album rating: ★★★★☆
Genre: Catalan folk / cançó mallorquina / Mediterranean folk. Saba de Terrer ('Sap of the Earth') is one of the most deeply rooted and artistically singular albums in the discography of Maria del Mar Bonet (born Palma de Mallorca, 1947), the Mallorcan singer who is one of the central figures of the Nova Cançó — the Catalan song movement that used music as a vehicle for the defence of Catalan language and culture during and after the Franco dictatorship. Where many of her albums have explored the broader Mediterranean world (Greek folk, North African music, troubadour poetry), Saba de Terrer represents a full immersion in the traditional popular songs of Mallorca itself — the island where she was born and which remains the deepest source of her musical and emotional identity. The album was recorded in January and February of 1979 at the Moraleda studios, with all arrangements by Lautaro Rosas, who also played guitar and served as musical director. All songs are popular Mallorcan songs adapted by Bonet and Rosas. Notably, this album contained Bonet's first recording of El Cant de la Sibil·la — the medieval chant sung on Christmas Eve in the churches of Mallorca, one of the oldest living musical traditions in the Western world, inscribed on UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list. The album's title derives from a poem by the Mallorcan poet Maria Antònia Salvà: 'Aquí té saba el terrer / la gent franques escomeses / i amors que esclaten enceses / com les flors del magraner.' The cover photographs were taken by the Mallorcan priest and photographer Tomàs Montserrat, rediscovered by the artist Toni Catany.
Label: Ariola (Spain), 1979.
Producer: Joan Molas. Sound engineer: Albert Moraleda.
Recording studio: Moraleda Studios, Spain. Recorded January–February 1979.
Critical reception: Saba de Terrer is considered one of the essential albums of Maria del Mar Bonet's long career and one of the most important documents of Mallorcan traditional music. Bonet dedicated the album to the singing teacher Maria del Carme Bustamante. Rate Your Music users give it an average of 4.25 out of 5. The album holds particular cultural significance for its first recording of El Cant de la Sibil·la, a tradition that in 2010 was inscribed by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
Commercial success: Saba de Terrer was well received in Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and among the broader audience for Mediterranean and Catalan music. The album was reissued on CD by BMG Ariola in 1990, confirming its lasting significance. Maria del Mar Bonet received the Charles Cross Academy Award from the French Government in 1984 for the best foreign record released in France, and the Creu de Sant Jordi — the highest distinction of the Generalitat de Catalunya — in the same year.
text generated by artificial intelligence — claude, sonnet 4.6 — free version, liable to contain errors