Ágel Barja: Semblanza de un desconocido / Ángel Barja: Portrait of an unknown

(Lecture given at the Unión Fenosa Museum of Contemporary Art, A Coruña, January 28, 2006)


I. Introduction

First of all, I would like to sincerely thank the Unión Fenosa Museum of Contemporary Art in A Coruña for its kind invitation to deliver this opening lecture in the series "Galician composers remembered," which in its first edition is dedicated to the composer Ángel Barja. In my opinion, this is a model initiative, as it will allow us to gain a deeper understanding of the work of one of the most significant Galician creators of recent decades -despite the fact that he remains little known among us.
It is difficult to place Ángel Barja within his generational context, because unlike the preceding and subsequent generations, the one to which he chronologically belongs is very hard to classify. A group of Spanish composers born around 1930 (such as Cristóbal Halffter, Carmelo Bernaola, Luis de Pablo, Ramón Barce, Xavier Benguerel, among others) emerged as a cohesive group with a shared aesthetic orientation marked by rupture around 1951, adopting that year as a generational reference point. However, those born in the two decades that followed exhibit a wide range of currents and tendencies. This is partly due to a creative freedom that was far less dogmatic and, consequently, more open-minded. This makes sense: while the previous generation was compelled to fill the tragic creative and pedagogical void left by the Civil War, their successors found a breach already opened through which they could move without difficulty, each taking the path most aligned with their own aesthetic interests.
Of course, even in the earlier generation, there were more moderate voices -if not openly conservative ones- such as Manuel Castillo or Antón García Abril, to mention just two prominent names. However, it is widely recognized that the composers who oriented their aesthetic aims toward Central European serial and post-serial trends deserve the greatest credit for having brought Spanish contemporary music into that environment and to international recognition.
Thus, in the seven years prior to 1938 -the year of Ángel Barja's birth- were born Leonardo Balada and Narcís Bonet (1933), Gonzalo de Olavide, Claudio Prieto, and Antonio Ruiz Pipó (1934), Josep Soler and Jordi Cervelló (1935), and Miguel Ángel Coria and Ángel Oliver (1937). Meanwhile, in the years leading up to 1951, when another, more cohesive generation arose -this time consisting of those born around that year- we see the births of Francisco Cano (1939), Jesús Villa Rojo (1940), Carlos Cruz de Castro and Carles Guinovart (1941), TomÁs Marco and David Padrós (1942), Albert SardÁ and Félix Ibarrondo (1943), José García RomÁn (1945), Javier Darias (1946), Llorenç Barber (1948), and Miguel Ángel Martín Lladó (1950). A list, as can be seen, that is absolutely heterogeneous -ranging from the boldest avant-garde to the most extreme conservatism- making it impossible to subject to any kind of aesthetic systematization.
It is worth recalling that the 1950s and 1960s -when Ángel Barja was undergoing his formative years and taking his first steps as a composer- were characterized by the widespread extension of serial principles to all parameters of composition, not just pitch. Thus, in integral serialism, rhythm, dynamics, and even timbre were subjected to strict organizational criteria. Webern was undoubtedly the link between Schoenberg and the new trends, as his later works approached ideas that Boulez and Stockhausen would later elevate to dogma in the Darmstadt courses, which during the 1950s and 1960s became a true sanctuary for this new direction in music.
Yet, what most characterizes the 20th century -unlike previous historical periods- is the fragmentation of unified language and aesthetics into a thousand pieces, as each creator adopts the aesthetic orientation most aligned with their own sensitivity. Thus, alongside dodecaphony and its serial consequences, there coexisted -though often with considerable conflict, only softened in recent years- other trends that followed very different criteria. These trends did not shy away from using traditional procedures, as in the case of Berio, Maderna, or Henze, or were openly neoclassical, as with Stravinsky, or employed approaches directly opposed to the rigor of serialism, such as Cage's aleatoricism or the minimalism of Steve Reich.
Within such a panorama, it is easy to understand how difficult it can be for a composer to know, want, or even be able to find his or her place. Depending on individual concerns, one might adopt a radically committed stance toward a single trend -be it avant-garde or conservative- or draw upon various influences, choosing elements that resonate most deeply with their creative sensibility. While this may seem like basic common sense, it has often been a source of internal conflict for many composers, who fail to see such versatility as an expression of greater aesthetic richness, and instead experience it as a lack of definition, accompanied by deep feelings of insecurity.
As we shall see later, Ángel Barja's music navigates between a deep respect for tradition and a keen interest in exploring new trends. An examination of his biography and thought reveals a clear internal struggle -one he likely faced as he tried to reconcile these two worlds.


II. Biographical Sketch

The premature death of Ángel Barja in February 1987, before he had even turned fifty, was a true shock for León, the city he had adopted as the center of his family and professional life. As often happens with public figures who are respected and loved by their community, his passing left a deep void. In the years immediately following his death, the provincial government of León made a significant effort to honor his memory. Thanks to this initiative, and of course with the help of those who knew him and can speak of him, it is now possible to trace a large portion of his written music. To date, five volumes of his complete works have been published, reproducing his original manuscripts in facsimile alongside some previously edited works, as well as a fine anthology of recordings, compiled in four long-playing vinyl records presented in a carefully designed box set. Included in this set is an invaluable biographical study written by his brother, José Barja Iglesias, in which the emotional and the scholarly, the intimate and the technical, are so thoroughly intertwined that it becomes impossible to distinguish one from the other.
As far as we know, that study is practically the only one dedicated to Ángel Barja to date. No other bibliographic references could be found -aside from an article by Andrés Ruiz Tarazona in the magazine "Tierras de León" (2003), there is not a single musicological study to illuminate Barja's life and work- not for researchers or critics, nor even for a curious newcomer hoping to learn something about him. The very recent doctoral dissertation by Enrique Igoa on Barja's music has yet to be published. This makes José Barja's text essential and immensely useful in preparing the following biographical sketch of the composer, along with a recent and moving conversation with Begoña Alonso, the composer's widow, which confirmed our initial impressions of the profound humanity and extraordinary sensitivity of this great musician.
Ángel Barja was born on October 5, 1938, in Santa Cruz de Terroso, a small village in the far south of the province of Ourense, in the municipality of Villardevós, very close to the Portuguese border. In that village -tiny and socially limited at the time- he lived with his parents and six siblings for the first twelve years of his life. There, he learned Galician as his first language and had little to no contact with the cultural world, which only occasionally reached the village in the form of a music band visiting for the local festivities. It is hard to pinpoint the moment a musician is born or becomes one, but given the contrast between the general cultural void and the excitement of these musical visits -not to mention the presence of relatives with some degree of musical training- it is fair to assume that music must have been one of the most powerful impressions of his childhood, and the one that indelibly shaped his life's path.
It was with his uncle Demetrio -the family member with the most musical training- along with his brother José (author of the aforementioned biographical text), that Barja began his technical musical studies at around the age of nine. For three years he learned the basics of solfège, and likely would not have advanced much further had he not moved, in the autumn of 1950, to the town of PuentelarrÁ in the province of Burgos to pursue his secondary education at El Espino College, run by the Redemptorist Fathers.
His early months at the boarding school must have been a harsh introduction to the world outside of Santa Cruz de Terroso, largely due to his very limited command of Spanish. This nearly hindered his academic progress, but once he overcame the language barrier, he developed a pronounced introspective nature, which would later inform his contemplative artistic temperament. Fortunately, the school's curriculum offered a welcome counterbalance to his early discouragement. Music was a required subject -not treated as a minor or secondary course, but approached with an uncommon depth and seriousness rarely seen in general education at the time, or even in later decades. During the first four years of secondary school, students received two weekly solfège classes, which in the fifth and sixth years were followed by coursework equivalent to intermediate conservatory studies. Barja thus trained using the theoretical and practical methods of Joaquín Zamacois, the musical dictations of Hugo Riemann, López ChÁvarri's "History of Music", and, of course, the "Liber Usualis", which served as the basis for Gregorian chant instruction.
Most importantly, this technical training was accompanied by practical experience -primarily on the harmonium- and, above all, choral practice. This involved two weekly rehearsals for the entire student body, as well as additional sessions for a more select choir during the final years. This intense exposure to choral practice decisively influenced Barja's musical direction toward vocal polyphony, which became the focus of much of his output and a central element of his professional career as a conductor. Alongside this undeniable musical calling -which by then left no room for doubt and had already taken shape in a few early compositions- Barja also showed a talent for poetry, as evidenced by the following excerpts from the poem "Anclado dentro" ("Anchored within"), written as a farewell to El Espino College:

On my shore, only you remain,   a vague murmur of an echo,   with no footprints to speak your flowers anymore,   silenced by the voice of the wind.   And your absence is the incredible music   that aches in the soul of my nerves,   torments my ears,   Espino, the budding of your memory.   With your slow song of slender stone   withered by winter,   with your light birds, which I no longer hear,   I carry you anchored within.

At the beginning of the 1956–57 school year, he entered the novitiate in Nava del Rey (Valladolid), taking religious vows in August 1957 as a member of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer. He then immediately joined the Colegio Mayor San Alfonso in Valladolid, where he would pursue priesthood studies for the next seven years, being ordained in September 1963. During this time, he also deepened his musical studies with teachers such as the composer José Mª Goicoechea and the pianist Pablo San José, who introduced him to Wagner and Mahler, among many others, and he maintained a hyperactive life as a composer, choir director, and organist.
He spent the 1964–65 academic year in Madrid, engaged in pastoral work. That did not prevent him from developing a wide range of extracurricular activities that gradually and inexorably led him away from the mysticism and contemplative attitude of previous years. During the 1965–66 academic year, he was appointed teacher of Spanish Language, Music, Reading, and Declamation at the Colegio of the Redemptorist Fathers in El Escorial, also taking on the direction of the choir. It was precisely there that he encountered a reality that would haunt him for the rest of his life and which he would never fully come to terms with: as a result of his efforts to introduce new songs into the choral repertoire, he faced rejection from the other teachers at the school, a conflict that in part led to his transfer to the Colegio San Francisco in Astorga starting in the 1966–67 school year. There, he had his first contact with traditional Leonese music, to which he would later devote one of his finest works.
The following years were ones of great emotional hardship due to the deep disappointment caused by the incomprehension and disdain of his surroundings -something that cannot be better described than by his brother José: It was the struggle of his life. The delicacy of his soul was lost in the vulgarity of reality.
In 1967, his superiors sent him to Rome to study composition, given his demonstrated talent. He remained there until the summer of 1971. In Rome, Ángel Barja had his first exposure to music "on a grand scale." At the Pontifical Institute of Music, he perfected his knowledge of Counterpoint and Fugue, Composition, Orchestration, Musical Forms, Piano, Organ, Gregorian Chant, and Choral Conducting. He also came into contact with avant-garde compositional techniques by attending lectures and discussions with Cage, Berio, Nono, Petrassi, Bussotti, Maderna, Kagel, Boulez... in Rome, Venice, Naples, and Milan. During these four years, he immersed himself in Rome's vibrant musical life, attending an average of three or four concerts per week, many featuring the newly established Nuova Consonanza. He also frequently traveled to Austria, Switzerland, and Germany, and by his own admission, adopted Anton Webern as his "true creative guide."
After this period of intense artistic and educational development, Ángel Barja returned to Astorga in the summer of 1971. That Christmas, he traveled to León to attend a concert by the Capilla ClÁsica. Upon greeting its then-director, organist Adolfo Gutiérrez Viejo, he was immediately invited to take over the position. Barja accepted and moved to León in 1972, where he also began teaching Choral Ensemble at the local conservatory, while giving numerous private lessons in Harmony and Musical Forms. In 1985, likely tired of how all this activity left him with too little time to compose, he applied for a position as a secondary school teacher, and obtained a post at a high school in León.
That same year, he was awarded a grant by the León Provincial Council to work with folklorist Miguel Manzano in compiling traditional songs from the region, which led to the publication of the scores and the recording of Canciones del Reino de León. Without a doubt, his work as director of the Capilla ClÁsica de León gave his choral direction and compositional output a wide national and international projection, thanks to numerous concert tours and recording projects.
His years of teaching at the León Conservatory were also a time of deep spiritual crisis, culminating in his request for release from the priesthood in 1976, which was finally granted in January 1978. In November of that same year, he married Begoña Alonso, and a year later their only daughter, Ruth, was born.
In the summer of 1986, Ángel Barja began to show the first symptoms of an illness that, after a long and painful process, ended his life in the early hours of February 12, 1987, at the Clínica de San Juan de Dios in León.


III. The Musical Work

In addition to the numerous youthful compositions that were destroyed by the composer himself before it was too late and they fell into the greedy hands of hagiographic musicology, the catalogue published by the Diputación de León lists the following body of work composed by Ángel Barja. His instrumental music includes:

• 8 symphonic works, among which stand out two piano concertos, a suite for orchestra, and a piece for three trumpets and orchestra (Movimientos, an orchestration of an earlier organ piece with the same title),
• 40 chamber music works, including 1 suite for cello and piano titled Canciones; 1 suite for string orchestra, also titled Canciones but with different content; 4 string quartets; 1 trio for violin, cello, and piano; 1 sonata for violin and guitar; a Piccolo Concerto for oboe and string orchestra; a Divertimento for two trumpets and organ; and the previously mentioned Movimientos for three trumpets and organ. The rest consists of a variety of works with diverse instrumentation, including canons, several fugues, pieces for violin and viola, violin and cello, etc.,
• 29 works for organ, including Impression for Bach and Retablo. Most of them are religious in nature, and
• 10 works for piano, including a didactic collection titled Cuadernos de lectura a primera vista (Sight-reading notebooks).

His vocal music with instruments includes:

• 11 works for Choir and Orchestra, including four masses,
• 1 work for Voice and Orchestra, titled Avión de papel (Paper Airplane),
• 20 works for Choir and various instruments, including the 31 Songs from the Kingdom of León and the Hymn of Racing C.F.,
• 4 works for Voice and various instruments,
• 37 works for Choir and organ, the majority with a religious character,
• 56 works for Voice and organ, also mostly religious,
• 23 works for Voice and piano, including Four Sonnets of Dark Love by Federico García Lorca, set to melodies by Amancio Prada, and
• 1 cycle of four songs for voice and lute.

His a cappella choral music of secular character consists of:

• 34 Popular or Art Songs for SATB mixed choir,
• 1 cycle of 2 Songs of the Night,
• 39 Popular Songs for children's voices, with a didactic focus,
• 1 cycle of 16 Italian Madrigals,
• 1 cycle of 29 Madrigals and Songs,
• 1 cycle of 5 Madrigals and Romances,
• 1 cycle of ten songs within the book Music and Poetry for Children,
• 1 cycle of seven songs titled Poems of the Sea, and
• 98 miscellaneous choral pieces, difficult to classify.

His sacred a cappella choral music comprises 88 works.

Finally, in addition to the aforementioned didactic works, Barja also authored an interesting and useful theoretical-practical manual for Choral Ensemble classes, written as a result of his teaching experience at the León Conservatory.


IV. Characteristics of Ángel Barja's Music

Were it not for the pejorative connotations that the adjective has acquired over the years, Ángel Barja's music could rightly be described as that of an eclectic composer. This term suffers from a similar fate as the word erudite, which progressives use to describe thinkers of a conservative bent, while reserving for themselves the title intellectuals. In that vein, conservative eclecticism is opposed to the synthesizing approach of more avant-garde positions. Essentially, these are just two different ways of describing the same phenomenon, depending on one's perspective.
With that distinction made, however tendentious it may seem, there is no doubt that Barja was indeed, as mentioned, an eclectic composer -one who drew upon what he deemed best from various schools of thought for both his aesthetic vision and technical command. Yet what might be instinctive in another composer, in Barja stems from true scholarship: he was a genuine sage, deeply knowledgeable of the most intricate secrets of his art -or more precisely, of the particular branch of the art to which he dedicated himself most intensely.
As noted in the catalogue summary, Barja's symphonic music comprises a relatively small number of works, among which, besides the two piano concertos, a notable piece is the Suite for Orchestra, composed in 1972 for a medium-sized ensemble (woodwinds and brass in pairs, timpani, and strings). It is worth remembering that Barja returned to Spain in 1971 after four years of study in Rome, where he underwent a significant aesthetic transformation due to close contact with the most advanced musical languages and techniques of the time. The influence of the avant-garde seems to have shaken the solid foundations of his previously traditional musical training -a fact already evident in the earliest works following that period. In the Suite for Orchestra, one senses from the outset a surge of harmonic and melodic restlessness, previously absent from his compositions, striving to find shelter within the traditional molds that still shaped his technical vocabulary. References to tradition abound (such as the Allegro alla Giga that opens the Suite, as well as the use of simple meter barely able to contain the momentum of the new idioms employed), and across its eleven movements, one observes a clear desire to find morphological and syntactical tools to achieve a different aesthetic goal.
Particularly notable within Ángel Barja's chamber music output -due to both its scope and the formal and structural cohesion of its concepts- are his four string quartets, dated 1969, 1972, 1976, and 1982, respectively. From the first, subtitled in D Major, to the last, titled Fluencias, one can perceive an entire world of creative evolution, something evident even from the titles themselves. The procedures used in the first quartet -the most academic of the group- reveal the mindset of a composer eager to train himself in the purest canons of classical form and tonality, and it must be understood entirely in that light: from the sonata form of the first movement to the final fugato, passing through a lyrical slow movement and a carefree scherzo, the quartet seems unwilling to leave anything out that might obscure its scholastic origins and its character as a superbly crafted study piece.
But already in the second quartet, titled DiÁlogos, Barja enters a very different sonic world, clearly shaped by the strong aesthetic influences experienced during his years of study in Rome. This quartet, contemporary with the previously discussed Suite for Orchestra, opens onto an expressionist world only made possible by an atonal treatment of melodic and harmonic material -a realm Barja enters with great skill, without ever losing sight of the use of certain resources, especially contrapuntal ones, firmly rooted in tradition. Both the third quartet, titled Contrapuntos joviales (Joyful Counterpoints), and the fourth, Fluencias, continue within this aesthetic framework, each reaching a higher level of technical mastery and displaying an appealing instrumental treatment, always fully "quartet-like" in the most classical sense of the word.
Among the rest of his instrumental music, it is perhaps in his works for organ where the most daring harmonic innovations and advanced compositional procedures can be found. A prime example is the triptych titled Impression for Bach, in which Barja unhesitatingly employs new forms of musical notation as a means of aiding performance. Aleatoric groups, clusters, areas of free improvisation, and other contemporary devices are all present in a highly original work of great structural cohesion -achieved in large part through the simultaneous use of quotations from Bach and contrapuntal techniques that evoke the great organ works of the cantor of St. Thomas in Leipzig.
Yet, as valuable as Ángel Barja's instrumental music may be -albeit not voluminous in quantity- it is his vocal music, especially that composed for choral ensembles or small vocal groups, that undoubtedly secures him a place of honor in the history of Spanish music.
As previously mentioned, Barja was the author of a vast number of original pieces, as well as arrangements and transcriptions of folk music, both for a cappella choir and for voice with instruments. These works demonstrate a profound understanding of vocal technique and tradition, as well as a contrapuntal mastery that, drawing directly from the sources of classical polyphony, achieves an appealing balance between traditional techniques and modern harmonic treatment.
From his earliest harmonizations for the choirs of the Redemptorist schools to his final musical sketch on his deathbed (the beginning of a two-voice fugue on Exaudi, Domine, orationem meam), Barja developed, in his polyphonic writing, a remarkable body of work -both qualitative and quantitative- that spans both sacred and secular themes. Of the latter, the folk-inspired works are particularly significant. In this area, alongside many completely original compositions, he produced fascinating arrangements and harmonizations, forming one of the most significant choral collections in the Spanish repertoire. Especially noteworthy within his secular polyphonic output are the Songs from the Kingdom of León, a collection of 31 arrangements based on melodies from León's folk tradition, as well as his numerous Madrigals and Songs, for both choirs and vocal ensembles. Many of these were written in close collaboration with the English group The Scholars, whose frequent performances contributed to a relatively wide national and international dissemination.
Alongside these, the enormous number of sacred choral pieces reveals not only his complete command of choral writing but also his inclination toward a compositional style we might call neo-Renaissance, as it draws directly from the great Spanish polyphonists of the 15th and 16th centuries. From contrapuntal treatment to the frequent use of archaic harmonic procedures alongside modern harmonies, and including the texts selected and even the choice of time signatures (3/2, 4/2, and 6/4 being the most common), everything in this music proclaims its inheritance from the great Western polyphonic tradition, both technically and spiritually.
This prioritization of choral over instrumental music is a direct result of his formative years and his work with various choral ensembles, both during and after his studies, up until his death. In this regard, Barja can rightly be considered a true maestro de capilla, whose output is focused primarily on providing music and enriching the repertoire of the vocal groups under his direction. His is, therefore, music of direct utility, written to meet the needs of its intended performers.


Conclusions

Despite all that has been said, it would seem that both the figure and the work of Ángel Barja are at risk of falling into a generalized apathy on the part of various sectors of society involved in musical culture. It is inexplicable, given the quantity and, above all, the quality of his music, that his work appears to attract so little interest -not from performers (very few take on his instrumental works, and even more surprisingly, so few choirs include even a small portion of his vast vocal output in their repertoire), nor from scholars (with rare exceptions as previously noted), nor from concert organizers, whose mental laziness when it comes to programming is matched only by that of audiences, increasingly reluctant to open their ears to unfamiliar works.
With Ángel Barja's music -as with that of many other composers of his generation- we risk committing the same injustice that was done to composers of the Republic generation who went into exile. Nearly 70 years after the end of the Civil War, we all agree that it is unfair that the music of Antonio José, JuliÁn Bautista, Salvador Bacarisse, Gustavo Pittaluga, Rosa García Ascot, or Jesús Bal y Gay -to name just a few- is not heard as regularly as their stature and the quality of their work deserve. But even once this injustice is acknowledged, very little is done to rectify it -save for a few institutional initiatives, and hardly ever any individual efforts.
I would not want to end this presentation without letting you hear a truly revealing document that highlights the character and personality of Ángel Barja. It is a brief, ten-minute excerpt from an interview with journalist José Manuel Mures, broadcast on Radio León on February 28, 1984 -almost three years before the composer's death. Despite the unfortunate decision to include background music throughout the interview (a serious misstep that only hinders the listener's experience), this is a powerful testimony to Barja's restless spirit and the melancholy provoked by the unfavorable conditions under which he was forced to work as a composer.
With this moving document, we bring this session to a close. Congratulations to this institution for its exemplary initiative -one that, we hope, may serve as a model for others supporting Galician music with a universal vocation- and for the success that this concert series is surely destined to achieve.
Once again, thank you for inviting me to open this cycle, and to all of you, thank you for your attention.


León–Madrid–MÁlaga
December 2005 – January 2006