Something of the objective career-disruption of the Civil War, which is generally dated from July 17, 1936, can be seen in the fact that, at its outbreak, Montsalvatge was in the midst of writing a major ballet score, El àngel de la guarda (The Guardian Angel), which was finally completed as movements for piano in 1952.

The 24-year-old graduate of Barcelona's Conservatori Municipal was justified in seeing himself as a marked man in 1936, so any danger that would make him put off finishing his ballet was hardly a product of his imagination. Francisco Franco had raised a rebellion against the five-year-old Second Republic, and both history and his own ambitions caused him to regard the Catalans, especially those of Barcelona, with hostility. The passage of years since 1714 had not sufficed to reconcile the Catalans to the loss of their democratic rights. Even to this day they observe the date on which they lost them — September 11 — as their most solemn national commemoration. The majority of Catalans were ill-disposed to support an uprising that promised to integrate them even further into the culture of an authoritarian and Castilianizing force.