Joan de l’Ós, Symphonic poem for wind orchestra, soloists and mixed choir (SCORE)

Adaptation for the Banda Municipal de Barcelona by Eduardo Betes (1992), (Barcelona, November 2023) and Jaumet (October 2019)

Premiered in April 1936 at the 1st International Contemporary Music Festival, at the Palau de les Belles Arts, this is perhaps one of the most significant works of Ricard Lamote de Grignon’s musical production for wind band-orchestra. This updated edition of the work has been made by master Salvador Brotons and has been carried out based on the original manuscripts found in the Biblioteca de Catalunya – Archive of the Municipal Band of Barcelona, ​​which consist of: Score of 12-05-1931 (102 pages – 55cm), 10 instrumental parts, and incomplete set of vocal parts.

In 1913, Josep Maria de Sagarra won the Golden England of the Jocs Florals de Barcelona with the poem Joan de l’Ós, which he had begun working on during a trip to Italy. ‘Joan de l’Ós’ is one of the epic poems that have their origins in popular culture, such as The Bad Hunter and Count Arnau.

Catalan music for symphonic band

Unlike the symphony orchestra, which throughout history has been consolidating a standard template, bands have had another formative and evolutionary process. In this sense, the Banda Municipal de Barcelona, ​​created in 1886, was restructured since 1915 by Maestro Joan Lamote de Grignon, who put together a template/plantilla – organized by complete families of wind instruments – that exceeded 80 musicians. As a particularity and, at the same time, as a distinguishing fact, in this template the orchestral family of double reeds (oboes and bassoons) was completed with a trio of xeremies (instruments typical of the Sardana Cobla) made up of a tible and two tenoras. The presence of these instruments which -in the words of Lamote, “add to the ensemble an unsuspected relief and brightness”- give, however, the color that characterizes a large part of the repertoire of Catalan symphonic music, especially if it comes to works from the original repertoire of the Catalan ensemble COBLA.

(Jordi León)