The musical traditions of the Northwest Iberian Peninsula include those of Galicia, Asturias, and Cantabria. The music of Galicia and Asturias is known for the use of bagpipes, and it shares some similar features with the music of Cantabria.

History

People have long believed that Galician and Asturian music might have roots in the ancient Celtic history of the region. It was thought that some of this ancient influence might have survived even after many centuries of changes, including the effects of Roman and Germanic cultures. Whether this is true or not, much of the modern commercial Galician and Asturian traditional and folk-rock music from recent years has been strongly influenced by modern Irish, Scottish, and Welsh "folk" styles. Today, Galicia is a major part of the international Celtic folk scene. As a result, parts of the old Galician tradition have been included in the modern Celtic folk style. However, some people say that the "Celtic" label is just a way to sell music better. A well-known Galician bagpipe player, Susana Seivane, said, "I think [the 'Celtic' name is] a label, in order to sell more. What we make is Galician music." In any case, because of the Celtic brand, Galician music is the only non-Castilian-speaking music in Spain with a large audience outside the country. Some Galicians and Asturians have said that the "Celtic boom" ended once very different musical traditions.

Celtic culture was known to cover much of the Iberian Peninsula as early as 600 BC. Between the 2nd and 1st centuries BC, the Roman Empire slowly took over Iberia, which they called Hispania. The Celtic areas resisted strongly but were eventually conquered. Over the next centuries, Latin, the Roman language, gradually replaced nearly all the earlier languages of the region, including Celtic languages. Latin became the ancestor of most languages in Spain and Portugal today, except for Basque, including Galician and Astur-Leonese-Mirandese. When the Romans left in the 5th century, Germanic tribes invaded. The Suebi took over the northwest, but not much is known about their cultural influence. In the 6th century, a small group of Celts from Britain arrived in northern Galicia, where they were given their own church, called Britonia. Later, Galicia was controlled by the Visigoths after the Suebi kingdom fell. After the Visigoths were defeated by the Moors in 717, Galicia was briefly under Moorish rule. However, this was short-lived, and later, Christian musicians influenced by the Moors helped spread music. Moorish control ended in 739 when a rebellion drove out their soldiers. Galicia then became part of the Kingdom of Asturias and later helped start the Reconquista.

In 810, it was claimed that the remains of Saint James, one of Jesus' apostles, were found at a site that became Santiago de Compostela. This place became a major pilgrimage site in the Middle Ages, which likely influenced the local music as travelers brought instruments and styles from faraway places like Scandinavia and Hungary.

Little is known about music from this time, but a few manuscripts exist. For example, Martín Codax, a 13th-century poet and musician, wrote about instruments like bagpipes and flutes that were common then. The Cantigas de Santa Maria, a collection of old Galician writings, also includes pictures of people playing bagpipes.

In the early 20th century, Galician folk music was revived by performers like Perfecto Feijoo, a bagpipe and hurdy-gurdy player. The first commercial recording of Galician music was made in 1904 by a group called Aires d'a Terra from Pontevedra. In the mid-20th century, Ricardo Portela inspired many musicians and played in influential bands like Milladoiro.

During Francisco Franco’s rule, traditional folk music was used for political events, which made it less popular. After Franco’s rule ended in 1975, Galician and Asturian music had a strong revival. The Festival Internacional do Mundo Celta (1977) helped Galician bands gain attention. Musicians learned folk styles from groups like Os Areeiras, Os Rosales, and Os Campaneiros. Others studied at Antón Corral’s workshop in Vigo. Some of these musicians formed their own bands, like Milladoiro.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Galician and Asturian performers gained fame in Spain and the international Celtic folk scene. Uxía, a singer who first performed with the band Na Lúa, became well-known after her 1995 album Estou vivindo no ceo and a collaboration with Sudanese singer Rasha. The group Fía na Roca, named after their debut album released in 1993, was a key event in Galician music. Their mix of tradition and modernity led the BBC to use their music for a TV program during the 1993 Xacobeo Celebration.

Carlos Núñez helped popularize Galician traditions. His 1996 album A irmandade das estrelas sold over 100,000 copies and gained attention because of collaborations with musicians like La Vieja Trova Santiaguera, The Chieftains, and Ry Cooder. His later album, Os amores libres, blended flamenco, Celtic, and Berber music and was nominated for a Latin Grammy. Other modern Galician bagpipe players include Xosé Manuel Budiño and Susana Seivane. Seivane is especially notable as the first major female bagpipe player, helping more women enter a field once dominated by men. Galicia’s most popular singers are also mostly women, including Uxía, Sonia Lebedynski, and Mercedes Peón.

A revival of traditional Asturian music also happened during this time. Artists like Hevia and groups such as Llan de cubel and Tejedor helped bring attention to Asturian folk music in Asturias and the wider "Celtic" and world music scenes. Musicians from Asturias have become more visible at events like the Festival Interceltique de Lorient in France.

Today, traditional Galician music still has an audience, as do the styles that developed in the 1980s and 1990s. In recent years, new trends have mixed traditional Galician music with electronic sounds. The first hit song combining traditional Galician music with electronics was released in 1978 by the group Son Lalín, who performed a version of Muiñeira de Chantada. Today, Mercedes Peón and Baiuca are notable for their work.

Traditional instruments

Traditional instruments in Galicia, Asturias, and Cantabria include the well-known gaita, a type of bagpipe, as well as many percussion and wind instruments.

Folk wind instruments in the area include the Cantabrian pitu montañés, a type of flute with a cone shape and seven holes on the front and one on the back. It is played like the bagpipe’s melody pipe. This instrument was once made in E-flat, but Antón Corral has helped bring it back to life by making it in D. A transverse flute with six holes is called a requinta; it is similar to the fife. It is usually in G or sometimes in high C. Traditional Galician wind instruments include the pito pastoril (galego), a shepherd’s whistle. Though its name is similar to the Cantabrian pitu montañés, it belongs to a different family of instruments, like the fipple flutes, which also include the tin whistle and the recorder. This instrument became popular again in the second half of the 20th century and the early 21st century, appearing in traditional music groups. Other wind instruments include chifre, ocarina, and the imported clarinet and accordion. Cantabria has many dances for the soprano clarinet, also called pitu or requinto (not to be confused with the requinta fife).

Plucked string instruments are common in Spain and Portugal, but they were not used in Galician or Asturian folk music until recent years. Modern guitarists like Xesús Pimentel often use strong flamenco influences in their music. The violin has been played in the area since the early 20th century, when blind musicians traveled to fairs to play traditional and self-written songs, as well as pieces by composers like Sarasate. The hurdy gurdy (zanfona) has been played in the region for many centuries but mostly disappeared by the middle of the 20th century. It was revived by musicians like Faustino Santalices and Xosé Lois Rivas. Though the hurdy gurdy is now more closely linked to French music, the first recordings of it were made by Galician Perfecto Feijoo in 1904. Harps were used in the Middle Ages but were not used again until the 1970s, when Emilio Cao used them to accompany his music. Modern harpists have been inspired by the Celtic harp used in Scotland, Ireland, and Brittany, and include musicians like Quico Comesaña and Rodrigo Romaní.

Percussion instruments include the tamboril, a small snare drum worn on the belt and played with two sticks. It is made from animal skin and has snares made of gut. Along with the bombo, a large bass drum played with one stick, the tamboril is often used with bagpipes. The pandeiro (Asturian: panderu) is a square frame drum with two sides, similar to the Portuguese and Castilian adufe. It usually has beans inside that make noise. It is often played with the pandeireta, a round drum with metal rattles, by a single singer or small group. A pair of vieira shells (cunchas) are rubbed together to accompany dancing. Tarrañolas (Asturian and Spanish: tejoletas) are wooden strips held between the fingers. Charrasco is a pole with a frame on top decorated with tambourine rattles; it is played by rubbing a string along the pole with a stick. Other percussion instruments include canaveira and carraca.

The word gaita can refer to many different instruments in Spain and Portugal, but in Galicia, it means bagpipes. These are inflated using bellows or a blowpipe. Outside Galicia and Asturias, bagpipes are also played in other parts of Spain, like Aragon, Catalonia, León, Mallorca, Zamora, and in Portugal in Minho, Trás-os-Montes, and Estremadura.

Records show that the gaita was common in the 13th century but became less popular in the 17th and 18th centuries. It saw a revival in the 19th century, but its popularity dropped again in the early 20th century. A new revival began in the 1970s, and the folk music revival reached its peak in the late 1990s with albums by Galician Carlos Núñez (A Irmandade Das Estrelas) and Asturian Hevia (Tierra De Nadie). Both albums were very successful, and Tierra De Nadie sold over a million copies.

In the 18th century, an important music school was opened in Asturias by José Remis Vega. Musicians of that time included Ramón García Tuero, while the 20th century brought performers like Vega’s son, José Remis Ovalle, and José Antonio García Suárez. The most famous modern Asturian player is Hevia, whose 1998 album Tierra De Nadie was a major success. Other modern performers and bands include Tejedor and Xuacu Amieva.

Traditional uses of the gaita include playing alone or with a snare drum (tamboril) and a bass drum (bombo). The Council of Ourense supports a bagpipe band called the Real Banda de Gaitas da Excma. Deputación de Ourense (Royal Pipe Band of the Council of Ourense). Founded by José Lois Foxo, the band uses blowpipe bagpipes in B flat, bellows bagpipes in F sharp, and a percussion section with snare drums, tenor drums, bass drums, tambourines, and tarrañolas. Its music includes traditional Galician songs and music from other Celtic countries. Some critics say the band’s instruments and style are too similar to Highland bagpipes and not traditional for Galicia.

Galician bagpipes come in three main types: tumbal (B flat), grileira (D), and redonda (C). Asturian bagpipes are usually played with a tambor (snare drum) and have only one drone, with a different finger pattern than Galician bagpipes.

The player fills the bag by blowing into a tube with a one-way valve. The left hand controls the pressure inside the bag. The melody pipe (chanter) has a double reed like a shawm or oboe and seven finger holes.

Songs

The oldest and most famous type of Galician music is the alalá, a style of singing linked to Galician pride. It has similarities to music from Castile and Celtic countries. Its origins are unclear, with some experts believing Gregorian chants are a key influence, while others suggest ancient Greek or Phoenician songs called alelohuías.

Alalás lack a regular beat and use a short, repeated melody. They are often performed with bagpipes or without instruments, and their melodies rely on a constant background note, usually using notes from a scale. Over time, alalás have included group singing with multiple voices and rhythms, typically in 2/4 or 3/4 time. A unique feature is that the first and last musical ending are the same, followed by a long, fading ending that ends in an unclear sound. In contrast to the slow alalá, there are also fast songs called pandeirada.

Marching tunes, known as ruadas in Galician, pasucáis in Asturian, and pasacalles in Spanish, are also practiced, along with a local version of the jota.

Other Asturian dances include saltón, diana, respingu, pericote, fandango, pasodoble, marcha procesional, rebudixu, corri-corri, baile de los pollos, giraldilla, and xiringüelu.

Dances

Baile refers to social dances in Cantabrian folk tradition. These include weapon dances such as danzas de palillos (stick dances), danzas de espadas (sword dances), and danzas de arcillos (dances with decorated arches), which are important features of the region's culture. Other well-known dance songs in the area are the jota, pasacorredoiras (also called pasacalles, or pasucáis in Asturian), and imported dances like the fandango, mazurka, polka, rumba, and pasodoble.

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