«Music has always been a reflection of human experiences» said recently in an interview the musicologist and essayist Ramón Andrés given that the way in which a community of people lives is closely related to culture, to music. Guadassuar is a clear evidence of this. The presence of music can be traced back to the angels musicians that we find on the Renaissance façade of San Vicente Mártir’s Church; in Joseph Bueno Camarasa, cornetist and oboist of the 18th century in San Miguel de los Reyes; In Juan Cuevas in 19th century, chapel master in Toledo, Córdoba and Valencia; in Joaquín Eleuterio García Castañer, author of a treatise of plainchant printed in 1827 in Madrid; in the different music bands of the 19th and 20th centuries, etc. and up to the present day.

At different levels, both professional, amateur as well as in the manifestations within the field of music of oral tradition, having the Musical Society as a reference for much of the activity: as a source of musicians, listeners and consequently generating social fabric and creating a sense of community. As part of this activity we find people who are professionally dedicated to music in the most diverse ways (conservatories, orchestras, primary and high schools) who transmit the most praiseworthy values, some of them are in danger of extinction: the essential effort and dedication, an endless learning attitude, a passion for learning, the share of the effort though other’s enjoyment, etc.

In the same way that great musicians such as Handel, Mattheson or Bach went on pilgrimage to Lübek in search of the great master Buxtehude, Guadassuar has become a pilgrimage center where musicians seek for the value of excellence. Knowledge, enjoyment, but also human experiences that arise from music is what the International Congress of Horns undoubtedly provides.

Joan B. Boïls