Gloria Rodríguez-Gil

Galicia

According to the distinguished musicologist Juan Bautista Varela, the Galician 'Treboada' is a musical term out of the songbook, as its sense is merely musical. From a lexicographical point of view it means thunderstorm, storm, squall, etc. It is almost an onomatopoeic sense, due to the great noise that the bass drums, fundamental elements of the Treboada, make. The Treboada is played always on the eves of celebrations or feasts and it is played by three or five bass drums, one or two Galician bagpipes and a drum. The dispersion area of the Treboada is much reduced, according to the poet and essayist Eliseo Alonso Rodriguez, it comprises the parishes of Forcadela and Estas, both of them belong to the town of Tomino. Xose Hernique Rodriguez Portela, from Tomino, says that they also play it on the feast of the Virgin of St. Mary of Tomino eve (Virgen del Alivio de Santa Maria de Tomino). I owe him the idea of this piece, because Xose Henrique described to me how the bass drums sound in the distance, early in the morning, like great roars along with blank bullets that are shot every time a particular house donates money for the feast and they gradually approach the house until it trembles. He sang the melody I wrote and he confessed he had heard it not long ago in the rehearsal of a popular folk group where there was only a percussionist and a Galician bagpipe player, as with the drums it is difficult to appreciate the bagpipe. I also mix the Treboada with an Alborada, because in Galicia almost all the churches have loudspeakers that play this melody at around nine o'clock in the morning, the same time that the Treboada of Tomino starts playing. Gloria Rodriguez Gil.