ASTURIAS

No drones, no happiness Piping In

PAIN’S rugged northern coast is Franco y Bahamonde, ’s dictator from home to five contrasting piping- 1936 until his death in 1975. Under his policy Srelated cultures: Galician, Asturian, of suppressing minority cultures, Asturias be- Cantabrian, Navarran and Basque, although came the “Province of Oviedo”. When Franco the gaita navarra, like the Basque double- finally died, its old, more culturally assertive pipe “” has no bag, and the Basques’ name was restored and Asturias became an xaranbel bagpipe is believed extinct. autonomous community (a form of regional Not far away are the Catalonian , government created by Spain’s 1978 Constitu- the Zamoran-Portuguese gaita de fole and the FAÇADE of the Casa de los González de la Vega, home to tion). Asturianu, its unique language, is not the Museo de la Gaita in Xixón… “the piper is the most Aragonese . important figure in the Asturian popular landscape. It’s officially recognised but it is protected and, Asturias, bordering eastern Galicia, owes its not possible to understand traditional music here without today, Asturias enjoys a reputation for its excel- the bagpipe. It appears in every celebration, religious or distinctive historical identity to the combative secular.” lent seafood and cheeses and, particularly, for tenacity of its eighth century Visigoth overlords. its tasty, head-spinning cider. In 718, a war band of Visigoths, clinging Around this background Asturias formed Fieldwork began in the late 1970s to recover to their last stronghold, routed an army of an enduring identity, different from those of the long-suppressed traditional culture of As- Moors from the mountain glen of Covadonga its neighbours. It remained a relatively poor, turias, but piping enjoyed little support of the and established a small, independent Christian obscure region until iron and coal mining began sort that Galician authorities were pouring into enclave. The battle was one of history’s magic changing the hitherto agricultural economy in piping there. moments, inspiring the “Reconquista” that the 19th century. “The Asturian upper middle classes despised would ultimately oust the Moors from the Industrialisation helped prime the bagpipe as a vulgar instrument, too noisy whole of Spain. against the fascist regime of General Francisco for their sensitive ears,” explained Juan Alfonso

PIPING TODAY • 40 by Mike Paterson ASTURIAS

Covadonga Lakes in Asturias

Fernández Garcia, director of the Museo de la Gaita in Xixón (Gijón, in its usual Spanish rendering) when I first visited Asturias in 1999. LLAN DE CUBEL from left: Xuan Muñez, Xel Pereda, “A consequence has been the slight interest of Marcos Llope, Simon Bradley, our cultural and political institutions. Elías García and Fonsu Mielgo. “The piper is the most important figure in the Asturian popular landscape. It’s not possible to understand traditional music here without the bagpipe. It appears in every celebration, religious or secular.” The traditional teaching system had survived and the local Universidad Popular was at that time offering six to ten places a year on its bagpipe courses. tween Galician and Asturian pipers, depending set back from the golden beach of San Lorenzo “While Galician pipers usually use open on the greater or lesser presence of traditional in a park beside the city’s sports stadium and fingering for major keys and closed fingering for piping style in the personal mix.” the Rio Piles. It has a permanent exhibition of minor keys, the traditional Asturian chanter is Since we talked, a growing number of lead- pipes from Spain, the rest of Europe and North diatonic and pipers use a half-closed fingering ing Asturian pipers — most notably José Angel Africa. There is even a set of English ‘Leicester’ technique to play in the major keys,” added the Hevia Velasquez (“Hevia”) — and groups small pipes, an experimental re-creation by the museum director. “Recently, leading Asturian — like Llan de Cubel and Tejedor — have Peebles-based pipemaker Julian Goodacre. Also pipers have developed new fingering tech- made their presence ever more vividly felt in displayed is an assortment of other Asturian niques, involving half holes and ‘tranquillas’, to international circles and the tradition at home traditional instruments, along with art and produce the complete chromatic scale. has gone from strength to strength. photography relating to piping traditions. “There is a new generation of baroque pipers The Museo de la Gaita’s collection of pipes The low point for Asturias’ piping tradition very interested in the development of a flourish- and piping materials, which began as the per- and traditional culture came in the late 1970s, ing personal style which amalgamates different sonal passion of a bookseller, Raphael Meré according to Fonsu Mielgo, a cultural promoter influences, even Scottish. In spite of this,” he Pando, is now installed in the historic Casa de and co-founder of the 25-year-old Asturian said, “there are still important differences be- los González de la Vega, a 17th century house traditional group Llan de Cubel.

PIPING TODAY • 41 PROFILEASTURIAS PIPING TODAY •42 that maketuningdifficult:you good conditionandyouhave to practisealot.You haveto know yourpipesverywell.” “We havesometechniques, have tokeepyourpipesin octave withoverblowing, people, theyfollowedus like reachingthesecond and ‘modern’ toyoung too andwehadevery the musicverymuch. FONSU MIELGO… and oldpeopleliked As it sounded ‘new’ As itsounded‘new’ “When westarted, “When so commontosee kind ofaudience.” people; itwasnot emotional forold XUAN MUÑEZ: pipes anddrums it wasespecially in thefestivals

Photo: Derek Maxwell Photo: Derek Maxwell with thegroup. Today, Llande Cubel (bouzouki andpedalbass) —are still (vocals andflutes)Elías García band’s other founders—Marcos Llope traditional band.Fonsu and twoofthe Llan de Cubel in1984asa five-piece their musicalheritage. They launched ing studentswithashared passionfor worn costumesinthefolkband.” typical inthepipebandsbutwe’ve never until theendof19thcentury. It’s andworn,more orless, 18th century based ondress usedattheendof excellent situation. good bands,excellent pipers:it’s an there young are players, lotsofvery techniques are improving, pipebands… Asturias. The repertoire iswidening, of in thebestshapeever inthehistory I thinkwe cansaythatpipingisnow best pipingintheworldandtoimprove. Pipe Band Championships, to see the to thePiping Live! festival andthe World of interest. AsturianscometoScotland, goodpipebandsandthere isalot very Asturian pipesandnow there are some bands. big thingThat for was a very example ofScottishandBreton pipe formed inAsturias.“We followed the From the1980s,pipebandswere being by theendof1970s,”saidFonsu. traditional dancesandmusic. almostallofthe just intimetopreserve we were luckybecausethishappened good work wasdonewithdanceand and thework washarder there. Very more indangerthanthatofthepipes the repertoire forthefiddleandflutewas there:loudest instrument thegaita.So festivals somusicwasprovided by the 1960s, there wasnoamplificationatthe academicway.ing inavery Until the and music,mostlyby enthusiastswork- field work wasdoneindance,singing revival,” he said. “In the 1980s, a lot of instrument. andmostpopular the mostimportant area where thepipeshadalwaysbeen young peoplewere playingpipesinan left at that time, all old people. Very few Fonsu andhisfriendsmetasengineer- pipebandswear costumes “The “Our pipingrevival wasunderway were“There several sidestothe were“There perhaps100oldpipers

very much.Asitsounded ‘new’very and festivals andoldpeopleliked themusic in the common to see pipes and drums emotional foroldpeople.It wasnotso todothingsbetter.trying our playingandarrangingtechniques… we’ve tried to make have been to improve to do,”saidFonsu. only changes “The consciousofwhatwe wanted been very Celtic countrieshave shown us. it. We are following thewaythatother dition alive andyoung peopleare doing You need to write music to keep the tra - proving tunes. thingsandwritingnew people are bands,im- playinginnew is more anacademicthing.Most young way withnomoderninfluencesbutit groups that play in the pure, traditional our justification. Now there are ethnic there wascontroversy, buttimehasbeen not understandwhatwe were doingand museum thing. At first, some people did traditional musicoritwillbecomea you have toallow development in bass likewe use. — butnever aguitar, bouzouki orpedal accordion, indifferent combinations fiddle,clarinetand bassdrum, drum, olden times, a ‘bandina’ included gaita, strictly purist,according toFonsu. “In line-up.” past 12years, we have hadthesame whistle andvocals) in1998so,forthe Xuan R.Muñez (gaitaasturiana,low Simon Bradley (fiddle)in1996,and Pereda (guitarand vocals) in1995, accordion andwe were joinedby Xel day.practise every a while…butitishard andyou needto playing gaitainthebandanddiditfor accordionists andfiddleplayers. Ibegan too. We maderecordings ofoldpipers, the rest of the world. We did field work known, notonlyinAsturiasbutalso tomakeitbetter tional music,trying people, we begantowork withtradi- musicfrom thearea. contemporary folk group anditssixalbumsdefine is themostwidelyrecognised Asturian “When we started, itwasespecially we started, “When “In LlandeCubel, we have always “We thinktraditionalmusicisalive: Llan deCubel’s approach isnot “Now Iplaypercussion andalittle He added: “As a bunch of young

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is the important component and the pipes are ‘The drones are very important in Asturian accompaniment. Some pipers play and sing at the same time. music and for folk music we prefer a pipe with “The is also played solo, particularly for Mass in church and, most two drones; they make a good atmosphere and popularly, with a drum for dancers. I used to play with my brother on the drum, I play for provide the basic tuning for us, we tune to the friends’ weddings and I play in the church and sometimes I play with a singer but not often be- drone… no drones, no happiness’ cause you don’t find a lot of singers everywhere. There are some younger singers but most of the older, experienced singers have pipers they perform with regularly.” Over the past 15 years, the Asturian pipes have come to be better tuned, according to Xuan. “We have some techniques, like reaching the second octave with overblowing, that make tuning difficult: you have to keep your pipes in good condition and you have to practise a lot. You have to know your pipes very well,” he admitted. Xuan said an old technique of pumping the bag for rhythmic effect had been lost. There was a piper who was famous because he did that — and there are some traditional tunes where you need to do it – but that piper died in the 1940s. He added: “Our chanter reeds are different from the Galician chanter reeds and this gives the Asturian pipes their particular sound. There has been some development of the reeds. Photo: Mike Paterson Xuan Muñez and Fonsu Mielgo “Earlier in the revival, we played the tra- ditional reeds but they were unstable. So we ‘modern’ to young people, they followed us too “His pipes had been kept in his attic where made many efforts with makers to improve the and we had every kind of audience. they had lain unplayed for 70 years or more. traditional reeds. Now we play with modern “Simon Bradley is a Scottish fiddler. He al- The pipes were like new, in D, with one drone. Scottish cane reeds.” ways wrote tunes in the Irish or Scottish way,” The bag had been eaten by mice but the wood Local instrument makers have also played explained Fonsu. “Now, with us, he is writing — boxwood — was perfect. It was a miracle. an important role in the revival, said Fonsu. Asturian music in the Asturian style and we play “The drones are very important in Asturian “In the 1980s, and for maybe 100 years before some of his tunes. He has good technical skills music and for folk music we prefer a pipe with that, the most important pipe tunings were D and we incorporate that in our arrangements of two drones; they make a good atmosphere and and C. B-flat pipes were not made. The B-flat Asturian music in an Asturian style… enriched provide the basic tuning for us, we tune to the tuning was the most traditional but makers with his technique. The band has improved drone… no drones, no happiness.” had become used to making higher-pitched with his playing and arrangements. Today, he said, schools of traditional piping pipes. “We have toured the United States. Audi- and Asturian and snare drumming are operated “We started to work with some young pipe- ences there are older; you don’t see many young by a number of bands. He added: “There are makers to get them making B-flat pipes again people following folk music. But in Asturias, it’s about 50 schools in various towns and 3000 because we need that pitch for the pipe bands a bit like Scotland, you find all kinds of people pipers.” However, band competitions have and for the folk bands. It is better for the strings and all ages in an audience.” not proved popular. A championship launched and tuning. We participated actively in the Llan de Cubel’s gaita player Xuan Muñez seven years ago stalled in 2008 after none of the revival of the B-flat pipes in Asturias and this began piping when he was 12. “I started with a Asturian bands entered. wouldn’t have been possible without the hard classical band but, when they started a section of “Not everyone wants to go to a champion- work and interest of the makers. Asturian , I began to learn. I preferred ship,” said Xuan. “But there are competitions “Now they are making the Asturias pipes, the the pipes and I had a set of bagpipes from my for solo piping and for the traditional ‘tonala’ Asturian drum and other traditional drums and grandfather at home,” he said. ensemble: a piper with a singer where the singer doing very good work.” l

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