The bands participating in the Honor Section of the International Music Band Contest “Ciudad de Valencia” 2024 will have to perform as a mandatory piece the score “L’ARBRE BLANC” by composer Pere Vicalet.
PERE VICALET BIOGRAPHY
Pere Vicalet is a director, composer and digital artist, as well as a professor of Sonology at the Electroacoustics Laboratory of the CSM Valencia. Formed between Valencia and Budapest, his work stands out for the multidisciplinary combination of music that fuses technology and visual art.
In his role as a director, Vicalet seeks the immersion of multisensory experiences through transdisciplinary artistic projects that use video, lighting, sensors and other technological-scenic effects to interpret total works of art. As a composer, Vicalet is distinguished by his avant-garde use of technology, incorporating electronic instruments and software to generate unprecedented textures along with new sounds. Despite their complexity, their compositions are deeply expressive and musical, exploring new frontiers in the use of technology in the areas of creation, research, teaching and learning of new music. He also stands out as a digital artist, with pioneering performances that explore the intersection between musical art and technology.
Vicalet has performed around the world and has received several awards, including the 2017 Young Talent Award and the Culture Innovation Award through Information and Communication Technologies in the music sector. In addition, he has received numerous commissions, such as the work Peak in Tanz, a work for orchestra and electronics with percussion and solo digital artist premiered by the ORTVE, as well as the commission of the Guerrer de la Valltorta for the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the FSMCV, in which 120 mobile devices and more than 5,000 musicians participated.
Pere Vicalet, leader in music and contemporary art, is a respected and influential figure belonging to the new artistic-technological promotions. His research and work show him as a guide and reference for the new emerging artistic and technological archetypes of the 21st century.
MANDATORY PIECE: «L’ARBRE BLANC»
The village of Gata de Gorgos, in the province of Alicante, is home to a symbol of faith and resistance: a white tree which protected the village’s inhabitants during the French siege in 1812. Unfortunately, in an act which only added to its legend, this hundred-year-old poplar tree was uprooted during the Spanish Civil War and today only a pictogram of it remains, gifted by the local painter José Costa Signes and housed in the Town Hall.
During its life, the white tree became a place of pilgrimage in the 19th century and, as reflected in village records, it attracted illustrious visitors such as Teodor Llorente and tourists from ‘Lo Rat Penat’. The legend says that during the Napoleonic Wars the French captured the mayor and rector of Gata, sparking an initial battle in the Senija gorge. In this encounter, the French were obliged to retreat after being ambushed several times by the local resistance. Subsequently, and in a second assault by the French, the inhabitants of the village were forced to take shelter in the village hermitage, which was watched over by the white poplar.
The legend tells that after besieging the village, the French went up to the hermitage and, on arriving at the white tree, close to the entrance to the sanctuary, the tree began to move and emit an intense light which blinded the soldiers and, most importantly, frightened their horses. Consequently, the animals refused to advance and, in the face of this marvel, the French lifted the siege and retreated. As a result, the white tree saving the inhabitants of the village of Gata de Gorgos became seen as a miracle.