¿Cuándo empezaron a proliferar las bandas de gaitas asturianas?

Las bandas de gaitas asturianas se multiplicaron sobre todo a partir de finales de los años 80 y durante los 90, de la mano de la estandarización del temperamento igual impulsada por Alberto Fernández Velasco. Antes de esa transición, reunir veinte o treinta gaitas de distintos artesanos y conseguir que sonaran al unísono era matemáticamente inviable: cada instrumento tenía su propia afinación de referencia. Una vez que el punteru se normalizó para el temperamento igual, la formación en banda se volvió posible, y el folclore asturiano experimentó un boom de agrupaciones que continúa hasta hoy.

¿En qué se diferencia la afinación natural de la gaita asturiana frente al temperamento igual?

La afinación natural (o no temperada) es la que tenía la gaita asturiana antes de la modernización: el artesano construía el punteru para que las notas empastaran con el roncón de ese instrumento concreto, siguiendo proporciones físicas. El resultado era perfecto para tocar solo —el diálogo entre punteru y roncón era impecable— pero hacía imposible tocar con otras gaitas de distintas procedencias o con instrumentos melódicos como piano o guitarra. El temperamento igual sacrifica esa perfección interna a cambio de un sistema universal: veinte gaitas de distintos talleres pueden sonar al unísono.

¿Qué es el temperamento igual y por qué importa en la gaita asturiana?

El temperamento igual divide la octava en doce semitonos exactamente iguales, el mismo sistema que usa un piano o una guitarra. Para la gaita asturiana fue decisivo porque antes cada instrumento afinaba contra su propio roncón (afinación natural): era perfecto para tocar solo, pero imposible para tocar con otras gaitas o con instrumentos melódicos. Con el temperamento igual, la gaita tiene un «idioma musical» común con el resto de instrumentos del mundo. Es lo que hace posible las bandas de gaites y actuar junto a una orquesta o un grupo de folk.

¿Quién fue Alberto Fernández Velasco y qué cambió en la gaita asturiana?

Alberto Fernández Velasco fue el artesano y gaitero que impulsó la modernización técnica de la gaita asturiana en los años 80 y 90. Aplicó criterios de ingeniería acústica al torneado del punteru: rediseñó sus proporciones para adaptarlo al temperamento igual, logrando una estabilidad y una estandarización que antes no existían. No quitó el alma al instrumento; al contrario, lo perfeccionó para que pudiera sonar con el mundo contemporáneo sin perder su carácter asturiano. Falleció en 2011.

The evolution of our sound: how the Asturian bagpipe learned to play with the world

The gaita asturiana you hear today in public squares — the one played by bands, amateurs and professionals on stage — is a tempered instrument. Alberto Fernández Velasco made that possible during the eighties and nineties, when he brought acoustic engineering criteria to bear on an instrument that had spent centuries tuning itself only against itself.

To understand why that change was so profound, you need to step down from the theoretical pedestal and look toward the meadow: toward the moment we stopped playing alone.

The solitary past: tuning only against the root

Traditionally, the gaita asturiana was an untempered instrument. That does not mean it was poorly made; it means it had one single, very specific goal: to sound perfect against its own roncón.

The craftsman built the punteru following natural physical proportions so that the notes blended with that continuous C (or B-flat) of the drone. It was a private dialogue between the player and the instrument. It worked beautifully for the old solo repertoire, but it had a very clear invisible boundary: the gaita asturiana was isolated from the rest of the musical map. If you tried to bring together several bagpipes from different makers, or add a piano or a guitar into the equation, the result was a full-scale battle of frequencies.

Equal temperament: the language of shared celebration

My work as a gaitero is rooted in emotion, in building community. I am hired so that neighbours can celebrate their festivals together, to lift the spirit of a village on its big day. And for music to be a genuine collective celebration, it needs to combine forces.

That is where equal temperament comes in. This musical system — the same one used by a piano or a modern guitar — divides the octave into twelve exactly equal semitones. It is a kind of universal rulebook that standardises the distances between notes.

When the gaita asturiana chose to play by these rules and adopt equal temperament, everything changed:

It made the birth of bandas de gaites possible: getting twenty or thirty chanters to sound in unison as a single voice, without sounding like a swarm of wasps, is mathematically impossible without temperament.
It opened the doors to other instruments: it gave us the passport to play with orchestras, folk groups, pianos at solemn ceremonies or guitars at a festival.

The decisive link: Alberto Fernández Velasco

This transition did not happen by magic. It had names and surnames, and the most important of all was craftsman and piper Alberto Fernández Velasco. He was the great forerunner who steered the history of the gaita asturiana towards modernisation.

Stage	Period	What happened
The isolated traditional bagpipe	Before the 1980s	Bagpipes with natural tuning. Each craftsman worked from his own template. The instrument tuned only against its own drone; performance in large groups was unfeasible.
The revolution in Velasco’s workshop	1980s and 1990s	Alberto Fernández Velasco applied scientific and acoustic-engineering criteria to the turning process. He redesigned the punteru to suit equal temperament, achieving a stability and standardisation never seen before.
The era of bagpipe bands	21st century	Thanks to Velasco’s legacy, Asturian folk music experienced an unprecedented boom. Bands multiplied and the gaita asturiana reached the technical maturity needed to tour the world.

Velasco did not strip the soul from the instrument; on the contrary, he perfected it and saved it from isolation. He managed to keep the gaita asturiana’s strength and Asturian character while placing it within the frequencies of the contemporary world.

Working from the heritage

Today, when I step onto a stage, when I record in the studio or when we accompany a neighbour on their village festival day, I do so with an instrument tuned to the millimetre.

Composing from the root no longer means closing the door to outside mathematics. It means understanding that, thanks to the work of masters like Velasco, the gaita asturiana can carry its emotional weight — from the euphoria of the alborada to the solemnity of a farewell at a graveside — to any corner of the map.

If you want to see how that emotional weight translates into original composition, I write about it in Composing from the root: when music is the family name.

Fuentes

«Fallece Alberto Fernández Velasco, gran maestro de la gaita asturiana». La Nueva España, 30 de agosto de 2011.
«El folclore llora la muerte de Velasco». El Comercio, 30 de agosto de 2011.
«Alberto volcó la historia de la gaita asturiana hacia la perfeición del instrumentu». Asturies.com.