Perhaps it was while contextualizing the thesis with bibliographic sources. Raquel García-Tomás completed her doctorate in composition at the Royal College of Music in London and began acquiring books just in case. There are very specialized ones, it is not always easy to find them on interdisciplinary creation in music. So, as soon as she saw something that could suit her, she bought it. Sometimes in a museum shop, after an exhibition. Or in La Central del Raval, or in Finestres, where – before deciding, because it is expensive – she had many times in her hands Voice machines, by Bonnie Gordon. She reads it intermittently. Published by The University of Chicago Press, “it is the typical one that you have to buy because, if not, it disappears.”
It has many of Acantilado, opera books from a sociological perspective, essays, experimental music, predominance of music and genre. Several about intersexuality and Herculine Barbin, Alexina B, for the opera that she premiered last year at the Liceu. When she was working on it, at the beginning of 2020, it was not easy to find literature on the subject from a psychological and human point of view. There were some anatomical studies. She obtained, at the Antinous bookstore, two copies of the only Spanish translation of Barbin's memoirs, and she has Gallimard's edition in French with a preface by Foucault and an annex of the autopsies that were performed on him.
The national Music Prize winner's books are in the small studio in the apartment where she has lived since 2017, full of light and happy plants. At the bottom of the white shelves, the income tax returns (she is self-employed), medical reports, the Esmuc notes. He keeps things that he doesn't know when he might need, art books, from his student days, Leaves of Grass, from when he paired Whitman's Song of Myself with Bach's music for his symphonic-choral work Suite of Myself. Folders from the conservatory, many lined with magazines that he bought on Tallers Street, like Mondo Sonoro. Empty classifiers. And the scores of him; Ikea boxes for cables, microphones, cameras. Also a ukulele that he says plays very badly, bought at the time of Je suis narcissiste. Pens and colors.
Because his ideas become drawings: “The orchestra does this, and maybe does a downward glissando,” a notebook shows, “these are my moves, the sketches of what comes to mind; “I was totally crazy.” Her sketches help her understand the musical form she is creating. Her work goes through several phases, from notebooks to sheet music, from there to the computer, then to the keyboard. She is now considering a project on the visions of Hildegard von Bingen, and to know if it is viable, she has to document herself, for example with Life and Visions, published by Victoria Cirlot.
At nineteen he had tendonitis and could not play the piano. He went by public transport to Terrassa and read. Between 2001 and 2003 she used the library card a lot: Orwell; Kundera; Arundhati Roy; Quim Monzó; Like water for chocolate, by Esquivel; Ocean, sea, by Baricco. The pleasure of fiction lasted until the smartphone arrived. She has always had good reading skills; He does it quickly and he likes it. But he lacks time. In neuroscience books he sees that the brains of creative people work in many directions at the same time, and perhaps that is why it is difficult for him to maintain concentration while reading. She does maintain it strongly and many hours when she produces (whether composing or cooking; she has classics like Vegan at home). If not, there comes a point where reading it upsets you, a notice pops up reminding you: “Work!”
He hasn't had a vacation for the last five years. She does meditation to enter a not so dispersed state and relax through conscious breathing: “In times of stress, the body becomes alert,” and changes the perception of what is happening around; “There are those who understand it from mysticism, and others, from science.” For work, she spends many hours alone at home in contact with her mind, and she is interested in books on the subject; “It is a way to get to know yourself and understand how creativity works, the fear of not meeting expectations.” And she wishes: “It would be wonderful to have time to read.”
