![]() I remembered Manny’s card, and he proved more than helpful, with books on traditional costumes, repertoire suggestions, and in fact he ultimately appeared in the show with me. He was Gallego through and through, and a very kind man, Manuel Torres.Ī few months later the California Revels, a theatre troupe which puts on mighty Solstice pageant each December, and with which I had worked several times, approached me about doing a “Galician” Revels. But he gave me his card and said that should I ever need any help with matters Galician I should give him a call. He laughed and explained that the Seivanes were often a bit late in delivering on orders (which might have been the case then, but certainly is not these days!). I said that we had ordered pipes just like it and were expecting them in a few months. I complimented him on his gaita, and he was surprised that I knew what it was. About six months later I was playing at a Celtic festival in Sebastopol, California and I saw a man who was carrying a gaita identical to the ones we had ordered from Seivane. We had rounded up five folks who were interested, and I was told we would have our pipes in one year. Since I had the most Spanish, I was elected to make the call, which I did. He thought we should order a group of very high quality gaitas from the Seivane family, the most celebrated pipe makers in Galicia – the idea being that if a number of us ordered them, we would be taken more seriously. In 2002 a dear friend and fellow bagpipe collector and player, Ian Law, phoned me with a scheme. Makers like Seivane, Varela, Oli, Mouriño and many more work to the highest standard producing jewel like instruments There has been much progress in pipe making, with various drone configurations, new tonalities and refined chromatic abilities for the chanters. Today there are more than 90,000 pipers in a country, Galicia, of 2.5 million people. Galicia is deeply rich in folk music, song and dance, and though there have been periods in history where there was much pressure on the tradition (emigration, war, Franco’s disdain for regional customs) the music has persevered. Every region in Galicia would have traditions of ornamentation, intonation, pitch and certain tunes unique to the area. Traditional Gaitas had one drone and a chanter. I spent 24 hours in the company of this group, though it felt like a month, and I have loved Galicia ever since. They danced the muiñeira, a 6/8 dance which is lovely to behold. We go to play.” And they struck up and led the way to a plaza, where it seemed people came out of each doorway and began to dance to the music. ” This is a package of Gaita reeds, for Bruce. “I know Bruce!” I exclaimed, and without changing expression, this man reached in his pocket and pulled out a small package, which he handed to me. And, now, gobsmacked and stunned by this further turn of events, I realized that I did indeed know Bruce. And he did an imitation of the way Bruce walked. He then asked me if I knew a man named Bruce. Though he spoke in Gallego, I somehow understood, and said, ” the USA”. The man, who, like all the others was in traditional costume and looked marvelous, looked at me and asked me where I was from. I ran up to the leader of the group, and in that eloquence that is occasioned by a mixture of musical intoxication, ignorance of the language and the need to speak or explode, managed to say, in English, “bagpipes!!!!!”. Dropping my backpack I ran around a corner and was overjoyed to see a traditional group of 2 pipers, gaiteiros, a bass drummer, a small snare drummer and a man playing pandeireta, the small tambourine played virtuosically in Galicia. After asking excitedly in deeply flawed Spanish about the location of the bagpipe museum, and being met with confused looks, I suddenly heard the unmistakable sound of piping. So when I found myself in Santiago de Compostela, capital of Galicia, I assumed that this was where the museum would be located. ![]() I had recently become fascinated by the world of bagpipes and had read in Baines’ book (Bagpipes, Anthony Baines,1995, Pitt River Museum, University of Oxford) that there was a bagpipe museum in Northern Spain. My first trip to Galicia, an autonomous region in the northwestern corner of Spain, was in 1978. Kevin Carr playing his gaita at a recent Magostos.
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