Galicia is the part of northern Spain near Portugal and it was there, centuries ago, that music and instruments came together to form a distinct musical genre, brought by Celtic peoples who made pilgrimages to Santiago de Compostela.
Galician Carlos Nunez plays the Galician bagpipes (known as gaita), related to but not quite the same as the Irish and Scottish pipes, but all three types made up part of the concert program he brought to Town Hall Saturday night, sponsored by the Spanish consulate under the aegis of the Early Music Guild. A gifted and versatile musician, Nunez also played the Irish bagpipes and a variety of recorders, from a Renaissance tenor/alto version to one about four inches long.
In his program titled “A Celtic Musical Pilgrimage to Santiago,” Nunez, with colleagues and guests, performed music from ninth century Galicia to today.
Performing with him were his brother Xurxo, who played drums including a drumhead on which he was able to alter the pitch by the position of his hand inside the back, and also the shells—symbol of Santiago—which he used somewhat like castanets but with more variety of sound effects; Pancho Alvarez, also from Galicia, on the Brazilian viola, which looks like a guitar and has ten strings in five courses; and fiddler Jon Pilatzke of Toronto from The Chieftains who also step-danced, something like clog dancing but harking back more to the Baroque style used then in London’s folk scene. As well as these were a pair of teens, Emma Chrisman and Susana Davidson, from Seattle Historical Arts for Kids, singing and improvising on vielle with aplomb—particularly since they were given only two days to learn about the music they were to perform with Nunez’ group, and two gifted Scottish bagpipers, Danielle Millar from Vancouver and Jori Chisholm from Seattle, complete with tartan kilts, sporrans, and knee socks.
Nunez is a born showman. He announced the program from the stage, though not always intelligibly: music from the first bishop of Compostela, from the Codex Calixtinus, music composed by King Alphonsus X, cantigas from the 13th century jongleur Martin Codax and the reading of and performing music for a poem describing the battle in October 1702 between Spanish treasure ships coming from the New World and English ships which intercepted them in Vigo Bay.
The second half of the concert became livelier and livelier with the music becoming faster and faster, the audience clapping along, Pilatzke’s dancing feet whirring like a blur, and eventually him leading a line of audience through the hall and up onto the stage where they continued dancing.
The superbly performed program also educated with a light hand. The strong connections became clear between the music and instruments of the Irish, Scottish and Galician Celtic communities brought to Galicia by those undertaking pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, and then by extension to Brazil with the waves of Portuguese immigrants. And as well, the music’s and instruments’ longevity from the earliest days of pilgrimage to today. The melodies and rhythms, the tempos and harmonies bear close relation from country to country, from century to century, and also between early classical and folk music, though as the evening progressed the flavors of different countries became clear, Scottish from Brazilian, Irish from Galician.
But where do the Welsh and Cornish Celts fit in here? Did they not go on pilgrimage or play bagpipes?
