{"id":63676,"date":"2026-02-26T20:20:28","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T19:20:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/?p=63676"},"modified":"2026-03-11T08:37:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T07:37:21","slug":"santiago-a-cheerful-galician-pasodoble-that-is-now-a-military-march-of-the-spanish-army","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2026\/02\/26\/santiago-a-cheerful-galician-pasodoble-that-is-now-a-military-march-of-the-spanish-army\/","title":{"rendered":"'Santiago', a cheerful Galician pasodoble that is now a military march of the Spanish Army"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The pasodoble is a type of Spanish musical piece used for various purposes, from dances to accompanying bullfighting shows.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2025\/04\/27\/the-little-known-military-march-that-led-some-galicians-in-their-fight-for-spain-in-1808\/\">The little-known military march that led some Galicians in their fight for Spain in 1808<\/a><\/rel><br \/>\n<rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2026\/02\/07\/the-solemn-march-of-the-kingdom-of-galicia-a-historical-jewel-of-spanish-musical-heritage\/\">The Solemn March of the Kingdom of Galicia, a historical jewel of Spanish musical heritage<\/a><\/rel><\/p>\n<p>In Galicia, there are regional pasodobles as popular and majestic as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=MmD9EQ8zNDk\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">\"Puenteareas\"<\/a>, a work by the composer Reveriano Soutullo Otero (1880-1932), a native of the Pontevedra town that gives the piece its name. <strong>Today I want to focus on a Galician pasodoble very popular among the university student music groups of Santiago de Compostela: \"Santiago\".<\/strong> You can listen here to a recording released in 2018 of this cheerful instrumental piece:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Santiago (Instrumental)\" width=\"665\" height=\"499\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/t7XSxxy9Y6Q?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Its author was the musician Jos\u00e9 \u00c1lvarez Cancio<\/strong>, about whom I have found very little information. I believe he was from Ribadeo (Lugo). <a href=\"https:\/\/ca.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Uni%C3%B3_Musical_de_Ll%C3%ADria\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Wikipedia notes that in 1926 he was the principal conductor of the Uni\u00f3 Musical de Ll\u00edria<\/a>, a civil musical institution in the town of Liria (Valencia), with which <a href=\"https:\/\/uniomusicaldelliria.com\/premis-i-guardons\/primers-premis-i-mencions-dhonor\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">he won first prize at the National Civil Music Competition<\/a< held in Valencia on August 3, 1926. According to  <a href=\"https:\/\/quaderns.alaquas.org\/ficheros\/Q20082804ROYO.pdf\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><em>\"Noticias de Alaqu\u00e0s en el Diario de Valencia (1911-1936)\"<\/em><\/a>, by Jos\u00e9 Royo Mart\u00ednez, <strong>on August 3, 1933 \u00c1lvarez Cancio directed the band La Primitiva de Carcagente<\/strong> in the XLI Regional Competition of Civil Bands of Alacu\u00e1s (Valencia).<\/p>\n<p>The newspaper <a href=\"https:\/\/www.elprogreso.es\/articulo\/album-de-los-lucenses\/silvina-landrove-fernandez\/201902081912441358809.html\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">El Progreso<\/a> of Lugo published on February 14, 1931, a chronicle of a benefit concert conducted by \u00c1lvarez Cancio, then <strong>Main Musician of the Band of Music of the \"Zamora\" Regiment No. 8 of the Spanish Army, based in Vigo<\/strong>, during which he performed Beethoven's \"Egmont\" overture, accompanied by thirty musicians, giving a magnificent concert.<\/p>\n<p>According to <a href=\"https:\/\/ifc.dpz.es\/recursos\/publicaciones\/37\/02\/07oriolavello.pdf\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><em>\"Military Bands and the Second Spanish Republic (1931-1936)\"<\/em><\/a>, by Frederic Oriola Vell\u00f3, <strong>in 1936 \u00c1lvarez Cancio was stationed in Jaca as director of the band of the \"Galicia\" Regiment No. 19<\/strong>. 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, <a href=\"https:\/\/pares.mcu.es\/ParesBusquedas20\/catalogo\/show\/10123790\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">his name and position appear in a record of the Political-Social Section<\/a>, a sign that he was investigated by the Franco regime.<\/p>\n<p><strong>I haven't found the date on which \u00c1lvarez Cancio composed \"Santiago\"<\/strong>. In the National Library of Spain I have only found <a href=\"https:\/\/datos.bne.es\/edicion\/a7099092.html\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">one record under his name<\/a>, 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 href=\"https:\/\/www.discogs.com\/es\/release\/12935942-Coral-Os-Rumorosos-Galiza-Onte-Hoxe-E-Sempre\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">a Galician ballad entitled \"Os Noivos\"<\/a> (The Bride and Groom), recorded on a record published in Argentina by the \"Os Rumorosos\" Choir of the Centro Lucense of Buenos Aires.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Interestingly, the pasodoble \"Santiago\" became popular in the Spanish Army thanks to another Galician: Mariano G\u00f3mez-Zamalloa y Quirce (1897-1973)<\/strong>, 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 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.xn--elespaoldigital-3qb.com\/1937-mariano-gomez-de-zamalloa-el-heroe-del-pingarron-en-la-batalla-del-jarama\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">El Espa\u00f1ol Digital<\/a>. <strong>This recording of the Army Ministry Battalion Band is surely from that period:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Santiago (Remastered)\" width=\"665\" height=\"499\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/jGi5Kxw2OCQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>This pasodoble has become the most representative music of the War Band of the Brigade \"Galicia\" VII (BRILAT)<\/strong> 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:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"La BRILAT en Tuy: Pasodoble &quot;Santiago&quot;\" width=\"665\" height=\"374\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/h6ZK5DUn3zc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>In 2018, at the BRILAT 52nd anniversary concert, I recorded this performance of the pasodoble \"Santiago\"<\/strong> by the BRILAT War Band and the Mar\u00edn Naval Military School Band, during a concert held in Pontevedra:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Concierto 52 aniversario BRILAT: &quot;Santiago&quot;\" width=\"665\" height=\"374\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/8m3oVqDYQk8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>I hope this article helps to rescue the name of Jos\u00e9 \u00c1lvarez Cancio from oblivion<\/strong>. It saddens me to see that today there is hardly any trace online of a composer of such a beautiful piece of Galician music.<\/p>\n<p>---<\/p>\n<p><small>Main photo: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/elentir\/30133303352\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Elentir<\/a>. Bagpipers from the BRILAT war bands at the 50th anniversary concert of that Brigade held in Pontevedra on October 8, 2016.<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The pasodoble is a type of Spanish musical piece used for various purposes, from dances to accompanying bullfighting shows.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[19534,11549,11348],"tags":[17573,26339,26341,26340,10557],"class_list":["post-63676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-defense-portada-eng","category-military-history","category-music","tag-brigade-galicia-vii-brilat","tag-jose-alvarez-cancio","tag-mariano-gomez-zamalloa-y-quirce","tag-pasodoble-santiago","tag-spanish-army"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63676"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63676\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}