Hello Chiffers,
I’ve been away all week at Lark Camp hanging out with the likes of John Skelton, Mickie Zekley, Joey Abarta, Dave Cory, Kevin Carr, Washtub Jerry, Mark Nelson, Peter Heelan, Rod Cameron, Brian and Marianne Steeger, an entire Galician bagpipe band,the Brunos well known in the California Ren Faire scene, and many more.
Also, our friend Cano, AKA Alexandre Cadarso Suarez from Galicia. He’s been whipping us Galician bagpipers into shape all week. We have two days of intensive workshops in Berkeley Monday and Tuesday, and then Wednesday Night we are giving a big Galician concert at the Freight and Salvage in Berkeley. It will be webcast live also through Concert Window.
One segment will be in Bb hopefully. I made some Requintas in F for this, just before I closed up shop for a few weeks. These are the flutes that play an octave above the pipes into the 3rd octave. I have an amazing story to tell about making these, using a Napoleonic era Belgian made bayonet as the reamer for the middle joint. We’ll have 2-3 Bb pipes on stage.
We are all helping Cano with his travel expenses etc. For my part I am selling one of my Bb flutes in blackwood with rings and slide, all ready to go. The list price is $1300 but I want to sell it for $1000 or best offer. I’ll probably list it on eBay later tonight when I get the chance (I am in Mendocino overnight, then to the Bay area tomorrow). Thus if you are interested in getting a brand new one of these at a discount contact me ASAP. Either PM or by email at casey@caseyburnsflutes.com. Best would be by email as I am sending the laptop north tomorrow with my daughter.
The flute is now listed on eBay at this link.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=321178753001
Here is the link for the Concert Window webcast of this concert:
http://www.concertwindow.com/shows/gaita-extravaganza-music-of-galicia
Of course, if you want to head over to Berkeley, you can see the concert live on the 7th at the Freight and Salvage.
Casey
Nice stuff on YouTube, Casey.
sadly, tho…
“Alexandre Cadarso Suarez (“Cano”), myself and my band mates here are performing this music for the first time ever in North America”
we’ve been playing Requintas (and gaitas for that matter) since I’m a boy…in NYC. My family is in La Coruna (Galicia).
so i suppose you mean first time you guys are playing it in NA…not the first time the music has been played here.
Nevertheless…glad to see the music of my patria is gaining in popularity. I’m headed there next month. My gaitas come from the boys who make them for Carlos Nunez and many others (the brother Gil…who are known to our own Jon Cornia, too).
I visit with them each time I go there.
great website: http://www.gaitasgil.com
Perhaps maybe its only new here on the west coast! David - do tell me more about your family’s NYC Requinta music tradition. Music played, etc.
The Requinta tradition we are focusing on is one specifically from Ulla, originally featuring Requintas by Garcia de Riobó. Began around 1900 with the last original player passing around 1980, then a revival by such groups as A Requinta de Xián in the 1990s and after. Cano (Alexandre Cadarso Suarez) recently published a book of Requinta repertoire. Undoubtedly there are other areas in Galicia where Requintas and other flutes are used, such as in the Treboada bands along the Rio Miño. These feature one or two Requinta players or Gaita players using a very specific type of loud Gaita, along with several large bombo players.
Casey
Also, so that people know - the Bb flute is sold.
ah, if it’s along the Mino, then it’s near Lugo, toward Orense.
If it’s Ulla, then you must mean the river, not the town, which would be in the Basque area (where they play dulcainas, not requintas)
we played requintas as little kids in Coruna, along the Rio Mandeo near Betanzos.
yes, played with gaitas largely, but of course, my fife background had me all over the place musically, they teased me so hard for playing so much. lol
The great gaita player (gaitera) Suzanne Seivane is in Coruna and her family was mostly makers of Requintas long before gaitas. They’re in Cambre, which is just down the road from my family in Coruna.