Music and Silence: The Passion and Protest of Pablo Casals

This picture-book biography traces the trajectory of Pablo (“Pau” in Catalan) Casals from his childhood in the Catalonia region of Spain through the post–World War II period. Entranced by the cello from a young age (“it called to Pau”), Casals (1876–1973) left home to study the instrument in Barcelona, where, despite playing beautifully, he had a need to “feel” the music that perplexed his teachers. While Casals is known for rediscovering Bach’s largely forgotten Six Suites for Cello Solo and popularizing them, this book focuses on the connection between music and social obligation. His music and his silence were forms of protest against authoritarianism: his performances raised money for refugees; later, he refused to perform for “several years” as a form of opposition to Franco’s fascist rule. Throughout, the mixed-media illustrations portray music as colorful splotches and dots that emanate from Casals’s cello. In one spread, he plays against a backdrop of war; birds of peace take flight from his cello, only to meet a dark cloud of bomb-dropping airplanes. The book closes triumphantly with Casals’s return to performance in 1950 at a Bach festival in his adopted village in France. “The instrument gave voice to the ache and yearning of his years of exile.” Extensive back matter includes author and illustrator notes, a timeline, and links to audio and visual playlists.