This tune was originally recorded by Alan Lomax in Galicia (please listen to it here, selected by New York Times) and later revisited by Miles Davis and Gil Evans as The Pan Piper in their Sketches of Spain album.
This is Carlos’s tribute to those two master performers, an unknown folk musician and a music legend, impossible to improve those versions!
Carlos had already recorded a version in “Foliada dos Aires da Terra” and more recently for the soundtrack of Brazilian dance legends Grupo Corpo’s new creation.
Although alboradas are usually pipe tunes, Alborada de Vigo would certainly not sound good on the pipes, as its variations are adapted to the peculiarities of the instrument employed, the Pan Pipes and its mysterious scale.
Originally, alboradas must have been variations, preludes, and then they evolved into composed tunes, such as the Alborada Anterga that became Aires de Pontevedra.
Here’s a couple more “alboradas”