#Trànsits 2024-2025 (report on the winter sessions: Caramelles de Nadal and Ave Maris Stella)
Winter 2025 saw the celebration of more sessions in the Trànsits: les músiques de l’esperit” [Transitions: music of the spirit] programme, organised for the third year running by the Museu de la Música de Barcelona and the Religious Affairs Office (OAR) within the framework of the "(Contra) Natura" season at L’Auditori. The sessions held in January and February were "Caramelles de Nadal: oral music in the Pitiusas Islands" and "Ave Maris Stella: music and liturgy in the 16th century".
Sound plays an important part in the spiritual practices of many religions, which use music as a vehicle for drawing closer to the deity or moving towards transcendence and for constructing collective prayer or religious practice. This reality is explored in the Trànsits: les músiques de l’esperit” [Transitions: music of the spirit] programme, organised by the Museu de la Música de Barcelona and the Religious Affairs Office (OAR), the third edition of which is being held within the framework of the “(Contra) Natura” season at L’Auditori. This collaboration offers an opportunity to highlight the significance of music for different communities in the city from various backgrounds, opening spaces for dialogue and understanding, affirmed Jordi Alomar, director of the Museu de la Música, in an interview for the OAR blog.
With this aim in mind, all the sessions in the “Trànsits” programme consist of a music-based religious or spiritual practice, a liturgy, a worship service, etc., that is open to the public and a talk prior to the activity.
Two sessions have so far taken place in 2025: “Caramelles de Nadal: oral music in the Pitiusas Islands”, which was held in January, and “Ave Maris Stella: music and liturgy in the 16th century”, in February.
CARAMELLES DE NADAL. ORAL MUSIC IN THE PITIUSAS ISLANDS
18 January saw the celebration of the activity “Caramelles de Nadal: oral music in the Pitiusas Islands”, where the musical tradition of the Caramelles was reflected on and put into practice. Participating in the conversation were Ester Llop, musicologist, teacher and singer with the traditional Catalan polyphonic group Tornaveus; Lara Magriñá, pianist and singer from Eivissa; and Francisco Javier Bonet, dancer and castanet player from Es Xacoters de sa Torre.
Ester Llop began by defining the Caramelles on the islands as “syllabic, narrative pieces, that want to make themselves understood“, that would serve to “close a liturgical celebration which in the past would have been in Latin, and in which participants wanted to express their identity by singing in their own language”. This liturgical framework is not as strong in Catalonia, although they are often sung at Easter time. They are sung outside the church and the repertoire includes secular pieces such as “L’estaca” and “Rossinyol que vas a França”. By contrast, on the Pitiusas Islands, they are exclusively religious pieces and are sung in church during mass”, explained Bonet. The islands are currently seeing a revival of this practice following years in which it had all but died out. Now there is a drive to nurture it, said Magriñá. Bonet confirmed this: “The caramelles are in vogue now, you go to the parish churches and there is an affinity, even among people who are not from Eivissa, I think this will go on for years but there needs to be continuity”.
The Carameller squad Es Xacoters de Sa Torre, have been working to keep the tradition alive on Eivissa for the past thirty years. According to Bonet, it’s about taking care of it: “Something that is ours, ensuring that it endures and not only in books and archives”. This squad regularly goes around the towns on the island singing caramelles, “although in the past each town would have had its own squad”, he pointed out. On 18 January, the caramelles of Es Xacoters de Sa Torre were performed at a mass in Barcelona, in the crypt of the Sagrada Família. In the performance we were able to get a sense of the typical structure of these pieces: a first section with the ‘Gojos de Maria’ (series of goigs with alternating chants), which recount different episodes in the life of the Virgin Mary, and which do not vary between squads; a second section of goigs, which do vary and are particular to each squad, and a final section, the Offering, which is shorter and closes the performance.
Following the mass at the Crypt, an international evening mass was held in the Basilica of the Sagrada Família, also with the participation of Es Xacoters de Sa Torre.
Visit the image gallery to see photos of the talk “Caramelles de Nadal: oral music in the Pitiusas Islands” HERE and photos of the mass in the crypt HERE.
Soon, you’ll be able to see the video of the talk and the mass on the OAR blog. ATTENTION!
AVE MARIS STELLA. MUSIC AND LITURGY IN THE 16TH CENTURY
On 20 February, the Santa Maria del Pi Basilica hosted the activity “Ave Maris Stella: music and liturgy in the 16th century”. Prior to the mass, a talk was held between Pere Lluís Biosca, director of the Cristóbal de Morales Ensemble ; Chiara Mazzoletti, specialist in Medieval and modern religious music; and sister Conxa Adell, Benedictine nun from the convent of Sant Pere de les Puel·les, linked to the liturgical chant.
During the talk, the importance of hymns in Catholic liturgies was highlighted, particularly Gregorian chants. “Saint Augustine said that he who sings prays twice”, quoted Biosca, “so music has always been an intrinsic part of Catholic liturgy, and also of spirituality and beauty, which also forms part of God. This was corroborated by Chiara from a more historical perspective: “Since the existence of the Roman ritual linked to the Gregorian chant, music has been liturgy”. A form of music that gained a more professional status after the Council of Trent (1545-1563), with the aim of making the musical texts more understandable liturgically. According to Biosca, “in polyphony, the words need to be understood, but it is more a spiritual and aesthetic matter than a specification”. For Sister Conxa Adell, this is the case with all kinds of spiritual music: “I’ve been told that I play the zither really well, but what they meant was that the instrument had generated within them a feeling of calm, of connection with a dimension that people know they have within them but which they are unable to express. This is also what modern music does, it brings us into contact with the transcendental”.
Following the talk, there was a mass to the Virgin Mary with the hymn ‘Ave Maris Stella’, composed by Cristóbal de Morales in the 16th century, at the height of the European Renaissance, based on the melody and words of pre-existing material and using recognisable formulas that were commonly used in the Renaissance. As we were able to see in the mass, ‘Ave Maris Stella’ is structured into the five parts of the mass: the Kyrie, the Gloria, the Credo, the Sanctus and Agnus Dei.
Visit the image gallery to see photos from the talk “Ave Maris Stella: music and liturgy in the 16th century” HERE and the mass HERE.
Soon, you’ll be able to see the video of the talk and the mass on the OAR blog. ATTENTION!