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- Identity: the
building blocks of
2. Literature
and philosophy
3. Art and
architecture
4. Performing
arts
5. Cinema
and fashion
6. Media and
communications
7. Food and drink 8. Living culture:
the details of
Galicia
Galicia has the strongest folk music scene in Spain.
Today it’s usually grouped with Celtic music, involving
small drums, harps and the lead instrument, thegaita
(a term used across Spain for anything vaguely
bagpipish). Hardcore exponents, however, downplay the
Celtic connection, talking instead of purely Galician
music.The best-known genre is themuiñeira, a brief,
joyous interlude in an otherwise famously melancholic
repertoire of tunes.The tones of the Galician language
no doubt add to the mournful quality. Galicia’s folk
revival, initiated in the late 19thcentury but sanitised,
and essentially postponed, under Franco, has flourished
since the 1970s. Here the Celtic connection comes to
the fore. Carlos Nuñez has led the way. Collaborating
with the likes of Sinéad O’Connor and Ry Cooder, and
fusing Galician music withflamenco, Breton and North
African styles, Nuñez has found a wide audience.The
group Milladoiro enjoy huge popularity by exploring the
Celtic connection, while Mercedes Peón is a strong
female singer with a throaty wail.
Asturias
Galicia’s Celtic flow spills east across northern Spain
to include neighbouring regions. Pipes, woodwind and
drums are, again, all crucial to the music of rugged
Asturias and Cantabria.The bearded, excellent Llan de
Cubel are a popular band singing in the Asturian Celtic
tradition, while bagpipe wunderkind José Ángel Hevia
has impressed ever since he combined thegaitawith
rock and dance beats on his debut album,Tierra de
Nadie(1998).Theasturianadas, an elaborate vocal style,
takes a more traditional line, as does thevaqueiradas,
its intense rhythm unsubtly generated using a frying
pan and a key...or anything else close to hand.
- Blow up the bag (fol)
orally using the small,
valved tube.
- Place the inflated bag
under your left arm.
- Prop the long wooden
drone pipe over your left
shoulder (let other,
smaller drone pipes hang
loose near your right arm).
- Squeeze, blow and
release as required while
using the finger holes on
the conical chanter pipe.
- Find yourself suddenly
alone.
Piped in music
Asturias, patria querida,
the Asturian song popular
with bagpipers, has been
used around Spain as
an unofficial national
anthem. Associated with
the miners of Asturias,
and therefore the left
wing, the tune was
lampooned under Franco –
they called it the ‘song of
the drunks’. Just as it was
falling back in vogue in
most of Spain, research
concluded thatAsturias,
patria queridawas
actually written in Cuba.
A (very) brief
guide to playing
thegaita
