A prize-winning novel about the craft of making instruments with trees

GironaJordi Campoy Boada (Sabadell, 1970) is one of the most prolific composers and producers in Catalonia. Over the last 25 years, he has worked on hundreds of record projects and renowned television programs, such as Operación Triunfo, Eufòria and La Marató de TV3. Beyond his musical side, however, Campoy is also a writer. This 2026 he presents his third novel, Making the Trees Sing (Columna), which has been awarded the prestigious Prudenci Bertrana Prize of Girona. "I started writing with naivety, to entertain myself, without any goal of publishing, so an award like this is something you never imagine. When I wake up in the morning, I still pinch myself," explains the author, weeks after receiving the news.

The result of this dual vocation is that music is very present in all his books. After The Cello Girl (2019) and The Fado Singer (2021), Campoy now delves into the world of lutherie. Making the Trees Sing tells the story of Carlota, a 70-year-old luthier who faces a crucial dilemma: to cut down a red spruce over five hundred years old to build the cello of her dreams or to let the tree continue to grow so that, after some time, another artisan can make an even better instrument from it. The decision leads her to question the limits of her craft, to stir up the past, and to delve into the tumultuous history of her family lineage of luthiers.

Campoy is used to working with mostly electronic instruments and musical equipment full of cables, far removed from the manual craft of luthiers. In 2019, however, during the recording of the album for La Marató de TV3, he met a cellist who played a very old instrument. The quality of the sound and the history of the wood with which it was built fascinated him, and following that encounter, he began to become interested in lutherie to the point of traveling to Cremona, in Italy, where he found a good part of the inspiration for the novel.

Lutherie as a metaphor for art and life

The subject of luthiers is truly fruitful and powerful, since, by inventing an intriguing plot around this world, the author, with a lively and fluid prose, develops a discourse on matter, art, and trades. In the book, luthiers emerge as a very powerful metaphor for the ties between nature and art, life and death, perennial matter, and transcendence. This is how Campoy describes the essence of the manual work of creating instruments: "First, a murder must be committed, which is killing the tree. Then, the luthier gives the wood a second life. Perhaps even an eternal life, because that wood, turned into an instrument, may reach the hands of a musician in Berlin or Lisbon and move someone who has not yet been born," reflects the author.

Although it is not a historical novel, Making the Trees Sing establishes a constant dialogue with the past, as the protagonist's journey moves part of the plot to 15th-century Italy. In this setting appears Leonardo, an anonymous craftsman key to the development of the trade's techniques, who embodies the work of so many people who have made valuable contributions throughout history without their names ever transcending. In this sense, Campoy compares him to the roots of trees, invisible but essential to support them. "I was interested in this anonymity: perhaps he did something very valuable, but no one will ever know he existed. It is like the roots of a tree, which we do not see and which are what keep it upright," he explains.

To contextualize this part of the novel, the writer researched in the field and had the advice of Glòria Sabaté. However, rather than faithfully reconstructing an era, Campoy combines these two temporal planes to explore the emotions that connect the 15th-century characters with those of the present. "They are the same now as in the 15th century," he notes.

A trade frozen in time

The continuity between centuries is not only manifested in the characters' feelings, but also in the very technique of lutherie, a trade that has kept much of its artisanal procedures practically intact throughout time. In a world increasingly marked by technology and immediacy, the construction of instruments continues to demand patience, precision, and work that is essentially manual, with few developments in tools and procedures. "Beyond instruments mass-produced for beginners or students, it is a trade that has remained stuck in time, with very little presence of technology. You work by hand, rubbing the wood until you achieve measurements of millimeter by millimeter," explains the writer.

Jordi Campoy has written this latest novel without setting aside his work in the music industry. Experience in this field also helps him pay special attention to the rhythm, pauses, and musicality of the writing. But, even though both professions require creativity, Campoy acknowledges that it is in writing where he can give more free rein to his imagination. "In music production, I often have to respond to commissions and adapt to specific needs, while literature offers me more creative autonomy. When I write, I do what I want," he concludes.