Singing together, recovering musical memory and building community. This is the spirit of La Cantera, a cultural initiative born in Esplugues de Llobregat that works to preserve and reactivate oral tradition songs in the municipality. The project combines research, participatory activities and dissemination of musical heritage with a clear objective: that popular singing once again becomes part of daily life.
The initiative originated almost a century ago, in 1931, when the folklorists Joan Amades and Joan Tomàs collected more than 300 songs in the municipality as part of the research mission of the Obra del Cançoner Popular de Catalunya. That material, preserved for decades, sparked the interest of various local entities and ended up driving the creation of the project.
The first activities emerged within the framework of cultural anniversaries such as the Amades Year, the Joan Tomàs Year and the centenary of the Work of the Popular Songbook of Catalonia. From here, entities like L'Avenç Cultural Center or Espluga Viva began to organize workshops and concerts with songs recovered from the municipality. Those experiences ended up crystallizing in the creation of La Cantera, which today articulates different activities around popular singing.
Recovering singing as a shared experience
The promoters of the project consider that current society has been losing spaces for collective singing. Formerly, they explain, songs were part of daily life: they were performed while manual tasks were done, in social gatherings or as a way to transmit stories and experiences.
Over time, however, these spaces have been disappearing and music has often become an individual consumption, through screens and headphones. Faced with this reality, La Cantera bets on recovering singing as a community activity, open to everyone and disconnected from professional stages.
A recovered musical heritage
The main activity of La Cantera are the popular singalongs, informal gatherings where participants sing together in a relaxed atmosphere, often around a meal. These sessions have been organized in spaces such as the Ateneu Popular d’Esplugues, L’Avenç Cultural Center or the Robert Brillas Culture House, with the participation of musicians who energize the repertoire and teach new songs to the attendees.
Now, however, behind these calls there is a lot of work of research, recovery and dissemination.
In the field of research, the members of La Cantera study and catalog the songs, comparing versions and analyzing their origin. The objective is to create a database with the lyrics, the scores and information about the singers who performed them.
The workshops, for their part, serve as a tool for dissemination and learning of the songs. In addition, it is also planned to bring these activities to schools and institutes to bring this heritage closer to the new generations.
Lastly, another of the project's legs is the recovery of the repertoire. In this regard, last January 10, a transcription day open to the public was held with the aim of converting the songs collected in 1931 to digital format. The initiative, which had already had a first edition the previous year, gathered about fifty volunteers who worked on the transcription of both the lyrics and the melodies.
Thanks to these collective sessions, until now the 281 lyrics and scores have been transcribed. The material is now awaiting a specialized review and, a priori, the intention is that the collection of songs can be consulted in a digital repository and, if possible, also in a publication.
A network of singings across Catalonia
In recent months, the project has also begun to inspire similar initiatives in other municipalities and its promoters have started to visit different towns to share the experience and participate in popular singalongs. Currently there are already singalongs linked to this philosophy in places like Olesa de Montserrat, Sant Cugat del Vallès, Mataró, Sant Just Desvern or Manresa, among others.
The idea is that each town adapts the model to its reality, maintaining the same spirit: to create spaces where people can meet, share a meal and sing together.
The activities of La Cantera are open to people of all ages and do not require previous musical knowledge. In fact, the promoters of the project defend that singing is a practice that can accompany anyone throughout life.
