Muiñeira

The muiñeira is a fast triple-meter dance piece, characteristic of the gaita repertoire across the northwestern Iberian Peninsula. It’s played both on the Asturian gaita and the Galician gaita, and is one of the clearest points of contact between the two traditions.

In Asturies it’s part of the romería dance repertoire and of band processions. Its name refers to the mill —“muiñeira”, from muíño—, and its lively rhythm carried it across districts and across both branches of the tradition.

It isn’t an exclusively Galician piece: the Asturian muiñeira has its own phrasing and its own place in the songbook of Asturies.