Letter by professor Dr. Arthur Terry about A House to compose. Essex University (January 7th 2003)
Francesc Serés, writer, a letter from January 17, 2001: “Kesler c’est moi, as he would say”
If I can permit a compliment, I’d say -finally!- I find someone who is a university professor and doesn’t write like a teacher-who-writes. (…) I had a feeling of being constantly going up and down the stairs in the Percebe rue 13 of the new millennium and I could not help myself but imagine all the characters summoning by Olivia in her hotel. In fact, it is what it is: a démodé hotel, where the intensities are crossed forming rhizomes and roots. Yes, we have lost the Heidegger’s habitat, the one that connects us to the living and the dead. When someone is able to bring into play all these variables and succeed…
Melitó Camprubí, architect (2001): I guess I was pushed to write these notes by some professional remorse. In the first part of the book, I was concerned. Our dear Olivia cannot find any suitable home and it seems that we, the architects, taken as a kind of subspecies responsible for the construction, have part of the responsibility. Sure we do. Then, once I got to know Olivia better, I relaxed thinking that, as a client, she would be a very demanding person, difficult to satisfy. Thus, I said to myself, she needs a sublime architect, loaded with resources . – “It is not you, man. You can continue reading.” However, I realized that the novel is as demanding as the pianist. Or, kooky, lunatic, variable, striking, sharp, desperate. Requiring a fine ear, a novel of a careful execution, complicated melodies. Gradually, the space is built: cylindrical, high, roofless. Inside, the walls are arranged in no apparent order. These walls are of variable height and position. Starting at any point and ending at the perimeter surface. (Hint for a cylindrical space: Asplund library in Stockolm.) We cannot discard that the cylinder surface may deform and lose its circularity. (New hint: Aalto vase evokes the ripples of the Northern Lights.) (…) While the space is built, pictures appear on the walls: landscapes, houses, things, people or beings, attitudes, thoughts. It is built and painted, a large fresco with a persistent background piano music. Olivia, freed from gravity, moves around this space creating, by her presence, the themes of each place, and spreading, with her savoir à faire, the sounds that accompany her; topics (and sounds) that become fragmented, partial, incomplete, unresolved. I wished I knew more music in order to continue writing: I know some adagios and Mahler, barely. The perfection of Architecture, the perfection of Music, of Literature, the perfection of Life and Love. What a hard, impossible, yet stimulating research…
Montserrat Lunati. Cardiff University (2009): Another defining novel for the re-writing of inner, domestic space is A house to compose (2001), the second book by Núria Perpinyà, in which a female subjectivity, a woman who writes music, composes the house that she wants from the outside, not from the inside, without patriarchal impositions, as if it were one of her scores.
A HOUSE TO COMPOSE: A READER
PAPERS, NEWSPAPERS AND LITERARY MAGAZINES
DASCA, María. “Mujeres de palabras. Escritoras catalanas hoy”. Ínsula. 871. Juliol 2019. [PDF]
CASTELLS, Ada. “Ens confirmem en la raresa”. La República de les Lletres. 4. 2019. [PDF]
LUNATI, Montserrat. “Escriptores, gènere i estudis literaris. Caminant pel carrer en femení als textos de Mercè Ibarz”. Gènere i modernitat a la literatura catalana contemporània. Lleida: Punctum. 2009.
MIQUEL, Dolors. “Passadissos compartits: Núria Perpinyà”. Narradors contemporanis. A cura de Jordi Carrión i Manel Guerrero. Associació per la Cultura i l’Art Contemporani. 2007. [9 PDF]
MASGRAU, Mariona. “Núria Perpinyà: “Una casa per compondre””. Bengala. Revista literària. Juliol-agost 2002.
ABELLÀ, Maria. “No em carregaré la Víctor Català”. Avui. 21-V-2002.
OLLÉ, Manel. “Núria Perpinyà. Una casa per compondre”. Revista de Catalunya, 181. Febrer 2003. [8 PDF]
CALVERA, Irene. “Una búsqueda incessant”. La Mañana. 21-IV-2002. [7 PDF]
SAEZ, ANNA. “La recerca d’una casa és la recerca d’una vida”. Segre. 18-IV-2002.
CALVERA, Irene. “Núria Perpinyà narra la hazaña de buscar piso en la actualidad”. La Mañana. 18-IV-2002.
MIQUEL, Dolors. “Núria Perpinyà”. Entrevista a La Verge Peluda.1 i mig. 2002. [6 PDF]
BOU, Enric. “Desequilibrio inmobiliario”. El Periódico. 18-I-2002. [5 PDF]
GUILLAMON, Julià. “El narrador como ablandador de zapatos”. La Vanguardia. 6-I-2002. [4 PDF]
PAGÈS, V.. “Resumen literario del 2001”. El Periódico. 4-I-2002.
“Música y arquitectura”. La Vanguardia. 14-XII-2001.
MONTFERRER, Óscar. “Construcció”. Avui. 13-XII-2001.
BONADA, Lluís. “La relació amb la casa és tan problemàtica com la de la parella”. El Temps. 4-XII-2001. [3 PDF]
GARCÍA VINYALS, Marisa. “Més que una novel.la”. La Mañana. 28-XI-2001.
DÒRIA. Sergi, “Núria Perpinyà: “Música, novela y arquitectura tienen mucho en común”. ABC. 26-XI-2001.
BATISTA, Antoni. “El boom de novelas con música”. La Vanguardia, 23-XI-2001. [2 PDF]
“Perpinyà presenta “Una casa per compondre”. Segre. 22-XI-2001.
“Una novela explora com els pisos i els espais afecten les persones”. Diari de Girona. 22-XI-2001.
“Núria Perpinyà novela la búsqueda del espacio vital”. El Mundo. 23-XI-2001.
RIBALTA, Miquel (ACN). “Núria Perpinyà habla del sentido de la vida en su nueva novela”. La Mañana. 22-XI-2001.
EFE. “Núria Perpinyà publica la novela “Una casa per compondre”. El Punt. 22-XI-2001.
ARAGAY, Ignasi. “Núria Perpinyà fon arquitectura i música en una novel.la urbana”. Avui. 23-XI-2001.
OBIOLS, Isabel. “He volgut donar una bellesa musical a la novel.la. Núria Perpinyà enllaça arquitectura i música a “Una casa per compodre”. El País. 22-XI-2001.
PUIGDEVALL, Ponç. “Un lloc per combatre el temps”. El País. 22-XI-2001. [1 PDF]
PIÑOL, Rosa Maria. “Núria Perpinyà convierte en novela un periplo inmobiliario”. La Vanguardia. 22-XI-2001.
RADIO
Catalunya Ràdio. Ester Pinart. Només hi faltes tu. 16-IX-2013.
Catalunya Ràdio. Màrius Serra. Lecturàlia.18-01-2007.
Com Ràdio. Lleida. Enric Pinyol. 19-IV-2002.
Ona Catalana. Anna Pujol. 21-XI-2001.
Catalunya Ràdio. Rosa M. Bartolí / M.Pau Janer. Ex-Libris. 23-XII-2001.
TELEVISION
TV3. Genís Cormand. Revista de Llibres. Telenotícies Migdia. 10-I-2002.
City TV. Marta Cáceres, Magazine. 2-0I-2002.
BTV. Josep Rocafort. Càpsules repetides. Gener 2002.
TV2. Mabel Beltrán. Continuarà. Gener 2002.
INTERNET’S BLOGS
SANMARTÍ, CRISTINA. “Núria Perpinyà: “Una casa per compondre + fragments”. Llengua i literatura. Cristina. 17-IX-2010.
CARREÑO, Óscar. “Núria Perpinyà: “Una casa per compondre”. TeHac, 18 2002.
“Núria Perpinyà: “Una casa per compondre””. Passem Pàgina. El Pati. Novembre 2002.
HERNÁNDEZ BUSTOS, Ernesto. “Una casa (no sólo) para componer”. 1-II-2002. FNAC / Clubcultura.com. [10 PDF]
MIRÓ, Carles. “Notes al marge”. 21-XI-2001