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Cultural routes of sport l Andalusia:
the microphone poetry
 Matías
Prats: magia y recuerdo de un innovador
Jesús
Castañón Rodríguez
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Matías
Prats Museum
Matías Prats Museum
Matías Prats municipal sports centre
Avenida de Los Lirios s/n
14640 Villa del Río (Córdoba)
Arranged visits: (+34) 957 178 041
Timetable: Saturdays: from 12 to 14 p.m. and from 17 to 20
p.m.
Sundays: from 12 to 14 p.m
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The
8th of September, 2006 the death of the journalist Matías
Prats is in its second anniversary, the Spanish audiovisual
journalist whose work had also influence on America.
In
January of this year, Villa del Río opened a museum
to collect and show graphic documents, sonorous files, memories
and prizes.
Rooms
It is organized into two big areas. At the entrance, the visitor
is welcomed by the commentator's bust holding the microphone
to be taken through his personal and professional life.
It
is present the boy's childhood who wrote poetry and was recommended
by the teacher from the school of Villa del Río to
the owner of Radio Córdoba in order to recite some
verse lines on the Christmas programme and in public…Young
people appear marked by a poet and actor vocation which would
be complemented to journalism; moreover, he is highlighted
from the familiar tradition based on the liking to speak to
keep the others entertained and get rich personally speaking
to the foundation in 1965 of the Peña Cultural, Deportiva
and Asistencial Matías Prats (Cultural, Sports and
Welfare Folk Club Matías Prats) and his fishing trophy.
On
the screen some videos resound like the ones based on the
accounts of the main goals scored by Zarra and Marcelino with
the Spanish national football team in 1950 and 1964, which
were broadcasted by No-Do and Televisión Española,
as well as the memory of the teams Florentina-Real Madrid
in 1958, the first international match broadcasted in Spain.
Recording
teams, microphones glasses and countless pictures come alive
accompanied by other radio and television stars like Bobby
Deglané, José María García, Vicente
Marco, José Luis Pécker or Joaquín Prat.
A
watchful look lets the visitor go through his career on the
radio, since his start in Algeciras during the Civil War bringing
up the rear and professional beginning on Radio Nacional de
España in Málaga.
He
will know that the interest in football broadcastings was
instilled to him by Salvador Rueda, director of Radio Nacional
de España in Málaga.
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Profile
Matías Prats Cañete ( Villa
del Río, Córdoba, 1913-Madrid, 2004) studied A
level in Málaga, then he graduated as technical engineer
in the Escuela Industrial, after this, he graduated in television
and radio programmer technician and finished his studies in
the Escuela Oficial de Peridismo (Journalism Official School)
in 1949.
His journalistic career is linked to the radio, film and televised
journalism. In the first one, he worked in Radio Nacional de
España between 1939 and 1985, first in Málaga
(1939-1945) and after that in Madrid (1945-1985) where he was
head of Broadcast Transmit Station Department (1947), head of
broadcasting (1954) and commentator of sports and bullfighting
broadcastings and in the Red de Emisoras del Movimiento channel.
In the second one, he worked in the No-Do between 1947 and 1971
as an editor and commentator and as a director between 1974
and 1976. And finally, in the televised journalism, he was in
Televisión Española from 1956 to 1974 and in 1981
and 1982 as commentator of broadcastings and with the responsibility
of the Asesoría Técnica de la Dirección
General between 1974 and 1981 in order to pay special attention
to the influence in Latin America and in Antena 3 Televisión
in the nineties of the 20th century to take part in the account
of football matches.
This labour was valued by means of the Medalla de Oro al Mérito
en el Trabajo in 1998 (Gold Medal to live up his work merit)
and, among others, by means of the awards: "Premio Ondas"
in 1955, 1965, 1999, "Micrófono de Oro" from
the Association of Radio and Television Professionals in 1989,
"Premio Víctor de la Serna" in 1993 and "Premio
"Toda una vida 2000"" from the Board of the Spanish
Academy of Sciences and Arts of Television.
On a political scope, he was member of a regional parliament
dealing with Familiar Representation in Córdoba province
between 1971 and 1976, and member of the National Defence, Information
and Tourism Committees.
Founder member of the Spanish Academy of Sciences and Arts of
Television, he is the author of the documentary Historia de
Cinco Copas (Madrid, 1963) and of the book Guía erótica
del fútbol (Madrid, 1991). He also took part in El idioma
español en el deporte: guía práctica (Logroño,
1992) and El idioma español en el deporte (Madrid, 1994). |
This
visitor will know the fondness for the football broadcastings was
inculcated in him by Salvador Rueda, director in Radio Nacional
de España in Málaga. He will know that a Betis-Málaga
match in 1942 was the first match he told, and also the first international
match he told together with Enrique Mariñas took place in
Lisbon. And he will discover his eagerness to rope in the listener's
attention, his liking for graphic descriptions to understand dangerous
situations, his marvellous memory full of anecdotes, histories,
quotations, quotes and other data in the service of the account
during the spare real time in the matches...
Furthermore,
he will understand key points with regard to his way of working:
the memorizing of line-ups, physical features and right pronunciation
of names, the use of tourist data based on the places where the
matches were played, the combination of the detailed and descriptive
narrative with the summary comment, the more subjective and passionate
tone in the international matches of the national side and the clubs...
Illustrated report: Jesús Castañón
And
the application of some principles of action on the radio. Firstly,
the use of common rules for a good transmission: truthfulness, objectivity,
adaptation between narrative rhythms and play, appropriate interpolation
of explanations, value judgement and analysis. Secondly, the application
of complementary rules to: lexicon, voice inflections, intonation,
exclamation, use of the environmental sound, eloquent pauses or
creators of excitement, emotional control, use of surnames or appellatives
and theatre display of the results to transmit moods to the audience.
And thirdly, the tendency to highlight the virtues and fade away
the faults like the conversion of a "monumental failure of
Grifa, who being alone before the goalkeeper, receives the ball
and despite all he scored a goal" into a nice "the centre
back, making a supine effort, stretched his right leg impetuously
but the tip of the laced boot couldn't coincide with the parabola
which described the ball. In spite of such setback, he got to increase
the scoreboard".
However,
television shows the primacy of the image over the comment, in such
a way that the commentator works according to what the producer
gives to him and he confines to set captions.
Although
the memory of the fans links Matías Prats figure to the transmissions
of boxing, football and bullfights, his career has consisted of
sports accounts based on chess, billiards, boxing, horse racings,
football, roller hockey and tennis.
In
the second room, the visitor travels around trophies, professional
memories, titles and diplomas, photos and honours received in such
a long career.
The
playing court of the memory
The Museum where the most relevant aspects of Matías Prats
can be appreciated is a court for the liking of well-done work or
at least the one as better as possible done too. For the memory
of an innovator of the good connected discourse which has been favourable
to the most precise use of the language, he set the learned word
of sport in the service of the popular thing and improved the radio
styles of the previous generations.
Firstly,
when an in-depth diction was contributed together with a power in
the voice modulation to recreate the crowd vibration in the stadium,
to create a precise emphasis and an emotion measured by means of
the intonation curves in the accounts.
Secondly,
when he helped the American commentators to overcome the difficulties
to pronounce the sound of the "z" replacing it by "f".
Thirdly,
when new words and images were created to get a great descriptive
capacity: the names of the teams distinguished by the colour of
the shirts, images like the "ball goes past very near the pier
of the post" and above all, the orientation system of the listener
for the distribution of the football players and the play around
the field. He split the zone into two parts (A and B) and 16 positions
around the pitch, the European and American radio stations used
to give way to a strategy and geometry art based on "the centre
circle", "the area semicircle", "halfway line
for both teams"…in order to place the listener mentally
on the pitch and make his imagination come into play.
And
fourthly, when in the International Conference "El idioma español
en el deporte" which was held in 1992 owing to the Olympic
Games organized in Barcelona, he contributed a list of cliché
expressions and idioms by means of which a report made up of twenty
pages could be written changing the main figures' names only.
Epilogue
For all the sport and the art of bullfighting enthusiasts, from
both sides of the Atlantic, the walk along the magic and the memory
of one of the pioneers of the communication in the 20th century
is recommendable.
Bibliographical
references
ARIAS RUIZ, Aníbal: Cincuenta años de radiodifusión
en España. Madrid: Radio Televisión Española,
1973.
BURGOS, Antonio: "El fútbol codificado de Marías
Prats", El Mundo de Andalucía, Sevilla, 6 de febrero
de 1998.
- "El poeta del micrófono", Abc, Madrid, 10 de
septiembre de 2004.
CAMPMANY, Jaime: "Mi compañero de viaje", Abc,
Madrid, 10 de septiembre de 2004.
CANAL PLUS: Epílogo: Matías Prats. Madrid: Canal Plus,
10 de septiembre de 2004.
CASTAÑÓN RODRÍGUEZ, Jesús: Reflexiones
lingüísticas sobre el deporte. Valladolid: edición
del autor, 1995.
- "El museo de Matías Prats", La Nueva España,
Oviedo, 16 de enero de 2006.
DÍAZ, Lorenzo: La radio en España, 1923-1993. Madrid:
Alianza Editorial, 1993.
 DÍAZ
PRIETO, Luisa: Matías Prats, todo un mito. Córdoba:
Ayuntamiento de Villa del Río y Diputación de Córdoba,
2000.
EZCURRA, Luis: Historia de la radiodifusión española.
Madrid: Editora Nacional, 1974.
GABILONDO, Iñaki: "No hagas caso, exageran", El
País, Madrid, 10 de septiembre de 2004.
GARCÍA CANDAU, Julián: "Todos de luto",
La Razón, Madrid, 9 de septiembre de 2004.
GARCÍA LLANOS, Salvador: "Siempre nos quedará
su elocuencia", As, Madrid, 14 de septiembre de 2004.
MALVAR, Luis: La radio deportiva en España, 1927-2004. Madrid:
Pearson Educación, 2005.
MARIÑAS, Enrique: "La radiación de partidos de
fútbol con campo cuadriculado", Sintonía número
20, Madrid, 15 de marzo de 1948.
MARTÍN FERRAND, Manuel: "El mundo de la comunicación
llora a Matías Prats, la voz del siglo XX", Abc, Madrid,
10 de septiembre de 2004.
MUNSÓ CABÚS, Juan: Cuarenta años de radio (1940-1980).
Barcelona: Picazo, 1980.
- Cincuenta años de Radio Nacional de España. Escrito
en el aire. Madrid: Radiotelevisión Española, 1988.
OLMO, Luis del: "El espejo donde nos miramos", El País,
Madrid, 10 de septiembre de 2004.
PRATS, Matías-SÁNCHEZ FORNÉS, Santiago: Guía
erótica del fútbol. Madrid: Temas de Hoy, 1991.
SALAZAR, Bernardo de: "Se nos marchó el máximo
goleador de nuestro fútbol", As, Madrid, 10 de septiembre
de 2004.
Traducción:
María Elena Martín Pérez
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