Ahhh, Galicia. I spent a couple of months there in 1999. It is truly a special place and well worth visiting. At the time, I was interested in learning the Gaita and met Miguel Mosquera, a luthier from Santiago de Compostella. My sister had been an exchange student there in 1989 and so I was fortunate enough to be able to visit some of her old friends in Vigo.
The music was fantastic. The bagpiping is really diffent than the martial feel of scottish and breton piping traditions. They often play with tambourine and drum accompaniment which produces a delightful sound. I visited a lot of archeological areas in the province including the old stone walls of ring forts or Castros. At one I met an archeologist and asked her, straight up, if Galicia should be considered "Celtic". Her answer was that the culture of the Castros was very similar in lots of ways to the La Tene celtic culture in France/Gaul and that they had similar technology (copper, then bronze smelting, etc). Despite the similarities though, her education was that the Galicians are not of the same celtic ancestry as people in France and the Isles. Certainly, the people of Galicia see themselves as family with the peoples of the Celtic world. All over Galicia, you can buy T-shirts of the 5 nations -> Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Corwall, Brittany, and Galicia (Don't know why Asturias wasn't on the shirt). As far as the Hurdy-Gurdy goes, I met a great street musician named Miguel who played great trad tunes next to the cathedral in Satiago. I also got to see Berroguetto live. Their zanfona player, Anxo, was great. I noticed that, by and large, there is little use of the chien in Spanish playing. Have you-all noticed that, too? I'll introduce myself in my next post! -Ian Clemons Portland, OR., USA DISKJAKEY wrote: > > In a message dated 8/24/07 11:10:01 AM Eastern Daylight Time, > [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: > > > Clicking on the 237 BC link on the timeline indicates that a fairly large > area of modern Portugal and some of north-western Spain was then considered > Celtic.This area included a major Celtic settlement, Coimbra. In addition, La > Caruna, another important city, was apparently under some sort of Celtic > influence. > > Geoff
