Galician Gaita

Galician Gaita

The (Galician) gaita or gaita de foles is a traditional bagpipe of Galicia, Asturias and northern Portugal.

The name gaita is used in Galician and Spanish across northern Spain as a generic term for "bagpipe", although in the south of Spain and Portugal it denotes a variety of horn, flute or oboe like instruments according to region. Bagpipes in Spain are traditionally found across the north and centre, most notably in Asturias and Galicia, but also in León, Aragon, Extremadura, Zamora, the island of Majorca and the neighbouring areas of northern Portugal: Minho, Trás-os-Montes and, occasionally, in some regions south Douro river.

Just like "Northumbrian smallpipe"' or "Great Highland Bagpipe", each region attributes its toponym to the respective gaita name: gaita galega (Galicia), gaita transmontana (Trás-os-Montes), gaita asturiana (Asturias), gaita sanabresa (Sanabria), sac de gemecs (Catalonia), gaita de boto or gaita aragonesa (Aragón), etc. Most of them have a conical chanter with a partial second octave, obtained by overblowing, in the same way as the Eastern European gaida. After a long period of diminishing popularity, folk groups playing these instruments have become popular again in recent years.

Suggestions as to the origin of the name of the instrument are many. The word "gaita" has been compared to the names of eastern European bagpipes, such as gaida, gajda, and gajdy. Joan Coromines has suggested that the word gaita most likely derived from a Gothic word gait or gata, meaning "goat"; as the bag of a gaita is made from a whole, case-skinned goat hide. Gothic was spoken in Spain from the sixth century to the eighth century when the country was ruled by the Visigoths. The Visigoths originated in eastern Europe.