The news is already known that the singer-songwriters Joan Manuel Serrat and Maria del Mar Bonet will be invested with honorary doctors by the University of Barcelona tomorrow, Monday, in recognition of their merits and their career in the cultural field, in the Auditorium of the Universitat square. . And there could be no better reason for the two referents to jointly value a decision that produces undisguised satisfaction.
She already has doctorates of this type from the universities of Lleida and Palma de Mallorca and he “have a few, yes”, including from the Universitat Pompeu Fabra. “When they told me, they made me happy; On the one hand, it is an honor that a city like Barcelona and its university give it to you, and on the other, being by Joan Manel's side, even better. They had always given me solo prizes and this is much more intense, and personally gratifying”, reflects the Mallorcan artist.
Serrat recalls that the University of Barcelona "is the one of my city and it is also my university that I stepped on and spent some very important years of my life. On the other hand, by giving the honoris causa to Maria del Mar and me together on the same day It is also rewarding a cultural fact that has been very important for the country and the city. Seeing that the university is opening up to other forms of knowledge and talent is interesting for the winners and also for the university itself. It is important that a university of this prestige bet on it”.
The fact that it is this university is, therefore, a reason for special satisfaction, but they do not believe that it is a decision that should have occurred before. “I have had many recognitions and I am very excited that this also happens in my house. They are distinctions to be thankful for but if it hadn't happened I wouldn't have felt any disappointment”, says the man from Barcelona. Maria del Mar Bonet says that “I have not been a student at any university, but I feel that this one is very much mine because when I arrived in Barcelona I went to many events there, many of them around freedom. And I have always been surprised that they give me some recognition of this type because I associate them with more literate people”.
Both believe that this recognition of the author's song and the craft of making songs should be a reason to explain this to the young generations. “I am the son of a time and a country, and at that moment when we joined the song –both were members of Els Setze Jutges, he number 13 and she number 14–, we took the testimony of a way of singing and above all to make songs and we have been transporting it and I hope that others take it and add links to this chain ”, reflects Serrat. "We are important to the extent that we are responsible for what we did in our time, and I think we are part of a country of artists, minstrels, troubadours, and I hope this continues to happen."
Bonet agrees: “Yes, we are part of a human species that is dedicated to making songs and I think that Els Setze Jutges, who began to write songs and interpret poets, marked me a lot at that time because I only sang popular songs. I remember very well the day I wrote a song and took it to Espinàs to see if it could serve as a song. And little by little I was getting closer to what was magnificent for me, which was to see some people who wrote songs and who were part of a movement that was also European for new songs, Brassens, Brel, Barbara... What I wanted was , from what he knew of popular music, to write songs in this way. Write songs from my roots and my geography. And then I went further, to popular Italian music, Bella ciao, all the music from Greece, Turkey, North Africa... I thought and still think that the Mediterranean is like a country and we can share many things".
One of the great unknowns that exist, and both corroborate it, is knowing if this way of living, feeling and expressing music is going to have a run. The troubadour from Poble Sec expresses his great doubts. “Taking a quick general look at the world, no one can be sure of anything, of where things are going to go. What we are sure of is the speed with which everything moves, I don't know if the things through which man has historically advanced are really moving, or we move around ourselves without stopping. And with the song it happens a bit the same. If we base ourselves on what is currently heard on the radio, where communication groups have already segmented music for decades. If there is this fragmentation in the supply, how are we going to be able to even guess where it is going? The music that we make is the result of our discoveries, what we liked musically, what moved us as a way of telling stories, which was closely linked to language –“and to poetry”, interjects Bonet–, and to the commitment to what you lived at your side. around. Neither Maria del Mar nor I have always stopped doing what we wanted, and always with our ears open to what moved us. Now, what has happened around it has been mostly the product of a profitable music trade industry.”
And it is that according to him, “the music that is made now, is displacing anything else that is not in that line. If you don't have new creators, you won't be able to reach a new audience that can learn different songs... We've been lucky enough to live making popular music in connection with cultured music. Let's see, between a reggaeton and Beethoven's Fifth there is a big difference, and I hope that the current situation reverses without prejudice to anyone or any music”.
On the other hand, the fact of being references in their fields and not just musicals has not caused them headaches. “I would speak rather and above all of self-demand in what you do. About me there has always been a demand for quality in what I do, a search in the language that I use in a poetic way", says Bonet, to add that "I have never sought to be a model for anything or anyone, I have only sought to be really like what I do."
Serrat focuses on the topic: “I've been writing songs for sixty years and being a public figure; I would not have been the latter if I were not an interesting artist. They are things that are linked. Everything I have written in my life has been done in full freedom for me; my artistic life has been an apprenticeship and the way of writing has been changing. On the other hand, I am responsible for what my songs say, but I am not guilty of the effect they may have on everyone. But luckily I don't think I've generated social scandals. We are somewhat at the mercy of public opinion but the most important thing is one's behavior. And in this aspect I have cohabited very well with my environment and my characters”.
As you know, Serrat has definitely withdrawn from the stage a couple of months ago. And one wonders how does the artist endure without contact with the public? Maria del Mar Bonet does not seem concerned when she says that “for me this man can now make a better song than he did before. And for this reason I hope that Joan Manuel does not stop writing, and perhaps surely he now makes the best song of his life ”. The aforementioned responds: “I really enjoy the live show, I had a great time and I would continue because the artist is seen there and not so much on the recording. But now I have left it because a long cycle of my life has come to an end and I want to be there for other things. And I can say that now I am very well, delighted ”.
Taking advantage of face to face, there is nothing better than knowing your intersecting preferences. Bonet confesses that “I remember when I started listening to her in Barcelona and I was very moved by that Ara que tinc vint anys, but La tieta is one of her sublime songs. And the album of his that I adore by him is Cançons tradicionals [from 1967!]... I burst into tears when I hear your version of La dama de Aragó”, he tells his colleague. The noi from Poble Sec, for his part, acknowledges that “everything she does I listen to with affection and pleasure, but I prefer the record she made of popular Majorcan songs, Cançons de festa ” [also from 1967!].
