'Santiago', a cheerful Galician pasodoble that is now a military march of the Spanish Army

The pasodoble is a type of Spanish musical piece used for various purposes, from dances to accompanying bullfighting shows.

The little-known military march that led some Galicians in their fight for Spain in 1808
The Solemn March of the Kingdom of Galicia, a historical jewel of Spanish musical heritage

In Galicia, there are regional pasodobles as popular and majestic as "Puenteareas", a work by the composer Reveriano Soutullo Otero (1880-1932), a native of the Pontevedra town that gives the piece its name. Today I want to focus on a Galician pasodoble very popular among the university student music groups of Santiago de Compostela: "Santiago". You can listen here to a recording released in 2018 of this cheerful instrumental piece:

Its author was the musician José Álvarez Cancio, about whom I have found very little information. I believe he was from Ribadeo (Lugo). Wikipedia notes that in 1926 he was the principal conductor of the Unió Musical de Llíria, a civil musical institution in the town of Liria (Valencia), with which he won first prize at the National Civil Music Competition"Noticias de Alaquàs en el Diario de Valencia (1911-1936)", by José Royo Martínez, on August 3, 1933 Álvarez Cancio directed the band La Primitiva de Carcagente in the XLI Regional Competition of Civil Bands of Alacuás (Valencia).

The newspaper El Progreso of Lugo published on February 14, 1931, a chronicle of a benefit concert conducted by Álvarez Cancio, then Main Musician of the Band of Music of the "Zamora" Regiment No. 8 of the Spanish Army, based in Vigo, during which he performed Beethoven's "Egmont" overture, accompanied by thirty musicians, giving a magnificent concert.

According to "Military Bands and the Second Spanish Republic (1931-1936)", by Frederic Oriola Velló, in 1936 Álvarez Cancio was stationed in Jaca as director of the band of the "Galicia" Regiment No. 19. There he was caught by surprise by the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, remaining on the Nationalist side. I have followed his scant documentary record until 1938. I have not found either his year of birth or his date of death. Interestingly, his name and position appear in a record of the Political-Social Section, a sign that he was investigated by the Franco regime.

I haven't found the date on which Álvarez Cancio composed "Santiago". In the National Library of Spain I have only found one record under his name, regarding a record published in 1963 by the Lugo Municipal Band, in whose repertoire that musical piece appeared. Besides this pasodoble, I have only found traces of another of his compositions, a Galician ballad entitled "Os Noivos" (The Bride and Groom), recorded on a record published in Argentina by the "Os Rumorosos" Choir of the Centro Lucense of Buenos Aires.

Interestingly, the pasodoble "Santiago" became popular in the Spanish Army thanks to another Galician: Mariano Gómez-Zamalloa y Quirce (1897-1973), a veteran of the Civil War and the Blue Division. Upon his return from Russia with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, he was assigned to the Infantry Battalion of the Ministry of the Army, providing its band with Galician bagpipes and including the aforementioned pasodoble in its repertoire, as noted by El Español Digital. This recording of the Army Ministry Battalion Band is surely from that period:

This pasodoble has become the most representative music of the War Band of the Brigade "Galicia" VII (BRILAT) of the Spanish Army, which is based in Figueirido (Pontevedra). In 2011, I recorded this performance of the pasodoble by the band at the San Telmo festivities in Tuy (Pontevedra), where BRILAT always plays it as its farewell march:

In 2018, at the BRILAT 52nd anniversary concert, I recorded this performance of the pasodoble "Santiago" by the BRILAT War Band and the Marín Naval Military School Band, during a concert held in Pontevedra:

I hope this article helps to rescue the name of José Álvarez Cancio from oblivion. It saddens me to see that today there is hardly any trace online of a composer of such a beautiful piece of Galician music.

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Main photo: Elentir. Bagpipers from the BRILAT war bands at the 50th anniversary concert of that Brigade held in Pontevedra on October 8, 2016.