Gallego

(Sp.: ‘native of Galicia’).

A term used to denote the music, song and dance of Galicia, and the Galician bagpipe, hurdy-gurdy and jew’s harp. It is used chiefly for a 16th- to 18th-century variant of the Villancico with Galician dialect in its text and, characteristically, drones in its bass line. It is possible that the bagpipe, hurdy-gurdy or jew’s harp was used in its performance; the first two are known to have been played in Mexico City Cathedral in the 17th century, along with the trumpet marine. The examples by Juan Gutiérrez de Padilla, the Mexican maestro de capilla at Puebla Cathedral, are probably the best known, one of them even having reached a Spanish archive; numerous examples by other composers exist, mostly anonymous.

E. THOMAS STANFORD