Sardana

Composer: CASALS, Pablo
  • Sardana was composed in 1927 for an orchestra of cellos. At its premier it was played by 32 of Casals’ cello students at Wigmore Hall. 1
  • In 1970 Sardana was performed by 100 cellists from all over the world in a special concert at Philharmonic Hall in New York as a salute to Casals.2
  • The sardana is the national dance of Catalonia. It has a fast 6/8 meter and is danced in a circle.3
  • Casals was fiercely proud of his native land of Catalonia and worked throughout his lifetime to resist the totalitarian control of Spain and Catalonia by Francisco Franco.4

Sources

  1. Robert Anderson, “Casals, Pablo,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed August 15, 2019, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000005061.
  2. Donal Henahan, “100 Cellists to Salute Casals Tonight,” New York Times April 15, 1970, 51, NewYorkTimes.com, accessed August 15, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/1970/04/15/archives/100-cellists-to-salute-casals-tonight.html.
  3. Harvard Dictionary of Music, 4th ed., s.v. “Sardana” (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2003).
  4. Anderson, “Casals, Pablo,” Grove Music Online.

Cut IDs

21902