Did You Know That Audrey Hepburn Danced Two Traditional Catalan Songs?

Did you know that Audrey Hepburn danced two traditional Catalan songs?

It happened in the 1952 movie Secret People. The movie's music was composed by Robert Gerhard, a composer born in 1896 in Valls, Catalonia. He grew up in Catalonia and studied music in different parts of Europe, becoming a well-known composer and adviser to the Minister of Fine Arts of Catalonia's Government during the Republic. However, his life was struck with the defeat in the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). Like tens of thousands of Catalans more, his family had to go on exile after the fascists' victory in the war.

Until the death of the Spanish fascist dictator Franco (1975), after Robert Gerhard's own death in 1970, his music was not played in Spain and his motherland Catalonia. Meanwhile, he had become a very respected composer in the UK, France, the USA and other countries, and was awarded with prizes including being declared Doctor Honoris Causa by the University of Cambridge and the title of Commander of the Order of the British Empire (a knighthood given by the British Monarchy to people who have contributed to society).

He always stayed close to his Catalan roots and composed Catalan music genres like sardana and spoke about his Catalan identity. In this clip of the movie Secret People, Audrey Hepburn dances to a song made of two traditional Catalan folk songs: El cant dels ocells and La mare de Déu quan era xiqueta. Here's the clip:

Here you can hear the original songs:

El cant dels ocells ("The Song of the Birds"):

La mare de Déu quan era xiqueta ("When Mary was a young girl"):

Can you recognise the melodies in the movie clip?