![]() Towards the southeast and eastern parts of Galicia, bagpipes were often played alone accompanied with a drum and a bass drum, sometimes joined by clarinets or small street bands. From the central parts of Galicia appeared the quartets, which are now widely played all throughout the region: two or three bagpipes, a small drum and a bass drum. Today, however, the instrument is very much standardised and only few people still play with closed fingerings. Whereas most of southern and eastern Galicia played with open fingerings, the northern and northwestern areas of the region played with closed fingerings. Lower pitched bagpipes (B) were called tumbais and higher pitched bagpipes (D, Eb) were called grileiras Aside from these characteristics, only bagpipes the very northern part of Galicia went up the octave. There was a wide variety of tonalities all over the region with a tendency towards higher keys as one travelled northwards. These used chanters that, much like the Trás-o-Monte pipes today, had a neutral third and a low subtonic. The greater part of Galicia used bagpipes with a single drone. Although many now play on pipes with an open fingering system, developed to play major and minor scales on a range of well over an octave, some even approaching two octaves, older Galician bagpipes varied geographically. The better-known Galician bagpipe is the gaita de fol with a double reed conical melodic pipe, a blowpipe and one to three drones. See Susana Moreno’s article for more information. This allowed them to maintain the organological characteristics of their instruments and to interpret their repertoire with a feeling of historical and musical continuity. Unlike many other bagpipe traditions that underwent a revival in the 1980s and opted to standardise the instrument by using a scale that was closer to the equal temperament in order to tune it to other instruments, the Portuguese revivalists chose to keep the characteristic scale of their bagpipes. Aside from its more rustic appearance, it uses a scale with a neutral third, which gives a distinctive character to its musical repertoire. Unlike the Galician gaita, however, the bagpipe from the Trasmonte region is thicker and less fine with a wider reed. The northern Portuguese gaita de fole consists of, much like the Galician version, a blowpipe, a drone and a double reed conical melodic pipe. Gaita de fole (Trás-o-Montes in Portugal and Sanabria in Zamora) There are fine and subtle differences within these sub-groups relating to the shape and size of the double reeds, the scales and how they go up the octave. Within the second group, Pablo Carpintero distinguishes two further sub-groups: the gaitas from Northern Portugal to Lisbon (with the exception of the Trás-o-Monte region), Galicia, the Eo-Navia area in Western Asturias, Northern Sanabria and Bierzo and the gaitas from Asturias and Cantabria which, according to him, are nearly impossible to differentiate. From this large single-reed drone and double-reed conical chanter bagpipe, two main types of instruments can be identified: the Trasmontana (Northern Portugal) and Sanabria gaita and the gaita from Galicia, Portugal, Bierzo and Asturias. ![]() This type of bagpipe was commonly found in Galicia, Asturias and Northern Portugal, Northern Zamora, in the Bierzo area (in the province of Leon), reaching the western part of Cantabria. One of the oldest versions of the bagpipe featured in Iberian iconography includes a bag, a blowpipe, a drone and a double reed conical melodic pipe. Bagpipes have been present in Galician iconography since the medieval ages and have accompanied Galician music ever since. The gaita de fol (gaita with bag) is probably the best-known European bagpipe after the great Highland Bagpipe, mainly thanks to Galician musicians’ international careers such as Carlos Nuñez and Susana Seivane. Gaita de fol (Galicia, Asturias, Portugal, Sanabria, Bierzo, Cantabria) This short overview of the different instruments one can find will hopefully give you an indication of the huge variety of bagpipes to be found in Spain and Portugal. The bagpipe was a common instrument in the northern part of the country. ![]() The Iberian Peninsula is extremely rich in instruments. A Short Overview of the Bagpipes from the Iberian Peninsula
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