Honorat Vilamanyà i Serrat was a Catalan composer and musician. He was the youngest of seven brothers and became an orphan at the age of eleven. At an early age he started to study violin and later on harmony, counterpoint and instrumentation with his cousin, the teacher Ramon Serrat i Fajula. When he was seventeen he became a disciple of the great teacher Eduard Toldrà, who took him further into the study and perfection of the violin. He also recognized the piano as an important instrument for composition, and began to study piano with the renowned soloist Juli Pons.
Having finished his studies, Vilamanyà created in Ripoll (1922) the orchestra Serratins, first as a sextet and, from 1928, as a cobla. At the same time he officially founded the Academy Vilamanyà. In 1934 he was appointed teacher of the Municipal Conservatory of Music of Vic.
In the decade of the 1930s Vilamanyà wrote his first sardanas, including La primera batallada, La Madona Ripollesa, Les campanes del poble. But it was with Camí dels Pirineus that a very personal, melodious, brave and exquisite Vilamanyà began to emerge. The period of 1932-1936 was a time of prolific composition.
Salvador Brotons
(1905 Ripoll - 1963 Barcelona)
Composer, Violinist and Pianist.
When the Civil War burst he was mobilized and assigned to conduct the Banda de Música de Sanidad del Ejército del Este (Band of Health of the East Army) in Manresa. When the war came to an end, he founded the cobla-orchestra Vilamanyà.
The decade of 1940-1950 was a time of great creativity for sardanas, which earned Vilamanyà the honourable status with which he is recognized today. Amongst the rest of his compositions can be found chamber music, lied, works for violin and piano, string quartets, works for children’s theatre, music for bands, Eucharistic music, religious music, hymns, piano works, a zarzuela (Spanish operetta), as well as glosses and suites for cobla.
