The Music of Asturias, Cantabria and Galicia Regions in Spain

The Northwest Spain comprises Asturias, Cantabria and Galicia, which is a place for a different musical customs ranging back into the middle Ages. The main instrument of the area is known as gaita (bagpipe), which derived from the Celtic influences in the area. The gaita is frequently followed by a snare drum, known as the tamboril, and played in ceremonial marches. Other instruments include the requinta, a type of fife, as well as harps, rebec, fiddles and zanfona (hurdy-gurdy). The music itself innings the gamut of the up-tempo muinieras to stately marches, as in the close Basque Country, Cantabrian music which also features complicated playful and stick dances but the tabor pipe does not play an essential part as it does in the Basque music. Traditionally, Galician music comprised a kind of chanting song known as alalas. Alalas also include instrumental pauses, and it is believed to have a very long record, extremely unsupported and based on folklores.

There are indigenous festivities celebrating the pre-Roman Celtic culture of the area, where Ortigueira’s Festival del Mundo Celta is particularly important. Drum and bagpipe couples extent among the very beloved types of Galcians music, that also includes renowned ensembles such as Miladoiro. Panderetiras are folk orchestras of women that play tambourines and sing. The bagpipe maestro Carlos Nuez and Susana Seivane are particularly renowned artists.

source of picture: en.wikipedia.org 

Asturias is also a place for renowned artists such as Jose Angel Hevia (another maetro bagpiper) and the group Llan de Cubel. Round dance that uses 6/8 tambourine rhythm is also a hallmark of this region.

Choral astrurianadas concert melismatic ornamentations like to those of other sessions of the Iberian Peninsula. There are numerous festivities such as Folixa na Primavera (which is done in April at Mieres), Intercelticu d’Aviles (interceltic festival of Aviles in July), as well as other in Celtic nights in Asturias.