25 May 2007

Music in Barcelona

Live music - yes! There was a folk festival in the cathedral square and these guys got out some planks of wood and a metal pipe and started hitting them ... magic! - such complexity, what pleasure. (That's a bit of Roman wall behind them, built about 300 AD when the town was increasingly under threat - the various materials show how hurriedly it was thrown together.)On Saturdays the square is full of people of all ages dancing the sardana, or watching. The lead musician has a little pipe, and a drum attached to his elbow - three taps on the drum indicate the dance is beginning.
Among the band are reedy instruments and some great brass, including that baby tuba at the end of the row.
We also came across a couple of young men sitting on a wall playing their guitars in that special spanish way. That took me 'way back, to when I was living in Menorca, and parties under the stars would usually involve people who'd brought their guitars and loved nothing more than to play them together.

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