The premičre in Catalonia -and in all the Spanish state- of "San Gloria" by Peter Louis van Dijk (1953) was a sample pride of intercultural spirituality. In the Palau of the Catalan Music, in Barcelona, the youngster but already director Daniel Mestre took out of the Classical National Orchestra of Andorra and of the Choir of Chamber of the Palau, both in an excellent state, some moments of, effectively, glory.
Van Dijk, South African of Boer origin, has constructed his music with the Latin text of the Gloria and the bosquimans rhythms, twinning in one two cultural products in ways of extinction: the Latin language and the bosquiman music. An apparently complex piece, which combines the choral writing of European root, "Gloria", with an orchestration based on the African rhythm, "San". The result is brilliant, of great spirituality, making evident how two very antique cultures, without any historical feature in common, can express something common to all men: the deep spirituality of the prayer of the rational, free and self-conscious creature praising the Creator.
South Africa is also a source of culture. And it is necessary to follow it with attention, because it is perhaps a taste of how it will end up being in few years the future "Europe multicultural", with a very minority population of genuinely European root in their own continent. How he says the same Van Dijk, "the elements of the South African society sometimes stimulate us and other exasperate us mutually".
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