The cycle 'The language that is sung' reflects on four decades of music and linguistic normalization

PalmaThe Obra Cultural Balear (OCB) and the University of the Balearic Islands (UIB) are organizing the conference series The language that is sung. Music and linguistic normalization (1986-2026), which began this Thursday and will continue until Saturday at Ca n’Oleo, in Palma. The series proposes a look at the role of music as a space for cultural, educational, and linguistic transmission, coinciding with the 40th anniversary of linguistic normalization policies and the 50th anniversary of Cucorba, a musical and educational project linked to the dissemination of music in Catalan among children.

With this program, which is supported by the Institut d’Estudis Baleàrics (IEB), the Generalitat de Catalunya, and the Association of Music Teachers of the Balearic Islands (ADMIB), the OCB and the UIB wish to combine a retrospective look with a reflection on the present and the future: what music in Catalan has represented over these last decades, what role it has played in the transmission of the language, and what tools and spaces will need to be created so that it continues to be a living element of the culture and the linguistic community.

The program began this Thursday, October 8th, at 6:45 PM with the opening of the conference by Antoni Llabrés, president of the OCB; Llorenç Perelló, Director General of Culture, and Carme Pinya, Dean of the Faculty of Education at the UIB.

At 7:00 PM, the ethnomusicologist and professor at the UAB Jaume Ayats offered the lecture The songs that make us a people. Shared repertoires and musical memory in the Catalan Countries, with which he provided an approach to shared musical repertoires and the ability to build collective memory and identity.

Friday's session

The day of Friday, October 9th, will focus on the relationship between music, education, and language. At 6:00 p.m., the pedagogue Llorenç Gelabert Gual, member of the History of Education Research Group (GEDHE-IRIE-UIB) and the Didactics of Musical Expression Area of the UIB, will deliver the lecture The language that is sung. Eighty years of songs in school.

At 7:00 p.m. it will be the turn of the roundtable 40 years of music in Catalan, a conversation that, based on artists, anthems, and songs and with commented auditions, will review the evolution of music in Catalan over the last four decades. The conversation will be moderated by the journalist Antoni Jaume Escanellas.

Saturday's program

The program for Saturday, October 10th, will kick off at 9:30 AM with the conference Sharing songs, sharing the language. Music as an agent of linguistic normalization, by Isidor Marí, from the OCB, and Ivan Solivellas, professor at the UIB.

At 10:30 AM, Francesc Aguiló and Gabriel Gamundí, from Cucorba, and the musicologist Francesc Vicens, member of the Music Expression Didactics Area of the UIB, will headline Cucorba in dialogue: 50 years making a country sing. The session will allow for a review of the trajectory of this project and its role in the dissemination of the musical repertoire in Catalan and in music education.

After a break, at 12:00 PM, the conference will close with the round table And tomorrow... who will sing? Challenges and opportunities for music in Catalan in the 21st century. The conversation will address issues such as generational replacement, new musical languages, educational and cultural spaces, and the challenges of a world in transformation. The table will be moderated by the journalist Margalida Mateu.

As a parallel activity to the cycle, on Friday, October 16th, from 5:00 PM to 9:00 PM at the Music Hall of the Faculty of Education of the UIB, there will be Songs in common, a shared music pedagogy laboratory based on the Cucorba repertoire.