"Xistra de Coruxo": Traditional Galician Music.
Period as a quintet: two bagpipes and percussion that either accompanied dances or played alone, playing pieces and melodies learned in the small towns of Galicia. This characteristic, above all others, continue to describe the group and what they do. The group's repertoire included Muiñeiras, Jotas, Pasacorredoiras, Marchiñas de Reis, etc.

The more the group learned from veteran bagpipers, the more they found it necessary to use new instruments, which, although they are not traditionally Galician, were also used by bagpipers in the past. Non-traditional instruments such as the piccolo, the clarinet, and cymbals were used to play melodies that did not pertain to the "traditional Galician Songbook." It was at this point that the group decided to become totally independent.

"Xistra de Coruxo": Galician Popular Music
The group went from being a quintet to a sextet and, later, from having six members to having eight with the addition of an accordion. They felt the need to fill the gap in Galician music left by new folk groups that were gradually abandoning percussion and traditional rhythms.

Taking into account the fertile presence of bagpipers in the southern part of the province of Pontevedra, who, in their day, belonged to traditional groups of bagpipers and street musicians, XISTRA DE CORUXO decided to base their new repertoire on airs and rhythms that came from groups of foreign peoples who had entered the community at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries. These rhythms-rumbas, mazurkas, polkas, etc.-had been assimilated and popularized by their ancestors. XISTRA DE CORUXO did this without abandoning the jotas, muñeiras, and other rhythms that the veteran bagpipers had also played..

At this time the group was offered an opportunity by the company "Edicións do Cumio S.A." to record their first disc, "Se beillas arrente, coidado cos terróns."

Fortunately, XISTRA DE CORUXO, continue to ground themselves in the traditions that the members of the group learned and continue to learn in small cities and villages, updating melodies to the point where they have developed their own style of playing and a distinct sound that sets the group apart within the world of traditional Galician music. They also continue to popularize and adapt the music that fits within the group's established parameters. As a result of this and with the help of "Edicións do Fol S.L.", a second disc was released under the title "Adicado..."

In that same year, 1997, in addition to the aforementioned second C.D., XISTRA DE CORUXO participated in two international projects: one of these was a C.D. that consisted of a collaboration with 17 other groups and artists, called "Chants de Marins en Fête," and was recorded in August in Paimpol, Breton for the prestigious "La Chasse-Maréee" label; the second one was recorded in October and November in Balingen, Germany, as part of the "Sackpfeifen in Schwaben," which brought together 16 groups from all over Europe who also use bagpipes in their music. In both cases, XISTRA DE CORUXO was the only group that represented Galicia and Spain. It was there that they returned after their tour of Croatia in order to resume playing folk music within the "Celtic" genre, leaving their mark in the year 2000 with their participation in a new C.D. recorded by "Volkstanzgruppe Frommern."

And now, at the beginning of the new millennium, XISTRA DE CORUXO has recorded a new C.D. called "Xistralia: República Independiente": a call for a new way of understanding traditional music that is connected to a clearly "revolutionary" concept-Galician-Minhoto folk-which can be summed-up by the words, "the southern part of Galicia is more influenced by Portuguese culture than it is by the cultures of other communities that are more or less close to it, and, in turn, the northern part of Portugal has more Galician influence that it does from other communities."

In the "Musical Republic of Xistralia" one encounters Galician "biras" and Portuguese muñeiras, bagpipes of varying tonalities mixed with cavaquinhos and Bragan violas, the beats of Treboadas and those of Zes Pereiras, brass pots and castenets, tréculas with triquilitraques, vocals, accordions, clarinets, etc. Making a total of 23 different instruments that have already been used in the past by the musicians of "Ancient Xistralia."