Sac de gemecs

Traditional Catalan folksong and sac de gemecs melody from an 1822 manuscript

The sac de gemecs (Catalan pronunciation: [ˈsaɡ də ʒəˈmeks]; literally "bag of moans", also known as buna [ˈbuna] in Andorra or coixinera [kuʃiˈneɾə], gaita [ˈɡajtə] or botella [buˈteʎə]) is a type of bagpipes found in Catalonia (eastern Spain spilling over into southern France).

The instrument consists of a chanter, a mouthblown blowpipe, and three drones. The lowest drone (bordó llarg) plays a note two octaves below the tonic of the chanter. The middle drone (bordó mitjà) plays a fifth above the bass. The high drone (bordó petit) plays an octave below the chanter, thus one octave above the bass drone.

Folklore

The instrument figures into the Andorran legend El buner d'Ordino, in which a bagpiper from the parish of Ordino, en route to a festival in Canillo, is chased and treed by wolves, but frightens them off by playing his buna.^[1]

See also

• Xeremia
• Gaita

References

1. Àlvar Valls Oliva - Roser Carol Romàn; Àlvar Valls i Oliva; Roser Carol i Romàn (15 November 2010). Llegendes d'Andorra. L'Abadia de Montserrat. pp. 95–. ISBN 978-84-9883-340-9.

External links

• Elsacdegemecs.com
• Cornamusam at olot.org
• Cornamusica.com
• XGBosch Cornamuses
• Elsacdegemecs.blogspot