Juny - Llicorella

Contents

Juny (June)
This is Garreta's best-known and most emblematic sardana. Over the years when Catalonia's national anthem (Els Segadors) was banned, certain sardanas emerged strongly as identifying the Catalana people, ones such as La santa espina by Enric Morera and Juny by Garreta. It was compoesed in 1919 and was a prize-winning work in Barcelona's Patxot prizes. Musically, it is certainly a fine example of Garreta's language: his forceful sound, sweeping themes, painstaking orchestration, sharp counterpoint and, as Toldrà put it, music written in Catalan.
Llicorella (Slate)
During the course of the annual Festa Major festivities in l'Arboç del Penedès in 1911, the brothers Enric and Pau Casals, in the company of Joan Lamote de Grignon, were listening to the cobla band Principal de La Bisbal playing sardanes in the town's square. When the performance was over, Pau Casals went over to the musicians and said, 'When you come back around here to play, bring the composer of those sardanas with you, for I would like to meet this Garreta fellow'. The meeting was to occur the following year, marking the beginning of the close friendship and mutual admiration between Juli Garreta and Pau Casals that was to endure ever after. The sardana that had made the greatest impression on Casals at that performance in l'Arboç was the one entitled Llicorella, which was written early in 1911, presented at the cultural event Jocs Florals in La Bisbal d'Empordà, and awarded first prize there. David Puertas Esteve