Galician Tunes in MIDI Format
The links below point to MIDI files of some Galician tunes. The files
have been given to me by José Presedo, a friend of
mine and accomplished Galician bagpiper. The files belong to a larger
collection of tunes he has been typing in. I have selected some of
them under my own criteria, which may or may not be shared by him or
by any other.
Regarding the files, no attempt has been made to mimic how a Galician
bagpipe should sound, or how a Galician tune should be played. Some
tunes have schematic drums, and some do not. In some files the drones
stop by the middle of the tune. This was apparently due to a problem
in the MIDI translation built in the music writing program.
All said, this is just a very narrow view of the wide gamut of
Galician Folklore. For some more details on Galician bagpipes, tunes,
and reference books, you could direct your browser to my pages on Galician
bagpipes.
You can download all of the tunes listed below with in Unix
tar format compressed with gzip
here (some 13K) or in DOS
ZIP format here.
Downloading: A note
Some people tell me that they are unable
to download the MIDI files, and all they get is garbage on their
screen. This usually happens when you just click on a MIDI file link
as if it where just another hyperlink: the contents of the file are
meaningless to the WWW browser (unless you have a plug-in able to play
directly MIDI files), and it just tries to display what it
receives. This can be solved by downloading the file to your local
disk, and then reading this file with any program able to play MIDI
files (and you will have the file stored and ready for further
listening and pleasure!). The way this is done changes with the
browsers, but usually there is a menu entry, or a combination of mouse
button and shift/alt/ctrl keys which does the job.
From the Cancionero de Casto Sampedro
The Cancionero de Casto Sampedro is a collection of popular
songs and tunes from Galicia first published in 1940. It has been
reprinted recently.
- Number 308: Muiñeira,
collected in the
Morrazo, Pontevedra.
- Number 312: Muiñeira,
collected in Poio,
Pontevedra. A slow version of this tune has been recorded by
Milladoiro.
- Number 316: Muiñeira,
collected in Cesures, Pontevedra.
- Number 317: This is a
variation of the tune widely known as Muiñeira de
Poio, composed by M. Villanueva circa 1886.
- Number 318: Muiñeira,
collected in Poio, Pontevedra.
- Number 320: Muiñeira,
collected in Negros, Redondela, Pontevedra.
- Number 329: Muiñeira,
collected in Ourense.
- Number 332: Muiñeira,
collected in Pontevedra.
- Number 338: A 2/4 dance,
usually known as Danzón do
Carballiño. Collected in O Carballiño,
Ourense.
- Number 348: A
chouteira, which is very similar to a
muiñeira. This truly beautiful piece was collected in
Mondoñedo.
- Number 349: Also known as
Xota de Pontevedra.
- Number 352: This
fandango is usually referred to as Fandango de
Redondela.
- Number 446: A
pasacorredoiras, as was played by the bagpiper
Joaquín de Vilar de Enfesta, in Redondela, Pontevedra.
From the Collection of Mr. Feijoo, as published in Aires da
Terra
Mr. Feijoo, a bagpiper himself, founded and conducted in the first
years of the 20th century one of the first Galician choirs. Aires
da Terra is a book about his life and work, which includes lots
of scores of Feijoo's collection.
- Number 1: An alborada
composed by M. Villanueva. Some pieces of this alborada were
used by the great late piper R. Portela to compose the tune Aires
de Pontevedra, made popular by Milladoiro.
- Number 5: The original
Muiñeira de Poio, supposedly as played by its
composer, M. Villanueva. The piece was written down by
Mr. Feijoo.
- Number 11: A muiñeira
interpreted by M. Villanueva in a piping contest in 1882.
- Number 12: The handwriting
suggests that the score was written down while the piper was
playing the melody. The name of the player or the composer is
not known.
- Number 13: A ribeirana,
probably composed by M. Villanueva.
- Number 18: A
pasacalles by M. Villanueva.
- Number 25: A Marcha
Procesional. Those slow marches are commonly
played in religious acts, when images of saints are
carried upon the devotees shoulders. This usually coincides
with some local religious festivity.
- Number 44: Apparently from the
repertoire of O Choqueiro, a piper from the village of
Cangas.
- Number 61: A
muiñeira, similar to another one named O
Bico. This last one is part of a longer collection of
pieces for piano by J. Montes.
- Number 110: Despedida dos
Santos na Oitava de Corpus Christi en Santa María Maior
de Pontevedra. The names says it all.
From Other Sources
- Alborada de
Pontecaldelas is one of the most famous Galician
alboradas. It is named after the village in which it is
supposed to have originated. It appears also
in the Cancionero de Casto Sampedro with the number 400.
- Abrente en Cordobelas
is another very fine alborada composed by R. Leonardo
Bouza.
- Alborada de
Rosalía. Rosalía de Castro was one of
the most famous Galician poets. She wrote lyrics for this
moving alborada.
- A Gaita de Cocobolo
shows the composing skills of my friend Presedo.
- O Forricallo is a
two-part muiñeira composed by A. Anta Seoane.
- Muiñeiras
medley, put together by Juanjo Fernández,
taking melodies from the zone of A Fonsagrada, which
lies between Galicia and Asturias.
- Fandango
Muradán, a two-part fandango by R. Leonardo Bouza.
- Repinicando, again by
R. Leonardo Bouza, shows the contrapuntistic musical conception
of this modern composer.
- Ribeirana. I used to
play this tune years ago with my friend Presedo for a dance
group, and I still like it. I assume he does, too, since he has
taken the time to rewrite it in the computer.
- Ei, os de Sergude! is
a muiñeira written by Mauricio Farto.
- Troula. A mazurka.
- ...en Truvias is a
really nice pasodoble composed by the fine
Galician piper and composer Pepe Vahamonde.
A page written by Manuel Carro
All the tunes in this page were typed in and given to me by
José Presedo
Last modified: Wed Feb 5 17:23:04 1997