The mysterious link between Sónar and the French convulsionaries of the 18th century

BarcelonaNow that the Sónar festival has been over for weeks It is time to suggest to the reader the relationship that can be established between the convulsions that flourished in France throughout the 18th century and the attitude of those attending that, and other, festivals of frenetic music.

The convulsive phenomenon arose from the publication of the bull Unigenitus, who attacked the Jansenist ideas on the funny —in a sense of the word that many people are unfamiliar with these days—and predestination. The Jansenists of Port-Royal were enraged, and one of their number, the deacon François de Pâris (1690–1727), became the bull's greatest opponent, possibly concealing a latent tension between the French monarchy and the papacy.

Paris, who had many followers and had performed more than one miracle, died and was buried, to the great consternation of his faithful, in the Saint-Ménard cemetery in Paris. Devotees began to visit the tomb in search of eternal salvation and, in the best of cases, healing from age-old illnesses. When people were cured, the phenomenon was attributed, as is often the case in such cases, to the miraculous intervention and postmortem of the deacon. (The marvelous and supernatural have always been an ingredient of human beliefs.)

From this devotion was born the convulsionary movement: people, around the tomb of the cleric, or at home, in the cell, wherever he was, entered into a state of traffic, bellowed, had convulsions without ever having been epileptic, flagellated themselves, ended up overcoming and subjected themselves to some... practicing the most inappropriate sexual hooliganism of sanctimony: it has been typical of many sects throughout history. Pascal, a man of great intelligence linked to the Jansenists He was never a convulsionist—rationality always does good—but his niece was. There have always been musical forms that have moved listeners to a "wildness of all the senses"—the expression is Rimbaud.

Speaking of the formation of a good citizen, Plato rejected, in this sense, musical modes that did not strive (as the Dorian and Phrygian modes did) for the beautiful purity of a society and good political order. On the contrary, Sónar is an exponent of a contemporary form of music that invites convulsions, shudders, spasms, transport, ecstasy, and madness. A Schubert sonata with a silent, focused, and still audience seems to be at the other extreme. But it's all a matter of taste, and no papal bull will change people's musical preferences.