Francisco Civil-Castellvi composer

Catalan composer, organist, pianist and writer. The last son of the musician Miquel Civil i Bogunyà and brother of Aleix Ildefons Civil i Castellví (1889-1936), musician and monk of Montserrat, and Josep Civil i Castellví (1876-1956), a notable pianist and composer of a certain popularity in Paris, he received the basics of the musical art from his father.

In 1903 he entered the Escolania de Montserrat, where he was a pupil of Father Guzmán and a fellow pupil of David Pujol, and later studied at Étampes (1908-10), Pithiviers (1910-1913) and the Schola Cantorum in Paris (1913 - 1917), where he obtained diplomas in harmony, counterpoint, piano and Gregorian chant. In 1917 he did his military service in Figueras, where he married and remained until 1924, and was associated with Father Isidro Lleys, with Antoni Juncà, who trained him in Sardinian music, with the brothers Lluís and Ricard Pitxot and with the pianist Enric Costa. He was a member of various chamber music and musical ensembles, and was a teacher. He then moved to Girona, where he remained until his death.

In 1925 he occupied the post of organist of Girona Cathedral on an interim basis until 1954, when he became titular organist. From 1930 he collaborated in Diari de Girona, L'Autonomista, El Piano, Scherzando, Los Sitios and other Girona publications, and in 1936 he started the Municipal School of Music, later transformed into the Isaac Albéniz Conservatory of Girona, which he founded and directed from 1942 until his retirement in 1965. He conducted the Provincial Women's Choir and founded and directed a choral group of male voices. As a composer, he cultivated both the vocal repertoire of liturgical, religious and civil music - of particular note are his harmonisations of Catalan Christmas carols - and the instrumental repertoire for organ, piano, chamber and orchestra, as well as the sardana genre. In 1956 he set to music the Cançó dels Pelegrins de Tossa de Mar, based on a text by Manuel Vilà i Dalmau. As a performer, he played the piano in various chamber ensembles and as an accompanying pianist in the cinema.

Civilian received several prizes and distinctions, among them the Silver Medal of Education and Rest (1965), the Knight of Cisneros Cross (1971) and the appointment as honorary member of the Catalan Association of Composers. Since 1988, and also in recognition of this, the Francesc Civil Annual Composition Competition (City of Girona Prize) was instituted. As for the musicological aspect, he focused his work on the recovery of data and documentation on composers from the counties of Girona, which he made known in various publications, both musicological and informative, editions of works by various composers and articles in various magazines.