Asturian Musical Instruments

[Art]

I was wondering which musical instruments are truly Asturian. After reading the folders that accompany CDs and a few Web sites, I have a arrived at an initial answer. Please don't take any of this for absolute fact. My research was largely done in Asturian, a language I don't fully understand. If you have corrections to offer, please do!

As far as I can tell, the traditional Asturian melodic instruments include:

• gaita asturianu (bagpipes)
• vigulín (fiddle or violin, possibly in some cases a predecessor of the violin)
• flauta (a traverse wooden flute)
• zanfona or gaita de rabil (hurdy-gurdy: a stringed instrument with a hand crank and piano-like keys which control the notes played)
• rabel or bandurria (a small 2 or 3-string bowed instrument)
• curdíon (a diatonic accordion--capable of playing a major or minor scale, without a full set of sharps and flats--generally a button accordion)

Percussion instruments are very important to Asturian music and are sometimes the sole accompaniment to dancing or singing. Among the primarily Asturian percussion instruments are:

• tambor asturianu (like a snare drum)
• pandero cuadrado (a square flat drum)
• panderetas (a round flat drum with tamborine-like cymbals embedded around the frame),
• banu (a large flat drum)
• bombu asturianu (a larger drum)
• castañueles asturianas or clótalos (larger than Andalucean castanets)

Payella (a long-handled sarten or frying pan, sidra (cider) bottles and spoons are also played.

A number of these were older musical instruments which had been common in Asturias of years ago and fallen out of favor. With the resurgence of regional pride in recent decades, these some of the older instruments are being used by musicians once again.

Contemporary folkloric music in Asturias uses a wide variety of instruments from all around the globe. Some of these are:

• Greek bouzouki (a large mandolin)
• Irish bodhran (flat drum played with a short beater)
• penny whistle (xiblate)
• acoustic and classic guitars
• harp
• mandolin
• bass

There are good sources of further info on the Web:
Astur Celta has explanations (in Asturian) and images of many of these instruments: http://www.geocities.com/Nashville/7127/menu.html

La Gaita Asturiana, besides an excellent section on the bagpipes, has a section of the site describing the percussion instruments (in Spanish): http://www.asturies.com/viesca/gaita/otrapas.htm

This site provides a useful comparison of the terms used for various Iberian (Portuguese and Spanish) musical instruments:
http://www.tamborileros.com/tradiberia/nombres.htm

For interesting sound samples, photos and instructions on the construction of traditional musical instruments (mostly Iberian)--all in Spanish, see:
http://www.es-aqui.com/payno/pral.htm

Do you have any additions or corrections to this?

[idiofonos]

Otra dirección de instrumentos Populares las puedes encontrar en:

EL SONIDO POPULAR
http://www.telecable.es/personales/isap ... pular.html

Un saludo

[Art]

Es una página interesante con muchas imágenes buenas. ¡Gracias, Idiofonos!

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That's an interesting site with lots of good images. Thanks, Idiofonos!