Tomorrow in Mallorca everyone will sing 'La Balanguera'

This is how it is: this Friday, May 29, at 8 p.m., a popular, multitudinous and simultaneous singing of La Balanguera will be celebrated in all the towns and cities of Mallorca, convened by the Obra Cultural Balear (OCB). More than 250 educational centers and all the municipalities on the island will participate. In this way, the centenary of this song will be celebrated, a poem published by Joan Alcover in 1903 to which maestro Amadeu Vives set music in 1926, the year in which the song was performed in public for the first time, at the Palau de la Música Catalana. It is also the round anniversary – thirty years – of its declaration as the official anthem of Mallorca by the Consell de Mallorca, in 1996.The great sing-along tomorrow, however, has an objective that goes beyond mere commemoration. In the words of the president of OCB, Antoni Llabrés: “In a situation of a de-structured society with problems of social cohesion, such as Mallorca’s in this third decade of the 21st century, we need to seek shared references.” And he adds: “Our intention is that we experience an act of affirmation of who we are and who we want to continue to be. An act of Mallorcan affirmation.” Certainly, de-structuring and the loss of internal cohesion are characteristics of current Western societies, but on an island like Mallorca, which has experienced disproportionate population growth in two and a half decades and is subject to the economic dependence on mass tourism and luxury tourism, and the very strong pressure from real estate speculation by vulture funds and large German, Swedish, or British investors, these phenomena only worsen.Going out into the street to sing La Balanguera (a hymn that does not sing of epic deeds, but of the passage of time, death and life, the succession of generations, "of childhood that climbs, / of old age that leaves") may seem to some an almost naive gesture in the face of the avalanche of noise and fury that falls upon us every day. Quite the contrary: it is a bold and intelligent gesture, a civilizing expression. A way of saying that all of us who live in Mallorca are, can be, Mallorcan: wherever we come from, whatever our skin color.A few months ago, on the occasion of the Chinese New Year, the Chinese community of Pere Garau, in Palma, organized their own rendition of La Balanguera, accompanied by the dragon that stars in this celebration (and which, for the occasion, was named Pep) and by human tower groups: this is a good example of the path to follow. Is it arduous? Absolutely. But it is the path of meeting people from all over the world in the native language of the Balearic Islands, Catalan, and with cultural references that are shared and dialogued with those brought by immigrants who settle in Mallorca.From Joan Alcover, one of the great poets of Catalan literature and one of the leaders of the Mallorcan School, you can read his Poesies in the critical, sound, and rigorous edition made by Ignasi Moreta, recently published by Edicions 62. You can look for the text of La Balanguera and sing it, if you wish.