ASTURIAS No drones, no happiness Piping In Asturias PAIN’S rugged northern coast is Franco y Bahamonde, Spain’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 “alboka” 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 sac de gemecs, 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 gaita de boto. 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 Asturians 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 PROFILE ASTURIAS XUAN MUÑEZ: “There were perhaps 100 old pipers is the most widely recognised Asturian “We have some techniques, like reaching the second left at that time, all old people. Very few folk group and its six albums define octave with overblowing, young people were playing pipes in an contemporary music from the area. that make tuning difficult: you have to keep your pipes in area where the pipes had always been He added: “As a bunch of young good condition and you have the most important and most popular people, we began to work with tradi- to practise a lot. You have to know your pipes very well.” instrument. tional music, trying to make it better “There were several sides to the known, not only in Asturias but also revival,” he said. “In the 1980s, a lot of the rest of the world. We did field work field work was done in dance, singing too. We made recordings of old pipers, and music, mostly by enthusiasts work- accordionists and fiddle players. I began ing in a very academic way. Until the playing gaita in the band and did it for 1960s, there was no amplification at the a while …but it is hard and you need to festivals so music was provided by the practise every day. loudest instrument there: the gaita. So “Now I play percussion and a little the repertoire for the fiddle and flute was accordion and we were joined by Xel more in danger than that of the pipes Pereda (guitar and vocals) in 1995, and the work was harder there. Very Simon Bradley (fiddle) in 1996, and good work was done with dance and Xuan R. Muñez (gaita asturiana, low we were lucky because this happened whistle and vocals) in 1998 so, for the just in time to preserve almost all of the past 12 years, we have had the same traditional dances and music. line-up.” “Our piping revival was under way Llan de Cubel’s approach is not by the end of the 1970s,” said Fonsu. strictly purist, according to Fonsu. “In From the 1980s, pipe bands were being olden times, a ‘bandina’ included gaita, formed in Asturias. “We followed the drum, bass drum, fiddle, clarinet and example of Scottish and Breton pipe accordion, in different combinations bands. That was a very big thing for — but never a guitar, bouzouki or pedal Asturian pipes and now there are some bass like we use. Photo: Derek Maxwell very good pipe bands and there is a lot “We think traditional music is alive: of interest. Asturians come to Scotland, you have to allow development in to the Piping Live! festival and the World traditional music or it will become a Pipe Band Championships, to see the museum thing. At first, some people did best piping in the world and to improve. not understand what we were doing and I think we can say that piping is now there was controversy, but time has been in the best shape ever in the history of our justification. Now there are ethnic Asturias. The repertoire is widening, groups that play in the pure, traditional techniques are improving, pipe bands… way with no modern influences but it there are lots of very young players, very is more an academic thing. Most young good bands, excellent pipers: it’s an people are playing in new bands, im- excellent situation. proving things and writing new tunes. “The pipe bands wear costumes You need to write music to keep the tra- based on dress used at the end of the dition alive and young people are doing 18th century and worn, more or less, it. We are following the way that other until the end of the 19th century. It’s Celtic countries have shown us. typical in the pipe bands but we’ve never “In Llan de Cubel, we have always FONSU MIELGO… “When we started, worn costumes in the folk band.” been very conscious of what we wanted it was especially Fonsu and his friends met as engineer- to do,” said Fonsu. “The only changes emotional for old ing students with a shared passion for people; it was not we’ve tried to make have been to improve so common to see their musical heritage. They launched our playing and arranging techniques… pipes and drums Llan de Cubel in 1984 as a five-piece trying to do things better. in the festivals and old people liked traditional band. Fonsu and two of the “When we started, it was especially the music very much. band’s other founders — Marcos Llope emotional for old people.