We’re continuing the Homegrown Plus Premiere series with Vigüela, a a traditional folk quintet with a commitment to the rural musical traditions of central Spain. As is usual for the series, this blog post includes an embedded concert video, an interview video, and a set of related links to explore!
Vigüela was established in the mid-1980s, after the Franco regime, by young people who looked to folk culture for a way to channel their creative desires while staying rooted in their local communities. Grounded in this history, the band members value their tradition and perform it with accuracy and energy, as a living music, full of joy. They play traditional Spanish music, including jotas, seguidillas, fandangos, and sones, using the centuries-old singing styles, dialects, and instruments of their region. That region is Castilla-La Mancha, the southern part of the Iberian plateau, sometimes called “the heart of Spain,” or “Don Quixote country.”
The band’s name comes from the traditional Spanish vihuela, a Renaissance model of the guitar. They also play lute, mandolin, guitarro manchego, and medieval fiddle or rebec, along with traditional percussion instruments such as friction drums, castanets, spoons, and tambourines. They have been performing internationally for 30 years, and have recorded eight albums, bringing the music of their homeland to the global world music scene.
By now, I’ll bet you’re ready to see the concert. Watch it in the player below!
In the interview, I spoke with Juan Antonio Torres and Araceli Tzigane Sánchez of Vigüela. We talked about a wide range of topic including how young Spanish people came to play and sing traditional music; the impact of the end of the Franco era on young musicians; the instruments and techniques of their region’s music; their work as a band and collaborations with other artists; and the surprising ways in which they have combined traditional music and cuisine in some of their presentations. We also spoke about Juan Antonio Torres’s work with the Spanish recordings in AFC’s Alan Lomax collection, and research he did with Judith Cohen on the people who sang and played for Lomax in the 1950s. The interview is mostly in Spanish, and we are waiting for a transcription…once it’s transcribed I will try to create a translation for another blog post. In the meantime, if your Spanish is good, the interview is in the player below!
[Transcript of interview coming soon!]
After the premiere, you’ll be able to find both these videos with more bibliographic information at this link on the Library of Congress website. You’ll also find them on the Library of Congress YouTube Channel.
Also, make sure to visit Vigüela’s website, at this link.
Collection Connections
If you enjoyed the concert and interview, check out the Collection Connections below. You’ll find links to archival collections, guides, and other materials related to Spanish folklife.
Field Collections Online
Extensive Collection from Spain
Alan Lomax’s Spanish field recordings, made in 1952 during the Franco regime, bear witness to a time in Spanish cultural history which remains relatively obscure. Made in cooperation with the BBC, the collection was recorded with the assistance of Jeanette “Pip” Bell, and with the collaboration of Eduardo Turner, Juan Uria Riu, Julio Caro Baroja, Antonio Mari, Walter Starkie, and Radio Nacional. It