Sheet music for the first ever Barça anthem discovered

The sheet music belongs to the first Club anthem from 1910 that was composed by José Antonio Lodeiro The Club has made public this discovery to conincide with its 115th anniversary this Saturday

[[DES_1]]This Saturday, the 29^th of November, FC Barcelona celebrates the 115^th anniversary of its foundation. As part of the celebrations, the Club has made public the retrieval of a valuable historical document: the sheet music from the Club’s first ever anthem which dates from 1910.

The anthem, which was called Foot-ball Club Barcelona Himno Marcha, was composed by José Antonio Lodeiro Piñeiroa (1868-1934), a musician in the army who was stationed in Barcelona between 1907 and 1915.

Manel Tomàs, archivist at the FC Barcelona Centre for Documentation and Study, became aware of the existence of the anthem via Daniel Carbó’s book ‘Historial del FC Barcelona’ which was published in 1924. He went on to discover further references to the anthem in the archives of club board meetings and in the sports press of the time. Unfortunately the anthem could not be performed as the club was unable to find the corresponding sheet music. A call was made to the public via the Club’s website for help in the task of tracking down the sheet music and amazingly, the plea worked.

Great discovery

At the end of October Xabier Andrés Garrote, a relative of the founders of the Banda Garrote from Ortigueira in Galicia, made contact with the Club to give them some excellent news: he had found the manuscript containing the sheet music for piano for the 1910 anthem amongst papers belonging to his father Andrés Garrote.The search may not yet be complete however – Xabier Andrés Garrote is continuing his search amongst his father’s papers as there are indications that there may be lyrics to accompany the original anthem.

In the video above you can hear the long lost anthem played by the internationally renowned jazz pianist Ignasi Terraza.