Pau Pascual wins the first international popular Balearic culture artistic creation scholarship with the project ‘Galejar’
The project will recover 53 tunes by Rafel Ginard to create a new contemporary musical corpus with a disc of twelve themes and a live performance.
PalmaThe Majorcan creator Pau Pascual Llompart has been awarded the first international grant for artistic creation on the popular culture of the Balearic Islands, convened by the Estudi General Lul·lià. His project, Galejar, proposes a new look at the sonic legacy of traditional work songs and their integration into the present through contemporary musical creation.
The grant, endowed with 4,000 euros and sponsored by the Fundació Baltasar Coll, aims to promote projects that contribute to the research, reinterpretation, and dissemination of the island's popular culture from the current artistic perspective. In this first edition, 66 applications were submitted from the Balearic Islands, other parts of Spain, and also from Iran, Russia, Germany, and England.
The jury, composed of Andreu Ramis, doctor in History; Pilar Ortega, art historian; and Clara Garau, specialist in artistic production, has unanimously chosen Pascual's proposal, which is based on 53 handwritten tunes by Rafel Ginard Bauçà recovered in the research Quan la terra cantava, by ethnomusicologist Francesc Vicens Vidal.
Galejar is born with the intention of giving continuity to popular music linked to ways of life that have practically disappeared, especially the work songs that accompanied farm tasks and other daily activities in Mallorca.
The project does not propose a simple archaeological recovery of the repertoire nor a superficial update with modern sounds. According to Pascual's proposal, the objective is to understand what role these melodies can play today and how they can evolve naturally to continue being part of living culture.
The central question of the project is what a music born to accompany a disappeared way of life needs to find a new space and a new function in the present.
An ethnomusicological research
To develop Galejar, Pau Pascual starts from the work of Francesc Vicens Vidal, one of the reference figures in the study of Mallorcan musical tradition. The research Quan la terra cantava recovers the ethnomusicological facet of Rafel Ginard Bauçà and a corpus of 53 handwritten tunes with lyrics preserved in different documents of the folklorist.
The project will study the melodies, the lyrics, and the contexts in which these pieces made sense: romances, gloses, street cries, and other expressions that were part of Mallorca's soundscape. The research will also analyze the trades and ways of life associated with these songs, with the idea of understanding what can be preserved, transformed, or reactivated today.
Francesc Vicens will participate in the project as a scientific advisor to ensure the rigor of the research and reinterpretation process of the material.
After the research phase, Galejar will enter a stage of musical composition and production with the collaboration of Juanjo Monserrat, Sara Mingolla, and Jaume Gelabert. The project will explore the coexistence of traditional tunes with electronic textures, electric instrumentation, and current production languages.
The result will be an album of approximately twelve tracks, which will be published in physical and digital format through the Mallorcan record label BLAU. The songs may be based on a single tune or the fusion of various materials collected by Ginard and studied by Vicens.
The album will be the starting point for a musical live performance intended to tour the Balearic Islands, other national stages, and international venues.
A trajectory between theatre, music, and audiovisual
Pau Pascual (Mallorca, 2001) has developed his career in performing arts, literature, music, and audiovisuals, with a special interest in the relationship between memory, identity, and cultural heritage.
Trained at ESADIB and in audiovisual screenwriting at ESCAC, he has participated in theatrical, audiovisual, and musical projects. In 2024, he presented the IB3 Television program Illencs a la carrera and has promoted cultural dissemination initiatives through social networks.
As a director and screenwriter, he has signed the short film 7 agulles per la Bombolla (2022), as well as various commercials and music videos. He has also participated in international residencies such as Island Connect and has received recognitions such as the ArtJove Award for Literature (2020), the DAU Award of Barcelona (2023), and the EDR Award for Best Balearic Musical Live Act in 2022 and 2023.
