Excerpt from a chapter of the book "Costa Brava Autèntica", published by Pagès Editors

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Opera

'For coastlines there's Levante, and for beaches, Lloret...’, says the best-known passage in the opera Marina. The first act begins with a scene on the beach at Lloret de Mar by the light of dawn. The fishermen sing as Marina waits for Jorge to return, he being the young captain of a boat and she being secretly in love with him; for his part, the young man also loves Marina without saying so...

Originally, Marina was an operetta in two acts with text written by a man from Ripoll called Francesc Camprodon, who used to spend his summers in Blanes and talked about Lloret in the opera. Marina was first performed in Madrid on 21 September 1855, and the critics were none too kind about it. At the request of the tenor Enrico Tamberlick, the composer Emilio Arrieta transformed it into an opera in three acts and, taking his cue from Donizetti, added three duos and a rondo at the end. Since Camprodon had died, Arrieta asked Miguel Ramos Carrión to revise the text, and he respected the work of his predecessor to a large extent.

As an opera, Marina was first performed in Madrid's Teatro Real (then known as Gran Teatro Nacional de la Ópera) on 16 March 1871, with the participation of Tamberlick himself, and it was such an outstanding success that it was soon launched onto international opera circuits.

The symphonic poem
 
Juli Garreta (Sant Feliu de Guíxols, 1875-1925) dedicated a symphonic work to the Medes Islands. At an early age, Garreta learned the basics of music under the guidance of his father and Ramon Novi, a pianist from his town. This self-taught musician, a watchmaker by trade, composed some hundred sardana dances and a significant number of major works, some of which caused controversy owing to their avant-garde nature. He won various competitions, and was admired by Pau Casals and Igor Stravinsky, who in 1924, when he heard the sardana piece Juny in a concert of music played by Catalonia's traditional cobla bands, called aloud for “More Garreta, please, more Garreta...”

The habanera
 
The habanera, a musical form in duple time, came to the Costa Brava with the people known as indianos – emigrants who had gone to make their fortunes in America and come back rich, and later on through the soldiers coming back from the Cuban war. On account of their historical context, almost all the words of the habanera songs of old dating from the nineteenth century were in Spanish, and dwelt nostalgically on beloved mulatto women or missed landscapes. One of the most famous habaneras, La Gavina (originally called La Gaviota), written in 1928 by Frederic Sirés, was inspired by a personal experience of the composer after a journey to Cuba. Towards the end of the nineteen sixties, when habaneras came back into fashion in Catalonia, new ones were written inspired by the landscapes of the Costa Brava.

Sitting at a piano in the Palamós restaurant El Xivarri in 1968, Josep-Lluís Ortega Monasterio, a professional soldier, composed El meu avi inspired by the experiences of his maternal grandfather (the 'avi' of the song's title), who had fought in the Cuban war from his post on the ship Montserrat (known as El Catalán), and another story concerning the grandfather of the restaurant owner (Pitu Vergonyós), a native of Calella. That mixture, shot through with nostalgia and with an exalted climax clearing the way for the exclamation 'Long live Catalonia, long live El Català”, had a real impact. It was officially presented by Els Barrufets in the Calella de Palafrugell habanera-singing event in 1971, and it was immediately recorded by the top groups Alba, from La Bisbal, and Els Pescadors de l’Escala. Dozens of versions have come out since then.

Another unforgettable composer is Ramon Carreras, from La Bisbal, who after the success of his celebrated Llop de mar had another hit with his homage to a dream of a beach: Cala Montgó (“Montgó cove, a place of peace and light, Montgó cove, a place of peace and perfume, a place of the most beautiful enchantment, Montgó cove, a little piece of paradise”). The same goes for one of the founders of the group Peix Fregit, Josep Bastons who, working in conjunction with the poet Narcisa Oliver, moved everyone with his Mariner de terra endins, and Tamariu (“When the sun rises in Tamariu, it takes on the colours of the rainbow, the gull leaves its nest, and the mimosa spreads its flowers...”). Totally different in nature is Al pirata Joan Torrellas by Carles Casanovas, a member of the group Port Bo, which was based on the swashbuckling stories of a man who plagued the Mediterranean with his pirating in the sixteenth century.

There are also examples of recordings which, though not featuring songs devoted to specific places, do nonetheless add the name “Costa Brava” to the record sleeve as an identifying mark. A good example of that is a single from 1962 released by the Zafiro company under the name of Conjunto Típico de la Costa Brava; it was in fact members of the band Orquestra Maravella, directed by Lluís Ferrer, and featuring Noi de Palafrugell (Lluís Heras) as the lead singer. Shortly after, in 1967, the tenor from Sant Feliu de Guíxols Francisco Granés brought out a habaneras single whose back cover boasted the collaboration of Josep Pla. Both the Conjunto Típico record and Francisco Granés' one went under the same heading: Habaneras de la Costa Brava.

The sardana
 
The traditional Catalan dance form known as the sardana is undoubtedly the musical genre featuring the largest number of pieces dedicated to the Costa Brava. Dedicated to an entire county, the poet Joan Maragall wrote verses in 1908 that covered the lands between the Pyrenees, symbolised by the highland shepherd, and the coast, represented by a mermaid. It was set to music by the composer Enric Morera. The result was the emblematic sardana called L’Empordà.

The vision of the outcrop La roca del Cargol from a pine grove in Pedró de L’Escala inspired Josep Vicens, l’avi Xaixu, to pay devout homage to that place. Similarly, from behind the great windows of El Port de Palamós Casino, Santiago Bañeras composed his A Palamós fan pipes. Ricard Viladesau, for his part, turned a rough stretch of the Aigua Xelida (Palafrugell) coast into a dizzying piece, with tricky parts that are not easy to perform in Sa Roncadora. From his native Torroella, Vicenç Bou, with the simplicity that characterised him, dazzled everyone with pieces such as De Sant Feliu a s’Agaró and Torroella vila vella. And the list could go on forever: Cap de Creus, with its cracked, wind-swept rocks, captivated Rafael Cabrisas. With his back to the sea and surveying the Empordà plain, Jaume Bonaterra wrote his Sota el Mas Ventós. Francesc Mas i Ros aptly caught the nature of 'pretty Tossa' in Tossa bonica, and the same was done by Josep Albertí in Blanes festiu. The full list of sardanes that evoke some point along the Costa Brava would be very long indeed.

A special case, not dealing with the landscape but with a meteorological feature associated with the territory, is found in a certain fusion music that blends a strain clearly influenced by the traditional cobla welded to a foundation of rock music. The work is a piece named after the local wind, Tramuntana, by Companyia Elèctrica Dharma, a group influenced by the work of Joaquim Serra.
 
 
The waltz
 
Josep Pujol, Llibori, is the author of a maritime waltz called Vell pescador, a classic among sea-related songs (“The sea is good, the sea is blue, the sea is calm and storm alike”). When the habanera boom seemed to be running out of steam, Llibori took the helm again and ventured out with the group Quercus to sail the ocean of rock music. In 1993, the group released an album called L’última havanera, the title track being a very defiant homonymous song that fuses both genres to turn the Costa Brava myth on its head, including of course the world of horizontally striped polo shirts and sailors' caps. In the wake of the resulting furore, Llibori went back to the Sant Feliu group Colla Jacomet with his daughter to take up once more the old seafaring songs as if nothing had happened.

Another composition in waltz time that became a hymn devoutly sung by all the fishing community along the coast is the 'fisherman's prayer' – L’oració del pescador. That song by Carles Casanovas, composer and lead singer of the group Port Bo, often turns up in religious services, and speaks of the anxiety felt by seafaring people and their families when they go out on fishing expeditions on stormy days. Owing to its emotional force, it is not only performed by habanera groups but also by many choirs in the county.
 
 
Singer-songwriters

When a young singer-songwriter from Poble Sec stayed at the hotel Can Batlle in Calella de Palafrugell in August 1971, nobody imagined that this was the start of 'something big'. Moving between Calella and Begur, that lad had in fact been coming to the Costa Brava for years. Perhaps it was the purple-hued dusk scenes under the arches of Les Voltes, or maybe the still, gentle dawns when he woke up... Whatever it was, Joan Manuel Serrat was busy there working steadfastly at finding his inspiration. And we say 'working' because he himself always stresses that without work inspiration is useless. That was how a musical relic destined to make history was born. From the outset, Serrat wanted to name it after his love of the sea – Amo al mar –or Hijo del Mediterráneo, though he eventually opted for a shorter name: Mediterráneo.
One of Lluís Llach's best-known works refers to the coastal vineyards: Vinyes verdes vora el mar, based on a poem by Josep Maria de Sagarra. From their place within the poet's Cançons de rem i de vela (1923), those verses were part of a collection of poems drawing their inspiration from the landscape of El Port de la Selva.

Shortly after, in another incomparable setting, a voice was raised to defend a sector that was then under grave threat: the Aiguamolls de l’Empordà wetlands: a large expanse of marshy ground, belonging to the municipal districts of Castelló d’Empúries and Sant Pere Pescador, and a target for speculators seeking to spread further still the monstrous shadow of Empuriabrava's skyscrapers.

As a starting point, there were the solid foundations laid by the writer Maria Àngels Anglada in her poetry with its commitment to conserve that natural area. We might recall that her passion for that land had driven her to write the novel Les closes, set there, and awarded the Josep Pla Prize in 1978. To round off Anglada's work, the musical side was entrusted to the L’Escala singer-songwriter Josep Tero. Born of that conjunction was Aiguamolls, from the record named Raval.

Throughout his career, following themes relating to his land has been a hallmark of Josep Tero, as in his Pirene, Quan dic l’Escala, dedicated to his birthplace and to the memory of his father, and also in his song to salt, Cançó de la sal, dealing with a vital product that was a key to survival in times gone by in L’Escala—something that is now commemorated with festivities each year on the beach.

Also on the subject of love for one's native land, we should also mention the singer-songwriter from Sant Feliu de Guíxols Josep Andújar, Sé. With his tremendously moving words, this artist, a specialist in tavern songs, pours his heart out in his four records. In his work, featuring waltzes, habaneras and the odd pasodoble, the sea and love almost always go hand-in-hand. From the sad story of a girl who suffers an accident going around the bend at Les Planetes (La noia cega) to the homage Sé pays to his father in his song Pare Joan (1995), and taking in the perceptive outlook seen in Festa major, the town of Sant Feliu comes up again and again. And if it ever occurs to Sé to leave, he already knows what he will be taking with him: “a suitcase full of memories, with the aromas of the Costa Brava, lest nostalgia should come flooding in, and a photo of my mother” (Me’n vaig a l’Havana).
 

The pasodoble
 
In 1968, in a meeting between the Civil Governor of Girona and the government delegate for Information and Tourism looking for ways to promote the Costa Brava, it occurred to the man who would later work for many years as secretary to Salvador Dalí, Enrique Sabater, to create a musical piece that would serve as a kind of bright hymn to the coast and which was entrusted to the harpist Digno García, who at that time was performing with his band the Carios. “Under a marvellous sun and a leafy green pine grove, shining bright and attractive, the matchless Costa Brava. Sun and sea, green pines. The Catalan Costa Brava”... went the song.

Still staying close to commercial songs for the summer season we must mention Lleó Segarra, who presented his LP Vacaciones en la Costa Brava in 1969.

Curiously, in that same decade, a French band, the highly rated Les Compagnons de la Chanson, came up with a pasodoble rhythm composed by none other than Charles Aznavour and Françoise Dorin. That piece was titled La Costa Brava.

A case apart is Esteban de Balt (Esteban Baltrons), a singer from Blanes and owner of the bar Los Tarantos, who presented the record Bienvenidos en la Costa Brava (sic) in 1989.
 
 
Rock music
 
Another lad who must have been going through some disenchantment and spent his time trying to forget, but going about it the wrong way, features in L’Empordà, by the Girona group Sopa de Cabra, who in 1989 had a huge success with this song. It deals with the suffering of one Siset, a character that was born somewhere between Blanes and Cadaqués and was afflicted by the curse of the Tramontana wind; being addicted to alcohol, he always said he would take his own life.

There were others who felt that living beside the Mediterranean was a real privilege, and said so in song. We are referring to the group Los Rebeldes, who in 1988 released Mediterráneo, which became a summer hit: “From L’Escala to Playa San Juan, in Cadaqués, in Sitges, freedom beach, we will be the chosen ones in the temple of God... Mediterranean, the heat way, Mediterranean, temple to the sun...”

Within the genre known as independent rock, mention must be made of an American group, Ted Leo and The Pharmacists, who after playing in the Sant Feliu de Guíxols Festival and then later on in Primavera Sound in Barcelona, showed their gratitude for the welcome they were given by the local audience by including the song called La Costa Brava in their double LP Living with the living.
 
 
Chill-out and new age
 
Since the borderline between 'chill-out' and 'new age' is often hard to discern, we have brought these two trends together to define a genre generally featuring gentle melodies, mostly instrumental or accompanied by ethereal voices, evoking nature and transporting the listener towards feelings of harmony and inner peace.
 
From the 1998 compilation album Hidrogen. Espais naturals de Catalunya (given a boost by the programme of the same name broadcast on Canal 33), we would like to single out here the theme Cap de Creus, written by the musician from Arbúcies David Salvans.

In that same year of 1998, the highly regarded British group Acoustic Alchemy released its recording Positive thinking, which included a theme dedicated to Cadaqués. Throughout its career, that band, founded by the duet formed by Nick Webb and Greg Carmichael, had been combining sounds clearly owed to acoustic jazz with other new-age strains.
 
Starting out from Cadaqués and braving the Tramontana wind, we can head towards the port of Roses to discover an absorbing, elegant chill-out record: Northern wind, the first recording from the duo Almadrava. Its authors Patricia Leidig and Pedro Toro began a promising musical adventure when they adopted the name of the pretty cove called Canyelles Grosses (Roses), also known as Almadrava because that fishing system had been used there in times gone by.

In the introductory text —recalling a personal experience of the two one summer day when they stood, with their arms outstretched and their shirts flapping in the wind, at a look-out point on the road up to Sant Pere de Roda— it was noted that “the north wind, the Tramontana, emerges as an omnipresent feeling in the group's compositions.”

Still following the crescent shape of Roses bay, we'll stop off in the charming Sant Martí d’Empúries to visit Joan Malé, an experimental creator known by his artistic name Monoceros, who has devoted himself to recording sounds that motivated him straight from the places around him. We can thus let it be known that the rain heard in his The rain song was recorded from his house, and that Escape from gravity begins with the sound of birds and a light aircraft heading towards Empuriabrava aerodrome, serving as a homage to man's craving for flight.

Carrying on towards the Baix Empordà, we'll stop by at Palafrugell to look at a work released in 2001 that perfectly symbolises just what it means to make a CD with one's thoughts specifically on the land into which one was born. The musician Xavier Juanals has thrown open the essence of the Empordà landscape, imbued of course with his own experiences there. From his survey of the remains still extant from the times when pirates came raiding from the sea in his Torres de defensa, down to his recreation of the acute atmosphere of isolation down at the sea bed he offers in Curculla, and taking in the moving and possibly nostalgic Una tarda a la platja de Castell, his work distils serenity and peace above all else.

And to wind up this section, we will mention a group from a far-off land that, strangely enough, refers to our geographic location in a record: we mean the Canadian group Béla Fleck & The Flecktones, whose leader, Béla Fleck, is a prominent virtuoso on the banjo. Through his career as a soloist, that musician has performed alongside musicians of the stature of Chick Corea and Stanley Clark, and has collected awards galore, including Grammies.

Jazz
 
Jimmy Rena and his trio, released the single In a little Spanish town (Mabel Wayne-Lewis-Young), on Calella de Palafrugell, where the musician ran a jazz club called La Guitarra, which served as the venue for outstanding groups in that genre, such as Locomotora Negra.
 
The rumba
 
Los Manolos, who had already achieved fame through their 'rumba' versions of El meu avi and Amigos para siempre, brought out a critical piece on the pollution affecting certain beaches near Barcelona: “On the beach at El Prat, I can't go swimming, I'll have to go to Begur, which has a blue flag», said the words. The song was called Hace tanta calor.

Flamenco jazz
 
Latin flamenco jazz also spared a thought for the Costa Brava. Armik, an Armenian citizen of Iranian origin, included Costa Brava in his record Rosas del amor.