The Legacy of Pau Casals: A Driver of Research and Reflection through the “Chair Papers” Collection

The UNESCO Chair for the Promotion of Pau Casals in Music, Defense of Peace and Human Rights, driven by the Pau Casals Foundation and the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), presents the Chair Papers Collection —a publication dedicated to disseminating the results of research projects on the figure of Pau Casals.

This initiative was launched with the aim of promoting knowledge transfer and enhancing the international visibility of Pau Casals’ musical and humanistic legacy. The works published in this collection reflect both his artistic career and his lifelong commitment to human rights, peace, and the essential role of music and culture.

The Chair Papers Collection brings together the outcomes of these research projects and makes them accessible to an international audience.

The winning research projects from the 2023 edition are available on the UNESCO Pau Casals Chair’s website.

Paper 1, “The Evolution of International Mechanisms for the Protection of Musicians at Risk: A Historical Perspective”, by Laurence Cuny, a jurist and researcher specialized in cultural rights and artistic freedom. Her research takes as a starting point the question of whether Pau Casals received any form of support during his exile and places the evolution of international protection mechanisms for musicians within a historical framework.

Paper 2, “From Festívola to the Prelude El Pessebre: An approach to Pau Casals’ musical catalogue through his Sardanas”, by Albert Fontelles-Ramonet and Anna Costal i Fornells, both PhDs in Musicology from the UAB. Their research offers a reasoned approach to Casals’ compositional catalogue, delving into the identification of manuscripts and editions, contextualizing the creative process historically and artistically, and linking interpretations and recordings that have shaped the historical trajectory of each work.

The 2024 research projects are currently underway and will be added to the collection soon.

This project, led by the Pau Casals Foundation and the Open University of Catalonia (UOC), is supported by the Sociedad de Gestión de Artistas Intérpretes o Ejecutantes de España (AIE).