Jörg Widmann

Variations on "El cant dels ocells" ("The Song of the Birds")

I have felt closely connected to the city of Barcelona and its magnificent music temple Palau de la Música Catalana for many years. When I received the request to write a piece for this special place, its baroque organ and the wonderful folk choir Orfeó Català based there, I immediately thought of the old Catalan folk and Christmas carol 'El cant dels ocells'. Nevertheless, I also studied a large number of other Catalan songs – and yet I came back with joy to this wonderful 'Song of the Birds' and wrote variations in my musical language on this sublime melody, which has become a kind of secret Catalan national anthem not only since Pablo Casals, the great cellist who ended all his exile concerts since 1939 with this song. Even after the intensive study of this melody, it remains mysterious and fascinating to me how perfectly the proclamation of happiness of the text, in which more than thirty small and large bird species celebrate the birth of Christ, harmonizes with the floating yet glittering melancholy of this minor melody. May my variations and different lighting of the original make it possible to experience the beauty of this old song in a new way. - Jörg Widmann, January 2023