107 She Plays the Pipe
Figure 6.3 Mercedes Peón, performing Galicia
Source: Photo courtesy Mercedes Peón.
concept album. The material procedure is via Nuendo, a digital pro-
gram with which she designs the songs. In the process, Peón funds the
recording costs herself and when the record is released, she cedes the
operating license and receives the copyright benefits. She has also spo-
ken in many radio stations and acted regularly at the TVGA (not only
in Luar). In a normal year she performs around 25–40 concerts, playing
and singing with different ensembles. She has performed all over the
world and given lectures at the universities of Sorbonne in Paris, Wales
in Cardiff, Porto and Lisbon in Portugal, and others (PC 2019). Peón
has created several film soundtracks and theater music (like the music
for SóLODOS play, by Maruxa Salas), as well as musical choreogra-
phies (e.g., the music of O kiosco das almas perdidas, Roberto Oliván’s
show for the Galician Choreographic Center. Information from http://
bit.do/eTere).
Musically Peón has never abandoned the local roots, but her evolu-
tion towards complex trans-genres is clear. The official video of her song
“Déixaas” (meaning “Leave them alone”, the first track of the 2018 album
of the same name) displays a gloomy shipyard in Ferrol (Coruña) where
three women perform a mixture of hard beats, vaguely Galician melodies,
and the background of heavy machinery sounds, with a somewhat hypnotic
result for the audience (http://bit.do/eS82Y). Like all her vocal music, it is
sung in Galician. Commenting on the ideological contents of the record,
she outlined four elements related to Galicia as inspiration source: folk-
lore, feminism, language identity, and the industrial crisis (PC 2019).
108 Javier Campos Calvo-Sotelo
In summary, Mercedes Peón is a woman committed to her country, its
customary practices and its people, to the rural and working Galicia, and
a zealous guardian of the country’s intangible cultural heritage (ICH). She
represents tradition renewed with cross-cultural repertoires within the
fundamental affirmation of Galician otherness. In the thorny intersection
between gender and nationalism, she reconciles both axes in a synthesis
that becomes central to her production. Her placement is never far (even
geographically) from the motherland, advocating women’s civil rights and
sexual freedom.
Susana Seivane Hoyo is the most purely consecrated piper of the three.
Her life is the instrument and its strict defense from a determined notion
of Galician authenticity. She keeps the family tradition of bagpipes fab-
rication at the workshop her grandfather founded in Cambre (Coruña).
Occasionally she plays the piano and the accordion and sings regularly,
but above all she is an outstanding piper. A detailed 2010 documentary-
interview devoted to her, with many musical interpolations, was broad-
cast by the TVGA program Alalá, no. 146, on May 6, 2010 (http://bit.do/
eS83x). In it Seivane describes her world, family, interests . . . and bag-
pipes as the leitmotiv of her life, declaring: “the bagpipe is my passion, my
whole life. . . . I was born with two arms, two legs and a bagpipe. . . . It’s
the soundtrack of my existence” (see also Cronshaw 2001; and Seivane’s
personal website: http://bit.do/eTgNA).
Seivane has released five solo albums. The first one, entitled Susana
Seivane (1999), was produced by Rodrigo Romaní, front man and found-
ing member of Milladoiro, the most important Galician neo-folk band of
those years. Her second album, Alma de Buxo (2001), produced by Seiv-
ane herself, included the collaboration of Uxía Senlle, Kepa Junquera, and
her musical advisor Rodrigo Romaní. In this record Seivane introduces
drums, electric bass, and some compositions of her own. Nevertheless,
Alma de Buxo is first and foremost a tribute to bagpipes, starting with the
title, which means “soul of boxwood”, alluding to the Galician tree species
used to fabricate the pipe model assumed as a paradigm of Galician musi-
cal authenticity (even though most of the “Galician” pipes are actually
fabricated with foreign woods, same as is the case in Scotland or Ireland
with their flagship pipes).
11
She performs live mostly in Galicia, but over
the years she has played worldwide.
Seivane was a jury member of the bagpipe contest Vai de Gaita (About
bagpipes, TVGA), where in December 13, 2013, she had a strong argu-
ment with a participant because he played a bagpipe that she considered
alien to Galician tradition. The debate followed in the next days on the
Internet, with many web surfers outraged for one reason or another. How-
ever, Seivane’s defense of local values has not led her to reject global cul-
ture; she participated in a publicity campaign of Microsoft in Galicia in
2011, playing with her bagpipe the Galician national anthem at the foot of
the cathedral of Santiago (subtitled in English on http://bit.do/eUk5M).
Seivane provided the music for the TV advert of the Windows 7 operat-
ing system in Galician language, under the slogan Vive en Galego (Live
in Galician).
12
Additionally, she has presented some of her records at the
109 She Plays the Pipe
FNAC store of Coruña,
13
publicly advocating for both FNAC and music
copyrights. These tensions between Galician historical traditionalism (to
the extreme of repudiating a pipe as sacrilegious in a TV contest) and
the immersion in a global market of the latest generation (that of power-
ful multinationals) converge within a progressively glocalized Galicia in
some of its social actors (Colmeiro 2009; Hooper 2011; Romero 2012.
See the comments above on C. Pato). According to Romero: “Seivane
represents the best example of fusion of tradition and modernity that
Microsoft wants to communicate” (2012: 29, italics original).
THE 2002 CONCERT IN CORUÑA
A staged collaboration of the three women was expected by many people
after their arrival on the scene. Finally, it took place in 2002, becoming an
outstanding milestone in the Galician transition to the narratives of moder-
nity, as well as a sort of empathetic icon for the future. The triumph of the
female piper – as it might be called – was publicly celebrated on August 22,
2002, at the María Pita square of Coruña, where a significant concert of Pato,
Seivane, and Peón, accompanied by the Orquesta Sinfónica of Galicia con-
ducted by Víctor Pablo Pérez, took place. It represented somehow the burst
of a renewed Galician cultural capital, both in the female-gendered assault on
the historical hyper-masculinity of the instrument, as well as in the aestheti-
cal syncretism of the fusion between pipes and a classical orchestra. Nine
thousand spectators attended the event, entirely filling the capacity of the
square. Interestingly, most of the pieces performed were original by the three
women, with arrangements for orchestral accompaniment. By Peón: “Mara-
billa,” “Serea,” “E xera,” and “De seu.” By Seivane: “Marcha procesional
dos Mato,” “Vai de polcas,” “A farándula,” and “Sabeliña.” And by Pato:
“Noite de lúa,” “Africa,” and “En o Sagrado en Vigo” (information from dif-
ferent 2002 media. All the songs had Galician titles). Pato’s memories of that
concert, 17 years later, emphasize the emotional environment present there:
In hindsight, what I remember was the atmosphere that was breathed
in the square. The expectation for something unique that was happen-
ing and the illusion of putting the bagpipe in front of the orchestra at a
historical moment for the instrument.
(PC 2019)
This is Peón’s narration of the experience:
I remember most the orchestral performance of my piece “Marabilla”
[Wonder]; it was one of the most amazing moments in my life because,
considering that I lacked formal education, I never had the opportu-
nity . . . to have so talented musicians at my disposal, with immense
aection, as well as the conductor Victor Pablo. . . . Also being with
Cristina and Susana was a pleasure. . . . I left o the stage with a huge
hug to all these people and my admired piper companions.
(PC 2019)
110 Javier Campos Calvo-Sotelo
The public, media, and musicians themselves praised the event, highlight-
ing its unusual nature as a cathartic gathering. A deep social and aesthetic
metaphor was implicit at that moment: women were dethroning men in the
use of the bagpipe (a millenary symbol of manhood), same as the bagpipe
itself was dethroning the violin (the king of cultured music for centuries)
as a soloist in front of a classical orchestra.
A NEW GENERATION: LETICIA, DUNIA, AND MARINA
To complete this study, it was necessary to devote attention to recent pip-
ers. The following commentary derives from personal interviews carried
out face to face in August 2018 with three young girls, who together pro-
vide a true picture of their generation.
Leticia Oubiña, 20 years old, represents a very important dimension of
Galician popular music and piping in particular, which could be called
the purely hedonistic. She plays because she likes it, ignoring ideological
nuances and ethnic or gender commitments. Far from anomalous, her posi-
tioning is shared by many current pipers (female and male indistinctly),
who approach piping with similar purposes. For example, she states that
the cloth of her instrument is pink to deviate from mainstream black and
red (worn by many pipes), not due to any gender issue (PC 2018).
Leticia started playing percussion and singing from an early age. At
eight years old, she began with the bagpipe. Shortly after, she incorpo-
rated to the school of González in Cambados (Pontevedra), where she still
is. At the same time, she is finishing a Nursing degree at the University of
Santiago and knows that she will not make her living with bagpipes. Her
band is Xironsa, which won the pipe bands contest of Galicia in 2015.
Despite the success, their media repercussion is null, apart from a brief
appearance in a local TV program. They have not recorded any albums,
nor participated in other recordings; by mid-2019 there were no avail-
able videos of them on the Internet. With Xironsa she plays assiduously at
patronal feasts dressed in the Galician costume. The band charges about
EUR 350 for each participation, which only covers the expenses; there are
never benefits-sharing. Interestingly, Leticia’s main complaint concerns
the instrument itself. Asked if she ever felt discriminated for being a girl
playing a conventionally masculine instrument, she answered that not at
all: “the worst thing is the negative image of the bagpipe among Galicians,
not being a woman; the bagpipe is despised” (PC 2018). These almost
anonymous pipers unveil a different side of piping in Galicia, far from the
attention achieved by other performers.
The personality and mentality of Dunia Alvarez (34 years old) are
virtually the opposite of Leticia’s, although they coincide in several
revealing points. To start with, Dunia asked to have our PC in Galician, as
a means of vindicating language. She holds a degree in Audiovisual Media
(University of Vigo; her bachelor thesis will soon be published) and works
as a computer technician. Her beginnings in music were early: at the age
of four she learned Galician dance, but she did not start playing bagpipes
until she was 30, although she always liked the instrument.
111 She Plays the Pipe
Dunia is an extremely active woman. She represents a new generation
of Galician females in music who take a multifaceted approach to music-
making (Dunia is a tambourine player, bagpiper, dancer, singer, compiler,
teacher, editor, writer, musicologist). Importantly, these women are self-
less with the causes they esteem, evincing a strong Galician awareness that
raises “the maintenance and transmission to new generations of Galician
culture and Galician language” as sovereign goals that must be fought for
daily (PC 2018). Not ignoring gender issues (that also affect her), Galicia
is the emotional epicenter of Dunia’s work: its land, culture, language,
and otherness. In Dunia nationalism and feminism thus coalesce, invigo-
rating each other, in a leftist and rebellious compendium in search for an
audience to convince. In fact, on stage she frequently indoctrinates the
public with ideological content. Dunia is openly nationalist and hopes one
day the independence of Galicia will take place, “because it is a different
country, with its own language”. Concerning gender, she believes that in
Galicia there is still “a lot of patriarchal chauvinism, although shrinking”
(PC 2018).
In 2016 she founded an only-females band called Cinco en Zocas (Five
in clogs; to enhance the rustic wooden shoes old peasants used to wear).
They sing and play traditional percussion (rarely bagpipes), with intense
beats and frequent harmonizations in parallel thirds. Cinco en Zocas have
achieved some popularity, and a few videos of them are available (e.g.
http://bit.do/eS84b, Dunia is second from the left; and http://bit.do/eS84B,
Dunia in the middle
14
). Cinco en Zocas also compile Galician traditional
music; they do not publish the pieces collected but use them to enrich their
own repertoire. They receive no grant or help for the task; their motivation
is to preserve the Galician ICH: “so that the Galician tradition is not lost;
to transmit it to the young people and to keep it alive”. In the same way,
they impart occasional summer courses, also at schools, normally for free
(PC 2018).
Concerning the practical problems of current piping, Dunia corrobo-
rated Leticia’s assessments: “pipe bands are poorly paid”. She complained
about the disproportionate distribution made by public entities of funds for
festive events. For example, the Council of O Grove (Pontevedra) spent
EUR 170,000 on the management of the 2018 Festa do Marisco (seafood
festival). Paradanda (a local band conducted by González) “marched in
the streets, encouraged dancing, with several stops, etc., for four hours
in full summer sun,” and received EUR 500, which were destined to the
group expenses; the musicians received nothing. On the other hand, “any
pop band, singer or DJ with a minimal reputation, will cash-in from ten to
twenty thousand euros in the same event”. Dance orchestras charge around
EUR 5,000 per performance. If a pipe band demands more money, the
council member who negotiates the contract “will not listen to them, and
ultimately get angry; next year the band shall not be called” (PC 2018).
Compared to the hedonist Leticia and the Galician Dunia, 25-year-old
Marina Fernández represents the female piper, as gender is the core of her
personal and musical narrative. In 2014, she and some friends founded the
band Maraghotas (formed by two pipes, snare drum and bass drum), and
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