Program

A liturgical service (mass) in association with the Religious Affairs Office.

Thursday 13 April at 6.30 pm at the Museu de la Música: Discussion on ‘The Caramelles sung in Ibiza at Christmas and Easter’ with Cati Marí. Free admission with prior booking at reservesmuseu@auditori.cat. Limited places.

Caramelles (popular songs) and goigs (sung poems) form part of a unique vocal and instrumental religious, pious and paraliturgical practice in Catalan-speaking regions and are still performed today in many churches on the islands of Ibiza and Formentera.

Associated with Christmas and Easter, this musical tradition consists of a group of men, known as a esquadra de caramellers, filing in procession to the church to sing a long series of goigs with repeated chants, accompanied by flutes, castanets, a drum and an espasí (a metal instrument). In musical terms, the caramelles are one of the most unique, relevant and beautiful practices of Pityusic traditional music.

Although the singing of goigs is characteristic of all areas of Catalan culture, the uniqueness of the repeated chant of the Pityusic Islands –with a specific vibration at the end of each verse–, the particular sonority of the combination of voices and instruments and the duration make this practice an authentic treasure of intangible heritage.

The mass will be officiated by the rector of the Sagrada Família, Mn. Joseph Maria Turull.

Guest musicians:
Esquare de Caramellers ‘Es Xacoters de sa Torre’
Francisco Javier Bonet Bufí, castanets and singing
Francisco José Bufí Guasch, espasí and singing
Vicente Juan Cardona Bonet, drum and flaüta