Next Saturday, January 10, the second Transcription Day for popular songs collected in the municipality in 1931 will take place in Esplugues de Llobregat. This is an initiative open to the public that seeks to preserve and make accessible a little-known part of Catalan musical heritage. The call comes after the success of the first day, held last June, which allowed more than half of the planned work to be completed.
The project is driven by La Cantera d’Esplugues, a cultural initiative born with the aim of recovering and activating orally transmitted songs as a tool for social cohesion. Beyond the local sphere, La Cantera advocates for collective singing as a shared cultural practice, far removed from commercial formats and rooted in popular memory.
An open and participatory day
During the first edition, around fifty participants managed to transcribe more than 100 songs out of the almost 300 collected in Esplugues in the early thirties. On the ground floor of the facility, groups worked on the lyrics, a task that goes beyond copying texts. Decisions must be made about the structure of the pieces, the degree of linguistic correctness, or respect for the original forms, always with the guidance of specialists. On the upper floor, participants with musical training were responsible for transcribing the melodies into digital sheet music. Despite the difficulty presented by some old notations, the work progresses gradually and meticulously, piece by piece
The organization explains that the transcribed material will still need to be reviewed by experts before being published. The intention is for the final result to be available openly, especially for teachers, musicians, and educational projects, and to be accessible through a dedicated website in the medium term. The possibility of a print publication is also being considered for the future.
With this second day, La Cantera calls on people from across the metropolitan area interested in popular culture, music, or historical memory to join a project that combines research, citizen participation, and the preservation of Catalan intangible heritage. More information and registration here: https://forms.gle/bUcWj3fZYvEyMh6R8.
