micheline Kahn. She was the professor of harp at the Barcelona Municipal Conservatory and, in 1989, she founded the Catalan Association of Harpists, that is still running successfully today.

Despite the late beginnings, Catalan composers started to incorporate the harp into their respective catalogues. Xavier Benguerel composed Test Sonata, for harp, cello and piano in 1968; Xavier Montsalvatge wrote Concerto capriccio in 1975, with the harp as a soloist instrument. Since then, interest for this instrument within the Catalan repertoire has grown exponentially.

n this site, you will be able to find examples of harp music works that are now published by Catalonia's publishing houses. You will find everything from the personal language of Salvador Brotons, one of Spain’s most international composers, to the harp being used to recreate the most traditional sounds of Spanish folklore in the work of Josep M. Ribelles, or interesting pieces by outstanding composers such as Lluís Gàsser and Francisco Javier López R.