Concepto · Concepto
Atlantic arc
The cultural space of Europe's Atlantic seaboard —from Scotland to Galicia, through Ireland, Brittany and the Cantabrian coast— where the bagpipe is the common instrument. Not a generic "Celtic" label, but a real geography with related organological families.
The Atlantic arc is Europe’s Atlantic seaboard understood as an old space of cultural relation, reactivated in the present: from Scotland to Galicia, through Ireland, the Isle of Man, Wales and Cornwall, and Brittany, down the Cantabrian coast —Asturies, Cantabria— to the north-western Iberian Peninsula and northern Portugal.
The bagpipe (a bag-and-pipe instrument) is the common thread that runs through the whole arc. But sharing an instrument doesn’t mean “everything is Celtic”: the Atlantic arc is a real geography with related organological families, each with its own identity. Within it, the Asturian traditional music holds a specific place, sister to the Galician and gaita de fole traditions, cousin to the rest of the arc —a living tradition, not an export label.
Why this frame matters
Thinking of the Asturian gaita within the Atlantic arc —rather than under the vague umbrella of “Celtic”— allows placing it with precision: what it shares with its neighbours (the family, the bag-and-pipe design, certain sonic traits) and what sets it apart (its tuning, its drone at the root, its repertoire). The frame describes kinship without diluting identity.