Ribalta, Xavier

b. 1943, Tàrrega, Lleida (Lérida)

   Singer

   A significant figure in the early stages of the Catalan Nova Cançó movement in the 1960s, Ribalta performed traditional songs, drawn from all periods, from the Middle Ages up to the nineteenth century, and wrote his own musical settings for poems by such major figures as Joan Maragall, Joan Salvat-Papasseit, and Salvador Espriu. He fell victim to state censorship in the late 1960s, leaving Spain for France in 1968, and only returning after the death of Franco in 1975. He performed widely in Spain and North America and made various recordings, some of them of live tour performances.

   See also: Catalan culture; music; regional nationalism; regionalism

   EAMONN RODGERS