Sardana

The sardana is danced in a closed circle, hands joined and steps counted in groups of long and short measures (llargs and curts). The music is performed by a cobla — a fixed eleven-piece ensemble featuring the small flabiol pipe with attached drum (tamborí), tibles and tenores (double-reed shawms), trumpets, trombones and contrabass. The texture is bright and trans-acoustic, designed for open plaza performance. Sectional changes cue the dancers to switch between long and short steps; the pulse is steady but never mechanical.

The sardana is documented in something close to its modern form by the late nineteenth century in the Empordà region of Catalonia and codified by Pep Ventura, who standardised the cobla instrumentation in the mid-nineteenth century. Under the Franco dictatorship (1939-1975) Catalan-language and Catalan-cultural expression was suppressed, and the sardana became a quiet act of identity assertion. After Spain's democratic transition the dance returned to plazas across Catalonia.

The tibles and tenores deliver the lead melodies; the brass underpins. The little flabiol cues the start. Imagining the ring of dancers helps the music make sense — the music is paced for collective stepping, not solo display.

Pep Ventura's La Santa Espina, in any cobla recording from the mid-twentieth century onward, is the canonical example. Cobla Mediterrània and Cobla Sant Jordi have extensive catalogues.

La Santa Espina was specifically banned by Spanish authorities during periods of repression because of how strongly it had become identified with Catalan identity. The closed-ring choreography is read as an image of egalitarian community — everyone holds the same height of hand.