The music fonds of Salvador d’Horta Bofarull is conserved in the Public Episcopal Library of the Seminary of Barcelona (BPEB). It is the personal fonds of this composer, who served as the master and organist of Sant Francesc de Paula church in Barcelona, which was torn down in 2002 because of the enlargement of the Palau de la Música Catalana. After the death of master Bofarull in 1931, the fonds remained in his family’s hands. The composer’s granddaughter, Carme Bofarull i Estarlich, preserved it in her private home until she donated his corpus of manuscripts and printed music to the BEPB on 25 July 2014.

Salvador d’Horta Bofarull i Soronellas (Reus, 1856 – Barcelona, 1931) was trained at the Conservatory of the Barcelona Liceu Opera House with Joan Balaguer (piano) and Joan Baptista Dalmau (violin). He studied harmonium, organ, harmony and composition with Joan Sariols, who considered him his favourite disciple, such that when he died Sariols’ compositional bequest was given to Bofarull. In 1874, when he was 18 years old, he was appointed director of the Music Chapel of Sant Francesc de Paula parish; ten years later, he secured the official tenured position until he gave it up in 1920. Along with his music work in the now-vanished Sant Francesc de Paula parish, master Bofarull was also a member of different orchestras and a violin teacher, and he performed in the majority of theatres in Barcelona.

The SHB Fonds is made up of two collections of handwritten and printed items by composers working actively in Barcelona between the second third of the 19th century and the first third of the 20th century. The “authored manuscripts” collection contains 27 works, 20 of which correspond to the ecclesiastic repertoire of Anselm Barba, Salvador d’Horta Bofarull, Joan Sariols and Ramon Vilanova. This collection also has a copy of the Stabat Mater by F. J. Haydn, which Josep Guasch, musician in the chapel of Santa Maria del Mar, made in 1784; a notebook of psalmody for organ by Magí Pontí, organist at the cathedral of Lleida; the general scores of the operas Gildippe ed Odoardo, Gonzalvo and Melusina by Joan Sariols, along with his Simfonia Las dos lápidas del Gran Teatro del Liceo, in versions for both orchestra and band, which Sariols himself premiered in the Teatre del Liceu after the fire in 1861; and a Marian litany from 1850 and Requiem in C minor by Ramon Vilanova, both works for 8 voices and orchestra. The “authored printed items” collection contains the ecclesiastic repertoire by F. Andreví, B. C. Puig, J. Manent, M. de Ferrer and S. d’H. Bofarull, along with works from the international repertoire.

Fonds Factsheet

Acronym: SHB

IFMuC Link: https://ifmuc.uab.cat/collection/SHB?ln=en

Title: Salvador d’Horta Bofarull Fonds

Archive and location:
Biblioteca Pública Episcopal del Seminari de Barcelona (BPEB)
Carrer de la Diputació, 231
08007 Barcelona

Contact:
Tel. 934 541 607
Email: info@bibliotecaepiscopalbcn.org

Date(s): 19th to 20th centuries

Extent and medium: 9 box files

Creators:
Works of Salvador d’Horta Bofarull and Joan Sariols

Download the complete fonds factsheet HERE

Picture at the inauguration of the "Manuscripts of the SHB musical fonds" exhibit in november 27th 2014 at he Biblioteca Pública Episcopal del Seminari de Barcelona (BPEB)