Homenatge al poeta Joan Margarit (Tribute to the Poet Joan Margarit), Song cycle for voice, cello and piano

Homenatge al poeta Joan Margarit (Tribute to the Poet Joan Margarit),  song cycle for voice, cello and piano.

The score, which we are presenting as a tribute to Joan Margarit, began to take shape five years ago. It was based on an idea that was still in its infancy, but which was already firmly established. This idea arose from my personal connection with all the elements that come together in the Margarit Cycle.

My relationship with the cello is well known to those around me: I have been studying the instrument since the age of three, and it has ever since accompanied me in my understanding of music. It was precisely during my years as a pupil of Maestro Lluís Claret that I had the opportunity to meet and converse with the poet Joan Margarit on several occasions. He was a friend and a great lover of the cello, particularly J. S. Bach’s Six Suites for Solo Cello.

Years later, during the pandemic, a series of circumstances forced me to give up my career as a professional cellist. However, this opened the door to singing. In the privacy of my studio, I had the idea of bringing together these three elements — the cello, the voice and Margarit’s poems — through the poetic song. It seemed a perfect formula for uniting the instruments that formed part of my musical training and the poems of a great master would be present within the genre in which I had felt most at home from the very beginning: the poetic song.

This project was launched to great acclaim in August 2023 at the Schubertiada in Vilabertran and, despite the poet’s passing in 2021, has enjoyed the support from the outset of Margarit’s family, as well as Lluís Claret and, most notably, Víctor Médem, Victora Barcelona and the Oriol Prat Foundation.

Thus, in this book, a tribute to Joan Margarit, you will be able to discover, read and work on the Margarit Cycle, comprising seven songs set to music by the Catalan composers Salvador Brotons, Albert Guinovart and Jordi Domènech, for mezzo-soprano, cello and piano. The order of the works is a personal suggestion, but, as with any song cycle, each performer is free to decide which works to perform, as well as the order in which to do so.

Ferran Albrich

This work is dedicated to Ferran Albrich Solà and was premiered at Schubertíada de Vilabertran 2023 (Ferran Albrich, Victoria Guerrero, Oriol Prat).