Galician gaita

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The (Galician) gaita or gaita de fol is a traditional bagpipe used in Galicia (Spain), and northern Portugal.

The name gaita is used in Galician, Spanish, Asturian and Portuguese as a generic term for "bagpipe". According to Joan Corominas, it may come from gaits, the Gothic word for "goat", whose skin is generally used for the bag. The word may also be derived from the Latin "caetras", or "gaethas", an instrument attributed to the Celts in the Iberian Roman Provence of Gallaecia, by Silius Italicus. The name has other regional meanings; see gaita.

[edit] The instrument

Image:GaitaGalega.pngThe galician gaita has a conical chanter and a bass drone (ronco) with a second octave. It may have one or two additional drones playing the tonic and dominant notes. Three keys are traditional: D (gaita grileira, lit. "cricket bagpipe"), C, and Bb. Galician pipe bands playing these instruments have become popular in recent years.

For many years the playing of close harmony (thirds and sixths) with two gaitas of the same key was/is the normal style, and this, starting in the 1970s, influenced French pipers who began bagpipe choirs, or "ensemble des cornemuses". Bulgaria also had similar choirs, starting in the 1950s, with gaitas in different related keys played together. Most gaita bands play with percussion, usually one bass drum and a number of tambourines (pandeiretas).