HISTORY OF THE BARX MUSIC BAND
Evarist Donet Donet
The origins of the Barx music band are unclear, as there are practically no written documents that give us any information. Nevertheless, thanks to the interviews that Cristina Donet conducted during the summer of 1980 with Salvador Pallés, a man of prodigious memory, and with other elderly musicians of the village, we know some of the most notable events of the first decades of its existence.
We know that in the second half of the 19th century there was a musical ensemble of 17 members that played at local festivities and at those of other towns. One such occasion is recorded in a document from the archive of the Sant Jordi Association of Alcoi, which states that the Barx band paraded with 21 musicians accompanying the “Andalusians” troupe during the Moors and Christians festivities of 1886. Its first conductor, or one of the first, appears to have been known by the nickname “Bocasangre”. At the turn of the 19th to the 20th century the band had 20 musicians, and the conductors who led it were Ramón Porro, Blai Català and Joaquín Bonillo.
Another surviving written document dates from 1924. It is the Internal Regulations of the Filarmónica de Barig, whose president was the aforementioned Salvador Pallés. In 1930 the band consisted of 22 musicians and was conducted by Tomás Sanz. Although musical activity was suspended during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), it resumed once the conflict ended, and the membership grew slightly over the following two decades to reach 24 musicians.
In 1960 Evaristo Donet took over as conductor and, in order to raise the ensemble’s musical standard, turned his own home into the academy where the children and young people of the village came to learn solfège and to play the woodwind instruments. Moreover, thanks to his knowledge of harmony and his command of every musical clef, he used pen and ink to transcribe, from the conductor’s short score, the works to be performed for every instrument in the band.
The 1970s were marked first by crisis and later by revival. When Evaristo Donet stepped down in 1975, Vicente Oliver and Salvador Deusa, both parish priests of the church of Sant Miquel Arcàngel in Barx, took charge of the band, during which time its membership fell to 16 musicians. However, as a result of the band’s trip to Toulon (France) in August 1978 for a cultural exchange, for which Juan Vercher was invited as conductor, Juan Donet, who was the band’s delegate, proposed creating a musical society. The initiative was well received by the musicians and by a good part of the village, which was willing to help with the project. The Societat Unió Musical Santa Cecília de Barx was founded on 19 September 1978, with Juan Bautista Montagut as president and Juan Vercher as conductor of the band and head of the music school.
Juan Vercher took up his posts on Saturday 30 September 1978, and the first great result of his work was seen on Sunday 26 August 1979, when 30 students from the music school — which for the first time included several girls — joined the band. It was a deeply moving occasion in which almost the whole village took part, accompanying the band as it collected the new musicians house by house while playing the pasodoble Tuyo, composed by Juan Vercher especially for the event. The band thus came to have more musicians than ever: 46. On 11 November of that same year, during the feast of Santa Cecília, another 7 students joined and the band reached a new peak: 53 musicians.
The first half of the 1980s was a period of consolidation and growth, during which more musicians joined and street performances at festivities were combined with concerts featuring increasingly demanding repertoire. Highlights include the Bands Festival of Simat de la Valldigna, held on 4 August 1982, with the Egmont overture by L. v. Beethoven; and the concert of 2 April 1984 at the Collegiate Church of Gandia, where the band, then 70 musicians strong, performed Apocalipsis, an oratorio composed by Juan Vercher. The Societat Unió Musical Santa Cecília also worked with Juan Vercher to organise the national Clarinet Course held at the Casa de Cultura in Barx in August 1985. During this flourishing period the presidents were Vicente Mestre (6 December 1980), Carles Donet (1981) and Antonio Montagut (1983).
The second half of the 1980s and the first half of the 1990s were years of instability, decline and crisis, both institutional and musical. On 17 November 1985 Edmundo Donet was elected president and, on 3 December, Rafael Cárcel was presented as the new conductor of the band — then 44 musicians — and head of the music school, replacing Juan Vercher. That year the Himne a Barx, written decades earlier, was added to the programme of the Santa Cecília concert and conducted by its own composer, Miguel Villar.
On 12 May 1986 Salvador Fabra took over the band and the school, and with him began the band’s participation in the “Retrobem la Nostra Música” campaigns and in several music festivals in the Safor region. Also worth noting is the performance of the overture Poeta y Aldeano by F. v. Suppé on 12 August 1986, at the village festivities concert.
On 5 December 1987 Adolfo Guerrero was elected president and, on 8 May 1988, he presented Salvador González as the new conductor of the band and head of the school. Under his direction a new way of understanding music took hold, with more street performances at festivities in various towns of the Valencian Community and also in band competitions, such as the 5th Mediterranean Band Competition, held in the city of Valencia on 25 August 1988, where the Barx music band won first prize. Salvador González also composed the anthem La Societat, dedicated to the Societat Unió Musical Santa Cecília de Barx, which is performed every year at the close of the Santa Cecília concert.
Salvador González remained conductor during the presidencies of Bernardo Castelló (12 December 1989), Miguel Sanchis (1991), who in his last two years in office was assisted in the presidency by Rafa Miñana and Ricard Camarena, and Antonio Donet (1 November 1995). During this period some musicians from Barx holding higher-degree qualifications began to join the teaching staff of the society’s music school; a strategy that remains in place today and has improved the musical quality of the band’s members.
During Antonio Donet’s presidency, following a suggestion by Julio Donet, the saxophone teacher, the Banda Jove (youth band) was formed and presented to the public in November 1996 by its conductor, Javier Donet, who had taught solfège and clarinet at the music school since 1989. In January 1997 Javier Donet also took over the band and the music school, positions he still holds today. He was the first musician from Barx to take charge of the band since 1975.
Other notable events of this period were the large-scale concert given in 1998 in Simat de la Valldigna by the music bands of the four towns of the region during the celebration of the 700th anniversary of the founding of the Royal Monastery of Santa Maria de la Valldigna (15 March 1298); and the celebration of the society’s 20th anniversary, which culminated on 31 August 1999 with a concert honouring all its presidents and governing boards.
On 6 July 2001 a woman was elected president of the society for the first time: Inmaculada Donet, marking the beginning of a trend that has continued to this day. On 21 September 2003 María del Carmen Donet was elected as the new president, and with her began the society’s period of greatest institutional stability.
Notable events of her presidency include the 25th anniversary of the first intake of students into the music band, which culminated in the concert of 18 September 2004, featuring several musicians who, for various reasons, were no longer members; the occasion was also used to publicly acknowledge everyone who had worked selflessly for the society over those 25 years. The band also took part in the 29th and 30th Provincial Band Competitions of the Provincial Council, held at the Palau de la Música in Valencia in 2005 and 2006 respectively, winning second prize in the second section on both occasions. In July 2005 the band performed in Paris: on the 21st it gave a concert on the Champs-Élysées and on the 23rd at the Parc Montsouris. The Societat Unió Musical Santa Cecília has also taken part without interruption in the “Retrobem la Nostra Música” campaigns and in the musical exchange programmes of the Institut Valencià de la Música (IVM), performing in various towns across the Valencian Community and Spain — for example the 23rd Band Exchange (2009) in Villamayor (Salamanca) and the 25th Band Exchange (2011) in Venta del Moro. The band also appeared in the British film Solo (2016), shot in London and in Barx, in which it plays a prominent role and performs the soundtrack.
On 4 November 2017 Lidia Donet was elected president. The presidency of the society is currently held by Ana Bixquert Pallas. The band currently has a stable membership which, depending on circumstances and needs, ranges between 45 and 50 musicians, a significant number of whom hold professional or higher-level music qualifications. As a result, both its street performances at festivities and its concerts are of ever greater musical quality.
Throughout all these years, thanks to its good relationship with Barx Town Council, with which it has signed a collaboration agreement, the Societat Unió Musical Santa Cecília has enjoyed the use of the facilities of the Casa de Cultura and the Algeval Theatre for all its activities: meetings, general assemblies, lessons, rehearsals and concerts. Indeed, the society and its music band have become the main unifying element of local community life.