The awarding of the “Princess of Asturias” Prize for the Arts to Joan Manuel Serrat is an important boost for researchers who in recent years have been working on a new scientific discipline: serratology. Indeed, the work of Joan Manuel Serrat is so immense and multidimensional that its artistic, experiential or sociological analysis is far from exhausting all the richness it contains. An experimental study of his albums and songs is also worth doing, and more and more articles are being sent to the Journal of Serratology from this scientific perspective. As a summary, and in celebration of the well-deserved award granted yesterday to the Spanish author, the five basic laws of experimental serratology are presented below.
1 Serrat’s songs are neither created nor destroyed, they only transform. Indeed, although Serrat rightly signs all of his songs, a serratological analysis shows that the experiences that his songs offer us have always existed and will always exist. Of course, at every moment in life “Those Little Things” means something different to the listener. The songs are transformed with society: “Vencidos” was neither created nor will it be destroyed, but it changed completely from 1970 to today.
2 Every song by other authors placed next to a song by Serrat experiences a contraction inversely proportional to the proximity of the other authors to Serrat. “Only Thinking of You” is a masterpiece of songwriting, but if it comes close to “The Aristocracy of the Neighborhood” it shrinks slightly. Wonders like “This is how I am without you” suffer a slight loss of quantum mass when placed next to “Stop” or “From time to time life.” Other songs – why give examples? – simply disappear if they are heard after “La Saeta” or “Fiesta”.
3 The area of Serrat’s disks is not pi multiplied by the radius squared. This was one of the first and most disconcerting discoveries of serratology. When they measured the area of the LPs, they were surprised to discover that the usual formula for the surface of circles did not apply to these cases. The area of ”The South Also Exists” reaches several thousand square kilometers. When the “Mô” disk is deployed in its entirety, it is able to equal the surface of the municipality of Mahón.
4 Serrat’s songs move in elliptical orbits with respect to each viewer throughout their life. Indeed, the trajectory of Serrat’s songs is not linear with respect to an external observer. Sometimes “Today could be a great day” moves away, but it always ends up returning and passing very close to the focus again. “One of Pirates” comes and goes in regular cycles as the listener gets older. Sometimes the orbit is very small –”Lucía”–. Sometimes it is huge –”Paraules d’amor”–. Let no one be saddened by the feeling that a Serrat song is gone. To return to.
5 “Mediterranean” is the universal limit in songwriting. In their knowledge of nature, the sciences are finding absolute limits that cannot be surpassed. The lowest temperature that can exist in our universe is -273.15 degrees Celsius. The speed of light cannot be exceeded 300,000 kilometers. “Mediterráneo” marks the maximum that a song writer can achieve. Other songs – for example, “Romance de Curro el Palmo” or “Sombras de la China” – may asymptotically approach “Mediterráneo”, but never surpass it. By the way, the songs that are closest to “Mediterráneo” are also by Serrat.
These are only the first discoveries of a new science that we will have the opportunity to celebrate next October in Asturias. Until then, all serratologists will continue to investigate and love – is there a difference? – one of the very few phenomena on which all Spaniards agree: the work of Joan Manuel Serrat and the deep gratitude for having significantly improved our lives.
