The “voice of silence”: A contemplative prelude to Frederic Mompou’s Música callada Authors Josep Maria Gregori i Cifré Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona Keywords: Frederic Mompou, Saint John of the Cross, Música callada, music and spirituality, 20th-century Catalan music Abstract Mompou’s eagerness to explore and to lend sound to new areas of resonance is translated into a language in which consonance and dissonance converge in a kind of vibratory synthesis where the borders between the two come to be diluted. The acoustic ambiguity is transformed into an indefinite tonal ambiguity, without conventional modulations. This study seeks to bring into resonance the mystical experience of Música callada that Mompou endeavoured to achieve on the basis of the texts of Saint John of the Cross, which inspired it. The “voice of silence”, which is the origin and destiny of Música callada, would indeed be the source where the music is hidden, like “that eternal source” of which Mompou sang in Cantar del alma, marked by a design of an austere and almost liturgical sobriety that extends into the “Angelico” which opens this collection. Música callada seems to lead one to the confines of the secret border of silence and to the threshold of a more spiritual than emotional dimension, where music nurtures, articulates and transforms awareness. Downloads Download data is not yet available. Downloads PDF (Català) Published 2023-11-30 Issue Vol. 16 (2023) Section Articles License The intellectual property of the articles belongs to the respective authors. At the time of submitting the articles to Revista Catalana de Musicologia, authors accept the following terms: — Authors assign to the Societat Catalana de Musicologia (a subsidiary of the Institut d’Estudis Catalans) the rights of reproduction, public communication (including communication through social networks) and distribution of the articles submitted for publication to Revista Catalana de Musicologia, in any form and medium, including digital platforms. The Publications Committee reserves the right to accept or refuse submitted articles and the right to make any editorial changes it deems appropriate. If the suggested changes are accepted by authors, they should re-submit the article with such changes. — Authors answer to the Societat Catalana de Musicologia for the authorship and originality of submitted articles. In other words, authors assure that submitted articles do not contain fragments of works by other authors or fragments of their own previously published works; that the content of articles is original, and that the copyright of third parties is not infringed upon. Authors accept this responsibility and undertake to hold harmless the Societat Catalana de Musicologia for any loss or damage resulting from non-compliance with this obligation. Furthermore, they should include a statement in articles submitted to the journal regarding their responsibility for the content of the articles. — Authors are responsible for obtaining permission for the reproduction of all graphic material included in articles, and they should moreover ensure that images, videos, etc., have been created with the consent of the individuals appearing in them, and that material belonging to third parties is clearly identified and acknowledged as such within the text. Likewise, authors should provide the respective consents and authorisations to the Societat Catalana de Musicologia when submitting articles. — The Societat Catalana de Musicologia is exempt from any liability arising from the possible infringement of intellectual property rights by authors. In all cases, it undertakes to publish corrections, clarifications, retractions and apologies, if necessary. — Unless otherwise stated in the text or in the graphic material, the contents published in the journal are subject to an Attribution - NonCommercial - NoDerivs 3.0 Spain (by-nc-nd) license from Creative Commons, the full text of which may be consulted at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/es/deed.en. Therefore, the general public is authorised to reproduce, distribute and communicate articles as long as their authorship and publishing entity are acknowledged, and no commercial use is made of them nor derivative work produced from them. — The journal is not responsible for the ideas and opinions expressed by the authors of published articles.
