Miquel Querol Gavaldà (1912-2002)
This musicologist and humanist, composer and poet, was born in Ulldecona (in the province of Tarragona). He studied Humanities, Music, Philosophy and Theology at Montserrat monastery, and furthered his musical studies with Joan Lamote de Grignon, becoming a Doctor of Philosophy. He was a pioneer in studying the baroque period in Spain and Catalonia. He belonged to the Spanish Institute for Musicology from 1946 to 1982, that Institute being part of Spain's main research organisation, the Higher Council for Scientific Research (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas - CSIC), and he held various posts in it, including 12 years as its director, until he retired. He devoted over 50 years to his research work in Spain and abroad, focusing on transcribing and preparing editions of music, mainly from the period running from the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries, and publishing over 30 volumes. He also wrote over 300 compositions of his own, both vocal and instrumental music, with his polyphonic music being particularly noteworthy. He wrote 31 compositions on the work of the poet Jacint Verdaguer, among them his 'Cantata de la Passió per a veus blanques i orgue' (Passion Cantata for high voices and organ), a work lasting some 35 minutes. He was awarded the National Music Prize, and was made an honorary doctor of the Autonomous University of Barcelona and the University of Granada, and an honorary member of the Sant Jordi Academy of Fine Arts; he was also awarded the Sant Jordi Cross (a civil-distinction medal awarded by the government of Catalonia), the silver medal of the CSIC, and the gold medal of the music school of Barcelona's opera house (el Liceu).