If things had gone as planned, Manuel Palau Boix would have continued with his parents' business and devoted himself to the olive oil trade. In fact, he was trained for this task. However, despite not having any precedent in the family (but sorrounded by the musical atmosphere of Valencia), he chose to dedicate himself to music. In secret, he studied, and when his family moved [...]

On Friday, February 2, it will be twelve years since I wrote my first post on this blog. To begin the traditional anniversary article, I would like to thank you, my dear readers. For reading occasionally, for doing it week after week, for telling me when you like a song, for providing details or suggestions, here, by mail, on the social networks or when meeting by chance at concert [...]

After the long post of last week, I will present briefly a song you probably know: Canción al árbol del olvido. Argentine composer Alberto Ginastera wrote it in 1938, at his twenty-two. Therefore, it is an early song, from his first period, known as objective nationalism. During this time, the composer approached the folklore of his country very directly, quoting and recreating [...]

A few days ago, tenor Javier Camarena gave an all-Tosti recital at the Palau de la Música. A user from Twitter, @alegrescomares (named after The Merry Wifes of Windsor) raised some quite common doubts about song and their different types. I tried to clarify some things, with the necessarily concise format of the network [...]

The first time I read Pride and Prejudice, as a teenager, the lines we find in chapter 22, just after Charlotte Lucas has agreed to marry William Collins, a stupid and pompous man,impressed me, and I copied them to a notebook. Reading this chapter, I was sorry for the poor Charlotte, who was not only condemned to living with, but to the service of, someone so unbearable. I was surprised [...]