Carol Of The Birds: A Song History
El cant dels ocells ("The Song of the Birds") is a Catalan folk song in which many different birds celebrate the birth of Jesus.[1] Its melancholy tune lies in a minor key and spans an unusually wide range.[1] When the archduke-king Charles III entered Barcelona in 1705, a political parody of the song was printed on loose sheets.[1]
Utagawa Hiroshige, Warbler on a Plum Branch, woodblock print, ca. 1835. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public domain (CC0). A Japanese bird print, shown for its subject; it has no connection to the song.
The cellist Pau (Pablo) Casals, an opponent of Fascism, lived in exile at Prades in French Catalonia and, from 1956, in Puerto Rico; in 1946 he gave up public performance in protest at international recognition of Franco's regime.[2] From his 1939 exile onward he began his concerts with this song, which has come to be seen as a national symbol of Catalonia.[1] His arrangement of it for cello is counted among his compositions.[3] The foundation bearing his name describes it as the traditional song he turned into an emblem of hope, peace and longing for his homeland, and it closed a tribute to him held at the Spanish Congress of Deputies for the International Day of Peace in 2026.[4]
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