Definición
Gaita-and-drum duo
También conocido como: gaita and tambor · gaita and drum pair · gaita and snare duo
Minimal traditional lineup of Asturian music: a gaitero and a drummer. The basic duo that plays alboradas, parades and dance at the romería.
The gaita-and-drum duo is the most basic lineup in Asturian traditional music: a gaitero and a drummer playing together. Before the band and the charanga, this duo was —and still is— the minimal unit of the trade.
The gaitero carries the melody and the drone on the Asturian gaita; the drum or snare holds the rhythm and drives it forward. With that economy of means they cover a full festival’s work: the alborada at dawn, parades through the village and dance at the romería.
It’s the form through which the gaitero’s craft has been passed on most, master to apprentice, generation after generation.