Da Camera 3

In November 1991 Dinsic published the first volume of the Da Camera collection of music composed for children to play together even in their earliest years of study of an instrument. The project was conceived at the Barcelona School of Music, directed by the Barcelona Trio, and was sponsored by Agfa. Mariona Vila was the first composer commissioned for the series.

Ever since the issue of that first volume, our intention has been to expand the collection, and we have made every effort to find a way of financing this project that is so needed by our youngsters in their early years of musical study.

Finally, after considerable discussion with the Education Department of the Generalitat (the Autonomous Government of Catalonia), where we received a great deal of encouragement, we have redesigned the collection and are ready to publish the second and third volumes.

With the technical assistance of Joan Josep Gutiérrez, Teacher of Chamber Music and piano at the Palau de la Música School of Music (Barcelona)and the Sant Cugat Conservatory (Barcelona), we have commissioned three well-known Catalan composers - Narcís Bonet, Salvador Brotons and Josep-Lluís Guzmán - to create short pieces for the volumes.

Our purpose is to continue adding to the body of music that meets the needs of all the teachers and students of instruments as they immerse themselves in the great adventure of making music together, in spite of the child’s technical limitations. As Mariona Vila wrote in her introduction to Da Camera 1, our intention is to nurture the «musical, poetic and artistic understanding that is the child’s innate possesion, just as it is the adult’s».

Our desire is also for the collection to consist of previously unpublished pieces, composed by our own Catalan musicians, thereby making ours a unique contribution to the body of music written for young people to play together.