The musician Jordi Savall was awarded an honorary doctorate degree by the UB on Monday 27 November, during a ceremony held in the University’s Paranimf and presided over by the rector, Màrius Rubiralta. The professor of Spanish Literature, Adolfo Sotelo Vázquez, acted as sponsor to the maestro during the ceremony, which was attended by Ferran Mascarell, Minister of Culture in the Catalan Government. In his speech, Jordi Savall stressed the need to recover «the marvellous power of music» in confronting the conflicts and instability in the world today. Savall accompanied his speech with a musical recital.

«It is culture - a universal culture in all its aesthetic and spiritual dimensions – that truly allows each and everyone of us to revitalise ourselves in the past so that we might participate better in the creation of a more just and more humane future», Jordi Savall claimed. He went on to argue that music must not shed its «spiritual dimension». If we lose sight of this, music will eventually inhibit our deepest sensibility. «In no other period of our history has so much music been heard, but equally in no other period have acts of barbarism become so widespread and commonplace», he warned.

On the role of music as historical legacy, Savall claimed that «music is the art of the memory par excellence». In his speech, he recalled his work in recovering early music, in particular the mediaeval music of the Iberian peninsula, at a time when Christian, Muslim and Jewish cultures coincided in these lands. From this combination of historical and musical sources is born, according to Savall, «a vision of renewal in which the beauty and emotion of music can enter into an expressive dialogue with the essential texts of the past».

Savall concluded his speech with a call to ensure that all children receive a good musical education, because, if «after the age of ten or twelve years we have not sung or made music for ourselves, we lose the capacity to be sensitive to musical expression for ever». «Only the engagement in a musical activity [...] can structure the personality of young people today in the sense of awakening their spirit, their respect for one another and their desire for peace», claimed the maestro Savall.

Professor Adolfo Sotelo, in his speech, presented a summary of the musical career of Jordi Savall and reminded us of some of the features of his work, such as his constant concern for dialogue between East and West. Professor Sotelo reflected on the nature of humanism and its role today. «When will we stop allowing ourselves to believe that humanism is a form of petulance and not an exciting adventure that involves deciphering once more differences, alternative traditions and texts in a much broader context than that in which we have been accustomed to doing so to date?», he asked, in a clear reference to the words of Edward W. Said, Professor at the University of Columbia.

The rector, Màrius Rubiralta, in his speech, stressed that the awarding of the honorary degree expressed not only the feelings of the UB, but those «of all Catalans». At the same time he highlighted «the broad-based character» of the award setting it in the context of the new working areas created for the Faculty of Philology and the faculties – those of Philosophy and Geography and History – that have moved this academic year to the Raval district. Finally, he spoke of the fact that the university and music are «key elements» in creating the right conditions for dialogue.

Following his speech, Jordi Savall interpreted the following pieces: Las estrellas de los cielos / Yo m'enamorí d'un ayre (anonymous, Sephardic), Durme, hermosa donzella (Sephardic lullaby), Ghazali tal jàhri (anonymous, Moroccan), Apo xeno meros (anonymous, Greek), Lamento di Tristano, Istampitta (anonymous, Italian), Polorum regina (from the Llibre vermell de Montserrat), Soleta so jo ací (Bartomeu Càrceres), Romanesca & Passamezzo (Diego Ortiz) and Sentirete una canzonetta (Tarquino Merula). Jordi Savall was accompanied by his wife, Montserrat Figueras (voice); his daughter, Arianna Savall (harp and voice), and Dimitri Psonis (percussion). Savall played the viola da gamba and the vielle.

Jordi Savall (Igualada, 1941) is best known for his dedication to the recovery of early music, pieces that date from the Middle Ages to the nineteenth century. He is considered one of the greatest virtuosos in the world of the viola da gamba, an early instrument that was used between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries before being replaced by the violoncello. In awarding him with an honorary doctorate, the University recognises the work of Jordi Savall in recovering not only early music, but also an important legacy of Catalan and European texts from many different periods of history, though especially from the Middle Ages.

The work of Jordi Savall has permitted us to recover, therefore, not only our musical heritage but also our textual heritage from the Middle Ages. The repertory on which Savall has worked includes, for example, troubadour poems, couplets, villancets (traditional Catalan Christmas songs), madrigals, Latin, Catalan, Occitan poems as well as poetry from many other parts of Europe. Thanks to his efforts, the poetry of the Llibre vermell de Montserrat, the songs of the trobairitz, el cant de la sibil.la (Gregorian chants), the songs of Alfonso X (“the Wise”), the Cancionero de Medinaceli and the work of Juan del Encina and Lope de Vega, to name just a few, have reached a public, around the world, that would not normally have come into contact with specialist literary studies.

With the purpose of recovering ancient music, ever-present, Savall has founded and directed various ensembles including Hespèrion XXI (an international ensemble comprising excellent soloists dedicated to researching and performing early music), the Capella Reial de Catalunya (an ensemble formed, like the royal choirs of the Renaissance and Baroque periods, by soloists and an instrumental section, and dedicated to disseminating the early music of Catalonia and, by extension, that of Spain and the rest of the world) and Le Concert des Nations (an orchestra composed of period instruments, able to interpret the orchestral and symphonic repertory from the end of the Baroque to the Romanticism). Savall’s work has not gone unrecognised, and he has been named Knight of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government, and received the Creu de Sant Jordi and the Medalla de Oro de las Bellas Artes from the Spanish Government.

The rigour with which Jordi Savall undertakes his work is not only evident in his reconstruction and dissemination of music, but also in his concern for the lyrics of the musical compositions, and this has led him, on numerous occasions, to collaborate with the members of the Philology Faculty at the UB. In this facet of his work, Savall has always sought to work with faithful textual versions and to ensure the pronunciation is as close as possible to that of the age in which the piece was written. Savall has often interpreted musical compositions based on texts that at the same time have been the object of study of UB researchers. Over the years Savall has also given his support to various University initiatives, including the collection of Catalan Medieval Texts. Finally, the UB wishes to highlight that throughout his career Savall has defended the values of the university, most notably the exchange of knowledge, understanding, tolerance and peace.