Bagpipes in Concert - code: TR040205

Galicia is in the northwestern tip of the Iberian peninsula. It is a country with many deep valleys and mountains, a humid climate and splendid forests with an abundance of wild boars and wolves. Its Atlantic littoral coasts are full of rias (estuaries) with high cliffs and plentiful fish and shellfish. Its rich mining fields have been exploited since old, leading to the development of an intensive metallurgy with varied applications.

There is little information about the peoples who inhabited this region in the far ages. Celts may have arrived around the 6th Century B.C., introducing a civilization which in an attenuated form still exists to this day. The Romans began their invasion of Galicia in 138 B.C. and in 60 B.C. Julius Caesar disembarked in Coruña (Brigantium), but it wasn't until the time of Octavius Augustus in 22 B.C. that the domination of the country was completed, marking the beginning of Roman control that lasted four centuries. During the Roman domination of the Iberian peninsula, Gallaecia was one of the provinces of Hispania, that comprised the territories of Galicia -from which its name stems- part of Leon and Asturias and North of Portugal. Roman influence contributed to the transformation of what was a society of shepherds into an agricultural one, and promoted a great commercial and economic diversification.

In Galicia's ethnic origins there is a predominantly Celtic core, with contributions from other races and cultures, such as Roman, Greek and Phoenician, Carthaginians and Suevi. In 425 A.D. the Suevi built the capital of their kingdom in Braga, and blended with the Galician. This helped them escape the control of the Roman Empire, which was already in its decline. Galicia's Sueve kingdom lasted some 170 years. It could not resist the onslaught of the Goths and Galicia lost its independence. In the year 711 the Arabs invaded Spain and in 714 they conquered Lugo, from which they were expelled 40 years later. Also as from the 7th Century, there began to be Norman raids that looted the Galician coasts and villages. These raids continued during many centuries, as was also the case of Muslim attacks.

In the 9th Century, the remains of Jacob or Santiago, one of Jesus Christ's Apostles, were discovered in Compostela. This finding generated an extraordinary religious fervor in Europe, and attracted thousands of pilgrims from everywhere. Santiago de Compostela became one of the holy cities of Christendom, third in importance after Jerusalem and Rome, and a sort of anti-Mecca in the struggle against the Muslim.

Although the kingdom of Galicia persisted as a historical entity for over 10 centuries, it was an independent kingdom only during some periods. Towards the 15th Century, the pilgrimages to Santiago had a marked decline. When Donna Isabel and Donna Juana were disputing the throne of Castile, most of the Galician noblemen took the part of the latter, that is, they supported Portugal. In 1474, Donna Isabel was proclaimed Queen of Castile. It is during the period of her rule together with her husband, Fernando of Aragon -called the Spanish Catholic King and Queen- that America was discovered and Spain was fully reconquered from the Moors. The king and queen exacted a high price from the Galicians, repressing several peasant uprisings and banning all those nobles who had been against them, thus depriving the country of a large share of its leading class and annexing it by force, starting a process of authoritarian rule that, with nuances, lasted until the last decades of the 20th Century.

The last third of the 19th Century saw the beginning of a literary movement in Galicia -the Rexurdimiento (Rebirth)- that first acquired a regionalist tone and later one of asserting their nationality, creating the foundations for the resurrection of its own language, a legacy of Roman Latin, with the creation in 1916 of the Irmandades da Fala (Tongue Fraternities) that gradually strengthened the rebirth of Galician identity. Today Galicia participates in the democracy that was established in Spain with a system of Parliamentary Monarchy, under an autonomous government regime.

GALICIANS IN ARGENTINA

There is a deep bond between Galicia and America, which was particularly intensified in the 19th Century, once the nations that had been part of the Spanish Empire had already become independent. Although the Galicians participated from the start in the conquest, settlement and colonization of these territories, they had a lesser influence in their political organization, since Galicians were from a reign that had little weight in the Spanish monarchy, and lacked legislative autonomy or representation in Madrid's parliament or Cortes.

The fact that they considered themselves different from their other countrymen, plus the need to be protected by their community, gave rise to a strong group feeling among Galicians. In 1787, Buenos Aires, that since 1776 was the capital of the Viceroyship of the Provinces of the Plata River, saw the creation of the "Apostle Santiago Congregation of the Children and Natives of the Kingdom of Galicia," the first Galician association in South America. Also in Buenos Aires, in 1806 the Galician Tercio (regiment) was created, an infantry unit of urban militia which distinguished themselves as part of the Viceroyship's army in the Second British Invasion of 1807. Several members of this unit participated, some years later, in the ranks of patriots that fought during the War of Independence, for example its former commander, Pedro A. Cerviño, an engineer, mathematician and journalist, or Bernardino Rivadavia, first Argentine President (1826-1827), son of Galicians and an Army captain in 1807.

Buenos Aires began the process of breaking away from the old metropolis in 1810, with the Revolution of 25 May 1810. The conflict, which lasted almost two decades, caused a temporary break with everything Hispanic, and interrupted Galician migration to the Plata river. With the beginning of the definitive organization of the Republic of Argentina, after the approval of the National Constitution in 1853 and the bloody war with Paraguay (1865-1869), the young nation began to emerge as a new economic power, that was rapidly catching up with modern technology and rivalled the most advanced countries of the day. This was the time when qualified European immigration began being fostered, as a fundamental factor in the country's progress. Thus, immigrants from almost all European countries arrived, mainly Spanish and Italian. In the fifty years extending between 1870 and 1920, over 830,000 Spaniards came to settle in the country and by 1910 -year of the Centennial of the May Revolution and time of the final reconciliation of the Argentine Republic with Spain- they represented 10% of the country's total population. The contingents from Spain's Atlantic North predominated, notably Galicians, who mostly concentrated in Buenos Aires, making it the city with the largest Galician population of the world at the time.

The descendants of these numerous immigrants plus the Galician migrants who still live in Argentine continue to form one of the most progressive communities in the country, greatly interested in maintaining their cultural identity, in which music plays a very important role.

Music and Songs from Ireland - code: TR050209

The Irish Isle is located in the Atlantic Ocean. Its gentle climate, which favors agriculture and cattle breeding, is influenced by the warm Gulf Current, is one of the reasons why it has become known as "the Green Erin" (Éireann) or "the Emerald Isle". Its mountains are low and its crystal-water rivers flow gently towards the Atlantic or the Irish Sea, separating it from Great Britain. Existing records indicate that it was populated since the Stone Age. It is estimated that the Celts, originating in Gaul, arrived in Ireland between the 7th and the 3rd Centuries B.C., conquering and absorbing the existing population and establishing their civilization. It has an area of around 84,000 Km2, of which 70,000 Km2 correspond to the Republic of Ireland (Poblacht na Éireann), with a population of about 4 M and Dublin as its capital (Baile Ata Cliath), a city with 1 M inhabitants; while the remaining 14,000 Km2 correspond to Northern Ireland, with a population of approximately 1.6 M, with Belfast as its capital, which is part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
The Irish people are renowned in Europe due the wealth of their cultural tradition, in which poetry and music hold an important place, and because of an eventful history in which periods of tremendous strife for freedom alternate with periods of bounty during which a culture full of marvelous achievements flourished.
At the beginning of the Christian Era, Ireland was divided into five kingdoms: Ulster, Connacht, Leinster, Meath and Munster. Saint Patrick (387-March 17, 493) Apostle of Ireland, introduced the Christian faith in the year 432. At a time when the Western Roman Empire was becoming extinguished, the Irish monasteries became reservoirs of Classical culture, and Ireland also became known as "the island of the saint and the wise."
The Viking raids along the country's 1,500 km of coasts began in 795 (they founded settlements that would later become the cities of Dublin, Wexford, Donegal, and Limerick, among others) and ended in the year 1014, when they were defeated by the only king (Árd Righe) of the whole of Ireland, Brian Ború (940-1014) in the Battle of Clontarf, where the King was killed by the enemy after having achieved victory.
In the 12th Century, Adrian IV, the only English to ever hold Saint Peter's throne (Pope 1154-1159), offered in a bull the whole of the Irish Isle as a feud of the English Crown, thus giving start to fights that lasted until the 20th Century, when the Republic of Ireland was established.
In 1801, by the Act of Union, Great Britain and Ireland formed the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The following decades saw a slow decline of the Irish economy that reached its low point with the Great Famine or An Gorta Mór (1846-1848). The country's population, which amounted to 8.25 M, tragically decreased by half due to starvation plus the over 2 M who migrated, mainly to the United States of America. Since that time, Irish music has been an important influence on American music, not only in genres such as Country and Appalachian music, but also in jazz jamming, something typical of Irish sessions.
With the advent of the First World War, the so-called Easter Rebellion broke out in the city of Dublin (April 24 to 29, 1916) in an unsuccessful attempt of Irish nationalists to become free from English domination. That was the start of guerrilla warfare and the proclamation of a republic in 1919, when the Irish Parliament was established. On December 6, 1922, the Free State of Ireland was established as a Dominion (Saorstad na hÉireann), with the six Northern counties remaining as part of the United Kingdom. As a consequence, a civil war erupted between those in favor of the Anglo-Irish treaty and those who rejected it, because it led to the partition of the territory.
In 1937, a new constitution restored the country's name as Éire, which remained neutral during the Second World War. The Republic of Ireland was proclaimed on April 18, 1949, and withdrew from the British Commonwealth of Nations. The Republic's three-color flag was created with the same colors –albeit in a different layout—in the mid 19th Century, by Thomas F. Meaghan. This nationalist was transported to Tasmania, Australia, from where he escaped to settle in the United States, practicing as a lawyer in New York. With the rank of Brigadier, he commanded the Irish Brigade in the Union's Army, during the American Civil War. He had devised the flag using Orange for the Irish Protestants, Green for the Irish Catholics and White representing peace and agreement between both groups of his countrymen.
During eight centuries, the Irish people have gone through long periods of poverty and deprivation that led many of its citizens to seek refuge in other nations of the world, interleaved with periods of exaltation linked to their identity and independence, always amidst battles and strife. This new millennium finds Ireland in a period of freedom with brilliant economic progress, which is undoubtedly the cause for smiles in Irish eyes as well as in those of all the visitors who discover the qualities that distinguish this very special people.

THE IRISH IN THE REPUBLIC OF ARGENTINA

The current of Irish migration that had flowed to the Republic of Argentina, ceased almost completely before the end of the 19th Century. By that time, it had given rise to the largest Irish colony in a non-English speaking country.
The first Irish to set foot in what is now Argentine territory were part of exploration or evangelization expeditions. The Spanish fleet commanded by Don Hernando de Magellan, which explored the Argentine Patagonia and discovered the Malvinas Islands in 1520, supposedly included Irish crew members.
The first arrival of an Irishman identified as such was that of Father Thomas Fehily or Field S.J., who came to the Plata from Peru in 1586, as one of the five first Jesuit missionaries who settled in Paraguay –then a Province reporting to the Buenos Aires Governor--, to convert the Indians to the Catholic faith. Some Irishmen or Irish-Spaniards were part of the Administration of the Viceroyship, and settled in the country after leaving office, especially as from the 18th Century. In general, they had traveled from Spain and adopted a Castilian spelling for their names.
Later arrivals were a consequence of military expeditions. In 1762, a British squadron arrived to the Plata River to provide support to their Portuguese allies at Colonia del Sacramento, a port city established in 1680, as part of the Portuguese expansion project to control the East Coast of the Plata River. The local Spanish forces defeated them and took prisoners, who were later returned when a peace treaty was signed, with the exception of some Irishmen, who preferred to stay behind.
In 1806 and 1807 the British Invasions took place within the framework of the war that Spain, as a French ally, had been waging against England since 1805. The aim was to gain control of the Viceroyship of the Plata River Provinces, established as such in 1776, by conquering its capital city, Buenos Aires. On June 27, 1806 the British occupied the city and their commander, Brigadier William Carr Beresford, born in Ireland, ruled it for about six weeks for the British Crown. On August 13 he surrendered to the re-conqueror of Buenos Aires, Santiago de Liniers y Bremond, a French nobleman at the service of Spain.
The Second Invasion, with a much larger deployment of forces, disembarked in the Cove (Ensenada), some 60 Km south of Buenos Aires, on June 28, 1807. The combats to defend the city began on July 2nd, with partial victories for the British and restarted on the 5th, with so many casualties for the invading army that its capitulation was signed on July 7th. The expedition included numerous Irish soldiers, who were part of different Army units. Among them, the 88th Foot Regiment, Connaught Rangers, who suffered over 200 casualties in the fight. A certain number of soldiers and officers who had been made prisoners were interned in the hinterland, and preferred to remain in the country instead of being repatriated.
What is today the Republic of Argentina was part of the Spanish Empire until May 25, 1810, when a first government independent from the Spanish Crown was established in Buenos Aires. This decision gave rise to the Wars of Independence in South America that ended the Spanish domination of the sub-continent in 1826.
Some of the former prisoners of 1806 and 1807 would subsequently participate, on a voluntary basis, in the Army of the Andes that would cross the mountains in 1817, to fight the Spanish military machine in South America and besides securing the independence of Argentina, obtain that of Chile, Peru and Ecuador. Irishmen took part in these wars, with ranks varying from soldier to general.
The most relevant Irishman of the period was Navy Brigadier General, Admiral William Brown, born in Foxford, County Mayo, on June 23, 1777. Considered the founder of the Argentine Navy, he organized and directed a fleet in battle, first against the Spanish Armada, defeated in the naval combats that took place between March and May, 1814, continuing later with corsair actions against Spanish trade. Between 1825 and 1828 he commanded the fleet in the War with Brazil, the Portuguese stronghold that sought to solidify its conquest of the East Bank, one of the provinces of the Viceroyship with capital in Buenos Aires. In spite of the serious Brazilian defeats on land and sea, the later achieved by Brown and his captains, a Peace Treaty later established the Republic of Uruguay in the territory of the East Bank, a Brazilian diplomatic achievement.
In these two wars, the Argentine naval forces operated with a remarkable inferiority of resources against their adversaries. Still, Brown's seamen fought with such courage and drive that they defeated their enemies in every battle. William Brown died in Buenos Aires, at age 80, after having lived in the country for 43 years.
The largest and most numerous contribution of the Irish to the development of Argentina took place in the period following the War with Brazil and until the end of the 19th Century. It is important to note that a sizeable proportion of these immigrants, who mostly came from Counties Westmeath and Longford, was formed by mildly affluent farmers who had the resources allowing them to rapidly establish themselves in the countryside as wool producers, and improve economically.
Sheep ranches first (towards 1875 over half the wool exported by Argentina came from Irish establishments) and cattle ranches later, received production technology contributions in which the Irish were pioneers: generalization of wire fencing and water mills; perfected construction materials; genetic improvement of animals and breeding techniques.
According to census data and records (*) the Irish recorded as having entered Argentina through the Port of Buenos Aires between 1822 and 1868, were: 3,883 (2,362 men). The inhabitants recorded in the 1869 census, in the Province and the City of Buenos Aires (where the majority resided) were: Irish 5,246 (3,386 men); Irish-Argentine 3,377 (1,631 men). The inhabitants recorded in the 1895 Census, country-wide, were: Irish 5,407 (3,160 men); Irish-Argentine 13,210 (6,634 men). Between 1869 and 1895 the number of Irish increased by 161 people, i.e. 3%, while the increase for all the foreign population residing in Argentina in that period was 80%, almost 27 times more.
The 1895 census shows that most of the Irish who came to Argentina were true colonizers of rural areas: of the 5,407 residents, 3,821 (70%) lived in the countryside. The jurisdiction with the largest Irish population was the Province of Buenos Aires, followed by the city of Buenos Aires and the Province of Santa Fe. It is estimated that today the Irish-Argentine community may comprise between 200,000 and 250,000 people.
(*) Investigated by Eduardo A. Coghlan (1912-1997), judge, genealogist and historian.

Percussion in Concert - code: TR040306

According to etymologists, the term percussion derives from the Latin percussio and it means the action and effect of beating or striking repeatedly. Other definitions, specifically referring to the field of music, say that percussion is the effect of striking a soundboard to make it vibrate and emit sound. Human creativity has used percussion to give rise to a family of instruments that comprisesa whole range, from those that are probably more ancient and simple and rudimentary to perform, up to the most modern and complex.

The etymology begins with German organ performer and composer Michail Praetorius, who in 1619 wrote about percussa, klopfende Instrumente ( klopfen is German for beating or striking). As a physical sound producing process, percussion produces the vibration of bodies by means of a strike that shakes molecules violently, shifting them from their previous place, and causing a reaction of the material to return to the original position. These oscillations are transmitted from the particles that are directly striken to adjacent ones, which react in turn, giving rise to wave series that will be uniform when the physical conditions are homogeneous, and will combine in multiple and varied waves in direct relation to the heterogeneity of their constituting properties—such as different densities, stresses, tuning, thickness of the material—and depending on exogenous factors such as the intensity, velocity and location of the strikes.

The molecular sonority of bodies offers interesting singularities for percussion. Without considering factors such as shape, surface area, thickness, tuning, tension, density, etc. that could modify this scale, metals rank first in terms of the sonority of striken bodies. Then come crystals, hide, stone, earthenware, wood and plastic.

Percussion instruments are usually classified into two groups: idiophones, in which their own substance vibrates to produce sounds, and membrane-based, that issue sound based on the vibration of a stretched membrane.

The percussion of the instruments is carried out in very diverse manners: by striking the instrument itself or its parts against each other (for example: castanets, finger cymbals, goat hoofs, tambourines, cymbal, etc.); beating with the hand (for example: tambourines, bongos, etc.); using sticks or drumsticks (for example: drums, side drums, etc.); using large or small mallets (for example: bass drum, timbals, etc.); with metallic rods or felt-covered hammers (for example: triangles, gongs, tam-tams, etc.); by internal clappers (for example: bells); with loose balls enclosed within the instrument (for example: jingle bells, rattles, etc.); using felt-covered hammers that strike on metal chords or reeds (for example: piano, celeste); with metallic reeds struck or rubbed on barbs sticking out from a rotary cylinder (for example: music boxes); with drumsticks that strike on vibrating wood or metal reeds that may be attached or not to resonance tubes (for example: marimbas, xylophones).

Together with string and wind instruments, the group of percussion instruments is one of the three instrumental groups that form the structure of the Western symphony orchestra. The percussion group is usually made up of timbals, drums, plates and bass drums and cymbals, and the performers of the last four instruments are usually also responsible for the so-called accessories.

Although the function of percussion instruments is typically associated to delineating or emphasizing rhythm, many of the idiophones and some of the membranophones can be tuned. Some of them are also instruments with melodic capabilities, endowed with great powers of expression.

Ensemble Percusión Sur plays it music by employing these competencies. The arrangements are based with preference on the quintet of plate instruments

–glockenspiel, xylophne, vibraphone and sharp and bass marimbas– also using a broad variety of membraphone instruments and accessories as required by the score.

This inclination towards plates results from the preference for melodic music. The arrangements are conceived as an orchestration in their instrumentation for plates, with a cuasi-symphonic result. The works of universal musical literature have always been transcribed for the most diverse ensembles of instruments. Why, therefore, not for a percussion group?

Classification of modern percussion instruments

Idiophones
xylophones;
metalphones (sets of tunable metal or wood bars);
percussion tubes (singles and in tunable sets);
percussion vessels (gongs; bells; musical vases; etc.);
shakeable (jingle bells; maracas etc.);
friction (sandpaper; guiro; etc.).

Tangos in Concert - code: TR040307

During the 19th Century major political, cultural and economic transformations took place in the territories that would later form the Republic of Argentina and the city that would give rise to Tango: at the start of the Century, the city of Buenos Aires, founded on June 11, 1580, under the name of City of the Holy Trinity and Port of Good Airs (Buenos Ayres) was the capital of the Viceroyship of the Provinces of the Plata River, ruled by the Spanish Crown.

The country began its organization as a modern state during the third quarter of the century, with the implementation of very broad and sustained programs to promote a quality popular education. In the following decades, this contributed to shaping a national cultural identity, by blending together the very different cultures brought by the flows of immigrants of varied origins. The National Constitution, enacted in 1853, promoted immigration from Europe by offering immigrants the same rights and guarantees granted to the country's nationals. In the last decades of the century, the former capital of the viceroyship had become the seat of the National Government, and had what was then the largest port, which constituted the entry door for immigrants.

The settlement of the country's hinterland was facilitated by the construction of a large network of railways, in the space of just a few decades. This, together with an efficient telegraph and post service, contributed to providing effective, secure and efficient communications for people and goods. The massive inflow of immigrants expanded rural production to most of the area of the Pampas –a large geographical region with extremely high agricultural yields- and to other zones in the country. In many cases, the arriving immigrants settled in the countryside or in cities in the hinterland, while others settled in Buenos Aires, transforming the characteristics of the city on a permanent basis. In the period from 1880 to 1914 the population of Argentina multiplied almost four-fold, from approximately 2.5 million people to close to 8 million. The population of the city of Buenos Aires grew by 850% between 1869 and 1914, from 180,000 to 1,500,000 people. During this period, there were times when Buenos Aires had two foreign born inhabitants for each one born in the country, and three single men per single woman. In this scenario of profound and rapid changes, educational and economic progress favored many of these immigrants or their children, with the following generations becoming a dynamic blend of ancestries and cultures. Some individuals migrated from the rural areas to the cities, while others moved from urban areas to the countryside. It is in this scenario that Tango was born in and from Buenos Aires. Its musical sources and the etymology of the name are still the subject of controversy.

Tango was the music initially performed in whorehouses and dances or milongas in the marginal areas, and later moved to cabarets, night clubs, theaters, tea houses, etc. The fact that tango had originated in the bordellos meant that it was initially rejected by the Argentine aristocracy and higher classes. It is interesting to note that twice during the 20th Century, its great success abroad causes it to be reassessed domestically. The first time was at the starting of the Century, when in 1911 it was introduced as a new dance –with insinuating characteristics and certain voluptuous overtones- in the ball rooms of the Paris elite. Its growing presence in France first and in Europe later, to become established after the First World War, caused it first to be tolerated and later accepted by Buenos Aires society. After 1950, Tango went into a slow decline in terms of popularity in Argentina, particularly in the case of the young, who began preferring other types of music. Then, in the 80's a series of tango shows organized in Buenos Aires, toured different countries of The Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific, with great success. Once again, success abroad was reflected in a new positioning for tango with local audiences in Argentina.

The commonly accepted position is that Tango emerged at the end of the 19th Century based on habaneras and milongas. Although some of the traits of these two genres can be found in tango, they had their own distinctive identities, that they retained and maintained after tango's identity become established. The evolution of popular musical styles is usually structured on the basis of elements known to many, that are transformed –in a sort of Darwinian musical evolution– until forming a new style, by accepting and integrating certain traits of its predecessors while discarding others.

Tango undoubtedly acquired, since its beginnings, characteristics representative of the popular culture of Buenos Aires, creating a sort of musical localism which coexisted from its establishment with musical nationalism or music with national roots, to become consolidated in the years of the Centennial and later in folkloric and academic themes. The long century that has elapsed since the creation of Tango has demonstrated its vitality and ability to transform itself.

Marches of the Argentine Infantry - code: TR020101

What is now the territory of the Republic of Argentina, a part of the Spanish Empire since the 16th. Century, was originally administrated as a Governorship. In 1776, the King of Spain created the Viceroyalty of the River Plate, designating the city of Buenos Aires as its capital, and appointed General don Pedro de Cevallos as the first Viceroy. Until then, he had been the Governor and Captain General or military chief, with the current territories of the republics of Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay, as well as parts of the North and South of Chile and South of Brazil, also falling under his rule.

The Viceroyalty lasted until 25 May 1810, when the citizens of Buenos Aires proclaimed the first local government, independent from Spain, under the denomination of Nation of the United Provinces of the River Plate. This gave rise to the Argentine wars of independence, with battles and campaigns waged on land and sea, including the crossing of the Andes Range by the Andean Army. The army’s successful campaigns were also instrumental in gaining the independence of the republics of Chile, Peru and Ecuador.

With the purpose of unifying the military music of his Empire, Charles III, King of Spain, appointed Manuel de Espinosa de los Monteros, a musician from his Royal Chapel, to conduct the compilation and standardization of the bugle calls and marches used by his armies. In 1769, such compilation was officially adopted for the infantry and the cavalry. It received the name of “Bugle Calls and Marches of the Orders of Charles III”, and was likewise applicable to the Viceroyalty of the River Plate. The bugle calls and marches prescribed in said orders continued being used by the patriotic armies in the years following the declaration of independence.

In 1801, the "Regulations for the Disciplined Infantry and Cavalry Militias of the Buenos Aires Viceroyalty" were published in Madrid. Among other issues, these regulations ruled on the number of music bands and the quantity of members of the various military units of the Viceroyalty. By 1810, around 150 musicians were recorded in the various corps of the Buenos Aires garrison. That is why, since the very early days of Argentine independence, military units had their music bands, which accompanied them in their military actions and movements. The first marches of what would with time become the Republic of Argentina were composed in the years of the wars of independence, with the style and pattern of patriotic songs. The instruments used in these first compositions of military marches of the United Provinces of the River Plate were those established by the Spanish regulations: fifes (small traverse flute), bugles (trumpet without keys or valves) and drums or caisses. The drums and fifes served the infantry troops and the trumpets and kettledrums were used by the cavalry.

After 1830, the musical instruments used by the military bands, underwent important transformations, based on the changes introduced by innovators such as the Italian José Peletti and the Belgian Adolph Sax, who improved the old instruments made of copper and replaced them with others manufactured out of brass, with valves. We thus see the appearance of trombones, saxophones, bombardinos (tenor horns) and horns, among others. These instruments began being used in Argentina as from the second half of the 19th. Century.

The first Argentine Constitution was enacted in 1853. It promoted immigration by offering rights and guarantees on a par with those enjoyed by the native born. As a consequence of this opening and the opportunities offered by the country, there was a massive in-flow of immigrants from very different nations. In connection with Argentine military music, the importance of musicians and band masters coming from Italy in the second half of the 19th. Century should be noted. They contributed their musical skills and in some cases, also their talent as composers.

Marches and bugle calls of the Argentine Navy - code: TR020102

The Spanish Armada in the River Plate
The settlement and colonization of Argentina took place basically by sea, with the River Plate as point of entry. Hence the first settlers and conquerors were sailors and the most important cities, ports for communication and trade with Spain. The two main river ports of the Governorship of the River Plate, which until 1776 fell under the authority of the Viceroyship of Peru, with headquarters in Lima, were the Ciudad de la Trinidad en el Puerto de Buenos Aires, founded in 1580, today the capital of Argentina, and the Ciudad de San Felipe y Santiago de Montevideo, founded in 1728, today the capital of Uruguay.

As a result of the War of Succession, the Duke of Anjou, grandson of King Louis XIV of France and the first Spanish monarch of the House of Bourbon which still reigns in Spain today, came to the throne with the name of Philip V (rex 1700-1746). This king undertook a far-reaching program to overhaul the navy which, apart from shipbuilding, encompassed the creation and improvement of naval bases and forts in different parts of the world. It was also decided that, in order to be eligible as a navy officer, the aspiring cadets had to undergo both theoretic and practical training at a specialized institute. To this effect, in 1717 in the ancient port of Cadiz, the Royal Company of Members of the Order of Midshipmen was founded and this was where, from 1775 onwards, the first students born in Buenos Aires studied. Several of them, after serving in the Spanish Armada, joined the May Revolution and volunteered for its nascent navy during the War of Independence followed by the War with Brazil.

An offensive and defensive strategic alliance was formed among the Bourbon monarchs (Spain, France, Naples and Parma), known as the Family Compacts, to oppose the interests of the Portuguese and British crowns, especially in America. The kingdom of Spain became a world maritime power as a result of the discoveries of its seamen and the monopoly on trade it imposed on its colonial territories. The Spanish Armada achieved its greatest glory and power during the reign of the last Hapsburgs and until the end of the XVIIth century, although it faded gradually as a result of continuous confrontations with other sea powers. Nevertheless, in 1805, the year of the Battle of Trafalgar, Spain was still, after Britain and France, the third naval power in the world.

In 1776, Charles III (rex 1759-1788) created the Viceroyship of the River Plate, with its capital in Buenos Aires, and named the previous governor, General Pedro de Cevallos, its first viceroy, as per Royal Certificate dated 10 August of that year. One of the tasks of the new viceroy was to expel the Portuguese from Viceroyship lands, since the Portuguese crown was determined to dominate the territory of what is today Uruguay, as far as the eastern shore of the River Plate. The port city of Colonia del Sacramento on the River Plate, almost directly opposite the city of Buenos Aires, had been founded in 1680 as part of this project. Cevallos successfully invaded and took the city, although years later it once again fell into Portuguese hands. This territorial dispute, inherited by Brazil and the United Provinces of the River Plate, as the Argentine Republic was then called, gave rise to the war between the two countries from 1825 to 1828.

As the approaches to the port of Buenos Aires were blocked by extensive sandbanks, deep draft vessels were obliged to anchor far from the shore. Montevideo, on the other hand, with its stony river bed and deeper waters, offered superior natural advantages. The Montevideo Royal Naval Station was created pursuant to another Royal Certificate dated 9 August 1776, as main base for the ships of the Spanish Armada in the Viceroyship. In the coming years, this strategic dichotomy gave rise to multiple situations of competition between the authorities of both cities.

Brief review of the origin and evolution of the Argentine Navy.

A Nautical School was founded in Buenos Aires in 1799, the brainchild of Manuel Belgrano, then a young lawyer and secretary of the Royal Consulate (trade tribunals). Belgrano, later named General of the patriot armies, creator of the Argentine flag and a hero of Argentine independence, was a great driving force in favor of education. The school operated for only 7 years, since it was not sanctioned by the King. Nevertheless, it produced its first group of graduate cadets in 1802 when, after two years of study, they qualified as Pilots. Several of them subsequently enrolled in the officers corps of the newly founded Argentine Navy.

On 25 May 1810 the people of Buenos Aires decided in open council to set up an autonomous government, shortly after having received news from Spain of the dissolution of the Supreme Government Junta, which supervised the viceroyalties on behalf of King Ferdinand VII (rex 1808-1833). This decision, adopted in view of the chaotic situation created by Napoleon’s invasion of Spain, gave rise to the wars of Independence in the Spanish colonies of South America, and led to the end of the power of the mother country after the battle of Ayacucho in 1824 and the fall of the Callao and Chiloé forts in 1826.

At sea, the Argentine War of Independence was waged in two phases. The first included the engagements to gain control of the River Plate and its two great affluents, the Paraná and Uruguay rivers, freed by the patriot squadrons against the Spanish fleet based in Montevideo. After the defeat of the first Argentine small naval squadron, commanded by Juan B. Azopardo, at San Nicolás on the Paraná river on 2 March 1811, the Spanish fleet continued to dominate the waters, laying waste to the costal areas, bombarding Buenos Aires on several occasions and partially blockading the patriot army communications and supply forces besieging Montevideo by land. Buenos Aires then decided to create a squadron capable of opposing the Spaniards. It was made ready by the beginning of 1814 and placed under the orders of William Brown (b. Foxford, Ireland 1777 – d. Buenos Aires, Argentina 1857) with the rank of Navy Lieutenant Colonel. In those early days the Argentine Navy used the same ranks as the Army, with the addition of the word Navy. This practice continued until 1880, when it adopted its own nomenclature. In those early days, one of the few seamen accorded the rank of Admiral, or Almirante (from the Arab Amir-al-Bahr, lord or prince of the seas) was Navy Brigadier General Guillermo Brown.

The naval battles waged between March and May 1814, represented a complete and decisive victory for the patriot army. The waters of the River Plate were opened, thus putting an end to three centuries of Spanish domination and leading to the disappearance of the Montevideo Royal Naval Station.This victory was of capital importance for the subsequent campaign of the Army of the Andes, commanded by General San Martín. His strategy was to take first the fight to Chile by land and then continue by sea to Peru, instead of attacking the Spanish military organization there through the Upper Peru (today Bolivia), as had already been attempted unsuccessfully.

The second phase of the War of Independence by sea was the war of privateering, maritime campaigns waged against enemy trade following the rules of war. In 1815, while the 1814 squadron was being demobilized, the Buenos Aires Government began to license armed private ships against the Spanish flag in accordance with the Spanish Privateering Ordinance of 1801. A privateering campaign was carried out in the Pacific Ocean in 1815 and in 1816 under the orders of Guillermo Brown, by then a Navy Colonel with the title of Admiral.

Following the Declaration of Independence of the United Provinces of the River Plate on 9 July 1816, in 1817, the same year in which the Army of the Andes crossed the Andes, the Buenos Aires Government issued, in both Spanish and English, the Reglamento Provisional de Corso – A Provisional Ordinance to Regulate Privateering with the aim of organizing the activity of the corsairs flying the Argentine flag. Under this ordinance, the frigate La Argentina set sail in mid 1817 under the orders of Hipólito Bouchard on its privateering expedition around the world. Privateering campaigns also took place in the Atlantic Ocean with vessels armed in Buenos Aires and others the property of North American ship owners sailing under the Argentine flag, in particular from the port city of Baltimore, Maryland, which operated in the North Atlantic and Caribbean, extending the war against Spanish trade to all the seas of the world.

The war with the Empire of Brazil was waged from 1825 to 1828, with battles in the River Plate and privateering campaigns against Brazilian trade. Between 1830 and the War with Paraguay (waged from 1865 to 1869 by Argentina in alliance with Brazil and Uruguay), the Navy had limited resources with which to face the needs of the moment, such as when opposing the Anglo-French squadron, which was invading upriver, at Vuelta de Obligado (1845), or upon providing transport and protection for the army during the War with Paraguay.

During the Presidency of Domingo F. Sarmiento (1868-1874), a new cycle opened for the Navy with the purchase of the first modern squadron, the 1872 Iron Squadron, and for the first time it found itself provisioned in accordance with its requirements. This squadron increased Argentine naval power in the River Plate, and naval campaigns were carried out in Patagonia, which led to the foundation of several Coast Guard Stations and, hence, to the birth of some of the most important cities of Patagonia, contributing to the consolidation of Argentine sovereignty over its southern territories.

Between the late XIXth and early XXth century, after solving its border conflicts, the Argentine Navy became one of the most modern and best trained in South America.

Marches and bugle calls.

The music most frequently heard on board warships until well into the XIXth century, were the calls performed with cornet, navy whistle, drum and fife, transmitting orders or paying homage or salutes. Following Spanish tradition, the marches were the same ones played by the Army.

Added to them, the age-old tradition of sea songs and chants, the latter sung by the sailors in rhythm with their work.

Navy marches are relatively modern, since the presence of bands in the larger vessels did not become common until the second half of the XIXth century. The oldest bands in the Navy were the Navy Infantry and Sea Artillery unit bands during the wars of Independence and against Brazil. Navy bands began to have regular existence in the Argentine Navy around 1880, when it began to develop its own repertoire, different to that of the Army.

Marches and bugle calls of the Argentine Army - code: TR020103

Since the dawn of the Spanish conquest of South America in the Sixteenth Century, the military forces that had come from the Metropolis to protect the colonization of the Governorship, and since 1776, the Viceroyship of the River Plate were insufficient to confront the risks of aggression by other European powers - Portugal and Great Britain - and the attacks of the wild indians, which permanently stalked the huge length of the inland borders.

Since its very start, the history of Argentina is interwoven with the feats of arms. Therefore, in order to comprehend it, it becomes necessary to understand the political confrontations and their military consequences.

The May Revolution reached its heyday when on the 25th of said month, in 1810, the people of Buenos Aires - the capital city of the Viceroyship - approved the creation of a government independent from the Spanish authority. It was the so-called First Government Junta, the starting point of a period of ongoing war on land and sea, first to win and then to sustain Independence, which put an end to the Spanish power in South America in 1826. The main influencing factors included: the War of Independence in the United States of America against its colonial metropolis and the 1776 American Declaration of Independence; the Enlightment that preceded the 1789 French Revolution, and the ideas of political and economic freedom ideas that it propounded, which were opposed to the absolutist and monopoly-based system imposed by the Spanish State; the British Invasions of 1806 & 1807 - with the respective Reconquest and Defense of Buenos Aires - that demonstrated in practice other government criteria and also generated greater confidence on the local potential; the chaos prevailing in Spain as a result of the Napoleonic invasion and the dissolution of the Seville Central Junta by the French Empire, at the beginning of 1810. This Junta had been governing on behalf of the King and had appointed Admiral Baltasar H. de Cisneros as the last effective Viceroy of the River Plate, in 1809.

Viceroys were the direct representatives of the Crown, and served as Governor and Captain General in their territory. All civilian and military authorities reported to them; among the later, were permanent officials, such as the Inspector General, the General Commander of Frontiers, and the Sargent Major of each station. Besides, temporary commissions were granted at times of war.

After the first British Invasion, the militia units made up of local people, i.e. citizens born in the Americas, acquired an organic structure and greater relevance and power than the military units coming from Spain.

After the independence events of 1810, the resulting authorities immediately provided a new structure for the existing military organization. An order of the Government Junta, dated May 28, sets up the Government and War Department and appointed Dr. Mariano Moreno, one of the secretaries of the Junta, as its head. Moreno shared the old viceroyship office of General Arms Commander with the President of the Junta, Colonel Cornelio Saavedra. On May 29, a bans considered the foundational instrument of the Argentine Army was issued, setting up the first army units.

Five infantry regiments were created, numbered 1 to 5, on the basis of the criollo battalions of 1806 and 1807. Regiment 1, Patricios, on the basis of the First Patricios Battalion; Regiment 2, on the 2nd Patricios Battalion; Regiment 3, on the previous Arribeños Battalion (made up of criollos from the North of the Viceroyship); Regiment 4, with the Mountaineering Battalion, and Regiment 5, with the Andalusian Battalion.

The Buenos Aires Dragoons cavalry received the denomination of Dragones de la Patria (Fatherland Dragoons); the King's Hussars - formerly Pueyrredon's Hussars, became the Fatherland Hussars and the Blandengues (cavalry corps that defended the inland frontier against the indians; their name deriving from the sword or lance that they brandished, from the Spanish "blandir"), became called the Fatherland's Cavalry Volunteers Regiment.

The Royal Corp of Artillery, within which the field artillery had been organized in 1796, become the Fatherland's Corp of Artillery, with the land batteries of the Buenos Aires stronghold and port and of Ensenada de Barragán reporting to the same, together with the arsenals and storehouses.

The first efforts of the Government Junta were directed at securing its executive powers in order to immediately pursue the expansion of the revolution to all the regions comprised in the viceroyship. This initiative had varied results for the original dream of keeping the territory of the Viceroyship of the River Plate together.

The provinces within the viceroyship were asked to send representatives to Buenos Aires, take part at a congress that would determine the most convenient form of government. At the same time, military expeditions were sent towards the Eastern Board (today the Eastern Republic of Uruguay), the provinces of Paraguay (currently the Republic of Paraguay) and those in the Upper Perú (today the Republic of Bolivia) with different outcomes.

The General Constitutional Assembly began its deliberations in 1813. It instituted and proclaimed several of the National symbols that have identified the new nation since then. Already on February 18, 1812 the government had decreed, at the urge of Manuel Belgrano, a member of the Junta, "... that the National Cockade of the United Provinces of the River Plate will have the white and light blue colors." The Assembly commissioned Blas Parera to compose the music of the National Patriotic Song, with the lyrics written by Vicente López y Planes, that would later become the Argentine National Anthem.

After the victorious battles of Tucumán - September 24, 1812 - and Salta -February 20, 1813 - in the Second Campaign of the Northern Army under the command of the recently appointed General Belgrano, the patriots occupied the Potosí Imperial Village. When the news reached Buenos Aires, the Assembly ordered, on April 13, the first issue of coins at the Ceca (after the Arab sikka, coin die or mint) of Potosí. They were to be similar to the Spanish coins but with the Seal of the Assembly - currently the Argentine National Crest - without the sun, instead of the Arms of Spain, and, on the reverse, the sun with 32 flaming and straight interleaved rays, replacing the king's effigy. The Triumvirate issued a circular ordering the newly minted coins to be accepted like the Spanish ones, since they had the same weight and mineral content as the former. Among others, one-ounce gold or 8-Escudos coins were minted - such as the one reproduced here, showing the crest with a border of flag, with two crossed cannons at the bottom and below them a war drum, symbol of the importance and prestige that military music was awarded, ever since the birth of the nation.

First National Currency. Original belonging to the Numismatic Museum "Dr. José E. Uriburu" of the Central Bank of Argentina.

Music of the Argentine Infantry and from the Period of Spanish Colonial Rule - code: TR030104

The major transformations that occurred in the West since the Renaissance and the Reformation became accelerated with more intense dynamics and greater scope with the technological progress of navigation, that opened the possibility of very long journeys and the discovery and colonization of new territories, by the main maritime powers of the time.

During the 17th and 18th Century, the world experienced a trade growth it had not known since the times of the Roman Empire, with its secure maritime routes and roads. The Spanish and the Portuguese had succeed in establishing an agricultural and mining based colonial capitalism, whereby they obtained from their colonies precious metals and raw materials that were highly valued in Europe - sugar, cacao, tobacco, rare woods, spices, etc. - that provided resources to uphold their standing vis-à-vis other European powers. In turn, part of those colonial riches were channeled towards countries with greater manufacturing capacity, mainly England, France and Holland, which in turn supplied Spain and Portugal with higher value added products. Thus, the former became the main source of financing of the later, in a scenario of ever more accelerated industrial development that had its first stirrings in the 15th Century.

In 1805, Great Britain decided to retake Cape Colony, held by Holland since 1803, as a result of the Peace of Amiens. The Dutch, then allied to the French, had established the Cape Colony in the 15th Century and it had been held by the British Crown between 1795 and 1803. The English invasion fleet made a stop in Bahía de Todos los Santos, Brazil, in November 1805, arriving at the Cape at the beginning of 1806. The Dutch garrison did not oppose them and the Cape of Good Hope became once again a British colony, with Major General David Baird as its Governor.

In November 1806, the year following the battle of Trafalgar in which Great Britain asserted its position as the world's greatest naval power, Napoleon established a strict continental blockade of Europe against British goods, causing serious damage to the English economy. Britain's world strategy had already been defined, seeking to expand its Empire in the far reaches of the world by using its maritime power, as opposed to the French strategy under Napoleon, who had concentrated his efforts in asserting his power over Europe.

From an American perspective, the decision of invading and occupying the Provinces of the River Plate, the British Invasions of 1806 & 1807, are the most transcendental events of the early 19th Century, due to their intrinsic importance plus the great influence they had on the decision to create a government in Buenos Aires in May, 1810, that was independent from the Spanish Crown. This marked the start of the wars for American independence that ended with the defeat of the royalist forces in Ayacucho and with the fall of the last strongholds in Chile and Peru in 1826.

The Argentine Army's Patricios No. 1 Infantry Regiment was established on September 16, 1806, after the First British Invasion and the Reconquest of Buenos Aires. The unit was initially denominated Legion of Voluntary Urban Buenos Aires Patricians, and its cadres were formed by officers and troops of criollos, i.e. free citizens born in the Viceroyship, residents of Buenos Aires. The regiment was shaped following the two-battalion Spanish model, with a third one added later, each consisting of a company of grenadiers and eight fusiliers. Colonel Cornelio Saavedra was the regiment's first commander.

The historical flag that the Regiment still uses, which illustrates the cover of this CD, follows the standards of the 1762 and 1768 Ordinances. It is a white taffeta square with the Red and chiseled Burgundy clubs -similar to the profile of crossed tree trunks with branches not cut at the root- in the center and the crest of the city of Buenos Aires in each corner. This flag accompanies the Argentine flag at all the ceremonies and formations in which the Regiment participates.

Almost from the start of its independent life, the country began slowly creating its own military musical heritage. In spite of this, until well into the 19th Century, the military music of the Spanish ordinances continued being used. This is music with very ancient roots, not only regarding the rhythms to pace the marching, but also as patriotic songs and bugle calls to convey orders.

From the 16th Century onwards, the Spanish infantry marched preceded by drums or fifes, to which trumpets and bugles or other wind instruments with different designs were added, according to the occasion. The military step at the pace of the drum began being regulated in the Spanish infantry since the middle of the 18th Century, and there were three steps, i.e. short, long and on the double, established on the basis of the distance covered by the foot and the sequence per minute.

That century witnessed great innovations in the organization of the music services of the Spanish Army. The number of musicians was increased and instruments that until then had not been customary for the military were incorporated, for example slide trombones, bassoons, serpents and tubas which in turn were improved at the end of the 18th Century and beginning of the 19th, with the addition of better valves.

The First Government Junta of the Plata Provinces ruled on the Army's initial structure on May 29, 1810, the date recorded as that of its foundation. It provided for the creation of the first five infantry regiments of the independent country, numbered 1 to 5. The Patricios Legion battalions formed the basis for the creation of First Infantry Regiment "Patricios" and Second Infantry Regiment. In another decree dated December 2, 1811, the structure of the same five regiments was determined, and rules were established for the music bands of the infantry, although the Patricios had had musicians since its creation. At that time, the Regiment's band, made up of drums and fifes, had 39 musicians, including a Lead Drummer, who was in charge of training, discipline and leadership in marches and combat.

In 1966, the band was given the name Tambor de Tacuarí (Tacuarí Drummer), commemorating the battle of Tacuarí of March 9, 1811 and the heroic feats of drummer Pedro Ríos, aged 12, who fell while cheering on the charge of the Argentine infantry with his drum.

Currently, the Tacuarí Military Band has 60 members, with a planned expansion in the near future. Its Director and Assistant Director hold officer rank; it is made up of 43 musicians who are non-commissioned officers, and 15 volunteer privates as drummers. They have a large repertoire: with focus on Argentine military music, they also play marches and bugle calls of the Spanish military music that were used in the Viceroyship of the River Plate Provinces, as well as popular and academic Argentine and international music.

In Memoriam - code: TR050108

Islas Malvinas in the Argentine Republic and Falkland Islands in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, they form an archipelago located in the South Atlantic, between 51 and 53 degrees South and 57 and 61º46' West, some 500 km. away from the South American continent and slightly North of the Atlantic entrance to the Strait of Magellan. They extend on a raster measuring around 260 km. East to West and 160 km. North to South.

Formed by some 100 islands -many of them small and uninhabited- it has a total area of 12,000 square kilometers. The two largest ones, 6,350 sq.km. and 4,500 sq. km., separated by a branch of the sea running NE to SW, the Falkland Sound (Canal San Carlos), concentrate most of the population and productive activities.

The climate is sub-antarctic and oceanic and consequently, it is cold and humid, with constant winds.

Between April and June 1982 a war situation arouse between the Argentine Republic and the United Kingdom, which ended with the surrender of the Argentine forces.

After over two decades of these events, this CD In Memoriam is published as a heartfelt tribute, through the music of their units, to all those who attended the conflict and especially to the fallen, in the hope that mutual respect among all and a better reciprocal knowledge may help build paths of reconciliation.