Term used in Iberia, eastern and south-eastern Europe, North Africa and Latin America for an aerophone, usually an oboe or a bagpipe. This article outlines the etymological background of the term and discusses the instruments of Iberia and Latin America. For North African instruments see Surnāy, essentially the same instrument; for West African instruments see Algaita. Most instruments to which the term is applies are oboes or shawms; the south-east European gajde or gadjy is a Bagpipe (see §7(iv, v)).
The term, which is variously spelt (gaida, gajde, gajdë, gajdy, ghaida, ghaite, ghayta, kaita, aghiyad, algaita), is derived from the Gothic gait or ghaid (‘goat’) and originally denoted a bagpipe with a goatskin bag; this is borne out by all surviving specimens of the Portuguese gaita (V. de Olivares: Instrumentos musicais populares portuguesis, Lisbon, 1982) and the gajde of European Turkey (L. Picken: Folk Musical Instruments of Turkey, London, 1975). Some Spanish writers have suggested that ghayta is a Spanish borrowing from Arab Andalusia; however it is clear that Arab Andalusia borrowed the word from the Visigoths and applied it to the oboe, and if the term shifted from the bagpipe (gaita) to the oboe (ghayta), it was by virtue of similarity of timbre or of social function.
In Spain, gaita can signify the Duct flute also known as a pito in León and Andalusia. In the Basque region the terms gaita and dulzaina signify an oboe. In Galicia, Catalonia and parts of the Pyrenees gaita is the term for a bagpipe (see Bagpipe, §7 (i)). It is also an alternative name for an oboe elsewhere known as chirimía or gralla (in Catalan). In Castile the gaita (gaita serrana or gaita zamorana) is a capped, single-reed hornpipe (see Hornpipe (i)) with a bell of animal horn, now rare. The gaita gallega or gaita de fuelle is a bagpipe of Galicia, also known in Catalonia (as sac de gemecs, ‘bag of groans’) and in parts of the Pyrenees; the Galician bagpipe ensemble may consist of two bagpipe players and two drummers. In Portugal, the gaita de foles is a bagpipe used to accompany dancing in the Alentejo region (with pifaro and castanets); in Brazilian usage the term means an accordion.
In Colombia, the gaita is an end-blown duct flute of the Atlantic coastal region, made from long tubes of a cactus-like plant. The term gaita is also used for a Colombian ensemble (including two gaitas) which accompanies the cumbia folkdance.
CHRISTIAN POCHÉ, JOHN M. SCHECHTER