Emocions: Música i literatura, Teatre Romea Barcelona
Written by Laura for Theatre and Tonic
Disclaimer: Gifted tickets in exchange for an honest review
Fundació Romea organizes events every month to promote the scenic arts through different kinds of activities revolving around culture and theatre. This past Monday, it was Ramon Gener’s turn with Emocions: Música i literatura (Emotions: Music and Literature).
Ramon Gener is a musician, writer, and communicator who has worked in both television and radio, with programs such as Òpera en Texans (Opera in Jeans) and This is Opera.
During this fascinating talk, Gener introduced his four pillars: Ludwig van Beethoven, Gabriel García Márquez, Alexander the Great, and Leonard Bernstein. Using these four figures as examples, he touched on several subjects related to how emotion is transmitted through music. He mentioned, for example, Beethoven, who was the first composer to try to send a message through his music, and Bernstein, who explored what music is trying to say during his Six Talks at Harvard.
Gener then proceeded to compare music and the written word, concluding that music does not have semantic power. Even if it can generate emotions in us, we are the ones who fill in the blanks. It is impossible to understand the exact meaning of a song unless it is explained to us. That is why, he concluded, he had to write a book, Història d’un piano, to talk about music: because a song alone would not be able to convey exactly what he wanted to say, as it has no semantic power.
All of this was illustrated with videos and with Gener himself playing the piano to make his points as clear as possible in an engaging yet thoroughly fascinating way.
Fundació Romea has already planned its next activities up until May, with some interesting proposals, such as “finding Teatre Romea’s perfume.”
★★★★★
