The Memory Summoned in the City Concerts of Llorenç Barber

Abstract

The name of Spanish Llorenç Barber is linked to the sound of the bells, instruments that are the main characters of his most original proposal: the city concerts. Over the last three decades, the musician has made more than two hundred capitals around the world vibrate with outdoor works in which the calculated sound of bell towers reverberates in the streets and squares occupied by a wandering public. The aim of the paper is to think about the importance that the composer gives to the mechanism of memory and how it operates at different levels of his proposal: in the author himself, in the instruments, and in those who listen. Methodologically, we start from the interpretation of texts and writings of Barber (a prolific author who has left abundant thoughts on his music) and the reality of his concerts. Among the results, a certain creative power of the memory is pointed out through the author’s childhood memories and his conviction about the power of music to recover the past through the bells, an instrument depository of an evident cultural charge and a symbolism that turns its sound into an effective invoking agent of collective memory. The conclusions point out that ringing in the daily space and with the secular resonance of the bells are effective elements for the invocation of memory. Memory, which resides latent in the bells, emerges in the public as a result of an emotional and tactile listening that turns their entire skin into a great acoustic receiver.