Mercè Capdevila i Gaya

Mercè Capdevila in her studio. Photo sourced from the Catalan Wikipedia

Mercè Capdevila i Gaya (Barcelona, 25 March of 1946) is a Spanish/Catalan educator, pianist and composer specializing in the fields of instrumental and electroacoustic music. ^[1][2]

Biography

Mercè Capdevila i Gaya began studying music at the Marshall Academy, and expanded her knowledge at the Liceu Conservatory ^[3] and the Barcelona Municipal Conservatory of Music, where she graduated in 1968. She later entered the field of electroacoustic music with composer Gabriel Brncic, at the Phonos Laboratory in Barcelona ^[4] and perfected her compositional skills with Josep Maria Mestres Quadreny, Corian Aharionan, Carmelo Bernaola, Luis de Pablo and Luigi Nono, with whom she maintained a long correspondence. ^[5] She also attended theoretical courses on twentieth-century music taught by Carles Guinovart. In 1976 she was awarded a scholarship by the University of Barcelona to attend the Congress of the International Society for Musical Studies (ISME) in Montreux. In 1977 she was appointed piano teacher at the Center for Musical Studies in Barcelona. In 1982 she began teaching following the Martenot Method. An interdisciplinary artist, she had also studied Fine Arts at the Massana School in Barcelona and with Professor Edward Mosny at the Kunsthand Werk Schule in Pforzheim (Germany).

During the 1993-1994 academic year, she was a guest composer in Aaron Copland's studio at Queens College School of Music, City University of New York. She specialized in the field of electroacoustic creation, although she also dedicated himself to mixed and instrumental music, and participated in multidisciplinary productions that combined music with light, movement, laser beams and voice in poetic recitals. ^[6] Some of the artists she worked with were Eloi Puig, the painter Gabriela Vargas, the video artist Ester Xargay, the playwright Eva Hibernia, the poet Carles Hac Mor, the theater director Glòria Rognoni, composers Oriol Graus, Eduardo Polonio, writer Guillermo Ayesa, pianist Jean Pierre Dupuy, actor Javier Palma and Egill Friedlaisson. Her list of compositions includes more than one hundred works ^[7] including compositions for tape and synthesizers; acoustic instruments (wind, string and keyboard) with electronics and real-time sound manipulation, among others. She has recorded two albums with her own compositions and has participated in collective albums. ^[8]

She was a founding member of the Spanish Electroacoustic Music Association (AMEE) and was part of the board of the PHONOS Electroacoustic Music Laboratory. She is a member of the Catalan Association of Composers. ^[9]

Selected works

• ... And Noah got drunk on wine (1978), for wind quartet and key
• Mene mene tekel uparsin (1979), for clarinet, viola and piano. The title refers to an excerpt from the Book of Daniel 5, 26-28
• Mirages (1980), for piano
• Intermezzo 23 F (1981), for electroacoustics, field sound and viola (reproduction)
• Eclipse (1982), for 4 cellos
• Deshill Holles Eamus (1982), for mixed electroacoustics, based on texts from James Joyce's Ulysses [disc 1]
• Grammar (1983), mixed electroacoustics [disc 2]
• Voltes al sol (1984), mixed electroacoustics [disc 2]
• First artifice (1985), mixed electroacoustics [disc 2]
• De la Randa, flute, oboe, clarinet itself b, bassoon, horn, percussion, harp, violin, viola and cello, (1986) [disc 2]
• From one castle to another (1989), music for the scene
• Ivory sticks (1990), for instrumental group [disc 1]
• Joys of comedy (1991), for mixed electroacoustics and tap (reproduction)
• Nu (1990), mixed electroacoustics (reproduction) [disc 3]
• Zoom (1995), for a solo piano
• Quadrar el cercle (1996), music for the stage, voice and mixed electroacoustics
• Seabed (2000), for mixed electroacoustics (reproduction)
• Golden Horn, clarinet, violin, cello and double bass , (2003).
• The secret of the geese, piano and soprano saxophone , (2004).
• Poem to Juan Barja (2006), with letter of Juan Barja
• Raw material (2007), commissioned by the Centro Difusión de Música Contemporánea, radio music
• Arc-architecture (2008), for three a cappella voices (reproduction)
• A Chillida (2009), mixed electroacoustics [disc 1]
• You will forgive me already (2011), work for piano dedicated to the sculptor Manolo Hugué ^[10]

Notes and references

1. “Mercè Capdevila y Gayà”. The Enciclopèdia.cat . Barcelona: Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana .
2. “Mercè Capdevila Gaya.:.". [Accessed: 17 July 2019].
3. “Mercè Capdevila, in the Web of “ Clivis editions ” ”. [Accessed: 1 May 2014].
4. Subirà, Pilar « Open spaces: Mercè Capdevila ». Catalunya Ràdio , 14-05-2013. Biography and reproduction of five pieces by the composer
5. “ Ars Sonora - Luigi Nono electroacústico (I) - 10/11/18 ” (in Castilian), 10-11-2018. [Accessed: 17 October 2019].
6. Radio , Catalonia. " Conversation with the composer Mercè Capdevila " (in Catalan). [Accessed: 17 October 2019].
7. " Composers ". [Accessed on: October 17, 2019].
8. Radio , Catalonia. " Mercè Capdevila " (in Catalan). [Accessed: 17 October 2019].
9. « Curriculum vitae of Mercè Capdevila, on the website of the Catalan Association of Composers ». [Accessed: 1 May 2014].
10. Capdevila , Mercè. You will forgive me: a work dedicated to the sculptor Manolo Hugué . Barcelona: Dinsic, 2011.

External links

• Biography (Catalan) (English) (Spanish)
• Interview for the Fondazione Adkins Chiti, of women in music (English)

Text adapted from the Catalan Wikipedia