Gaita -- the Bagpipe in Asturias, Galicia, and beyond

[Art]

Gijón, Asturias has a wonderful museum of the Gaita and Asturian culture, the Museo de la Gaita, which is housed with the Museo Etnográfico Pueblo de Asturias. Although the museum has a number of Asturian musical instruments, it has an even wider variety of bagpipes from many different countries. It's well-worth a visit.

The museum has published several books on bagpipes, including El libro de la gaita (The Bagpipes Book) by M. Quirós, and Catalogo de las Cornamusas del Museo de la Gaita de Gijón (A Catalog of the Bagpipes in the Bagpipes Museum of Gijón) by Alfonso García Oliva. These are described on this page:
http://clip.dia.fi.upm.es/~boris/gaita/node13.html

Unfortunately, the museum itself doesn't have a Web site. There are, however, a number of other Websites dealing with the gaita--often along with more general discussion of bagpipes. Some of the following are in English; many are in Spanish.
http://clip.dia.fi.upm.es/~boris/gaita/node1.html
http://www.asturies.org/viesca/gaita/
http://www.bagpipeworld.co.uk/Spain/Gaita.htm
http://usuarios.lycos.es/Aqueron/
http://www1.las.es/~jfcastro/
http://www.sfcelticmusic.com/spain/celtica.htm

Does anyone know of other sites that deal with the gaita? I'd love to learn about them!

[Art]

[Art: I received the following in an email from Idiofonos. It's very interesting and worth the effort to read.]

The diffusion [spread of cultural elements] of the gaita in Asturias
by Luis Argüelles

This month in the Department [library, museum, think tank, department] of Ethnographic Studies, we have recovered an old article that pointed out the true limits of the diffusion of the gaita in Asturias.

We hope that it will be of interest to you. You can see it here:
http://www.telecable.es/personales/isap ... gaita.html

Best wishes!

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[Art: he recibido lo siguiente en un correo electrónico de Idiofonos. Es muy interesante y vale la pena leer.]

La difusión de la gaita en Asturias
por Luis Argüelles

En el Gabinete de estudios etnográficos este mes hemos recuperado un antiguo artículo que señala ciertos límites a LA DIFUSIÓN DE LA GAITA EN ASTURIAS.

Esperamos que sea de vuestro interés.
Podéis verlo en:
http://www.telecable.es/personales/isap ... gaita.html

Un saludo.