COMPONENTS

Former members of the group:

- Miquel Mariano: Voice and percussion.
- Moisès Pelegrí: Percussion.
- Ona Cardona: Clarinet. 
- Pepe King: Acoustic bass.
- Bep Marí: Voice and guitar.
- Benet: Clarinet.

Collaborations and gratefulness:

- Yolanda Sanz: Photos and sales.
- David Pelegrí: Photos and sales.
- Lluís Gómez: Photos.

INSTRUMENTS

The lute

It is one of the most picturesque and charismatic instruments, as it has a long history behind full of variations, hues, perfectionisms…It seems according to what the specialists on these themes explain, that it has four thousand years of history, as it dates from the second millennium before Christ with an origin in the Sumerian civilisation. It is evident that the difference between the first lutes from ancient times and the ones we know is considerable, as it has gone through a lot of changes as its use was expanding around the whole of Asia (Persia, India, China, Afghanistan…), picking up different forms and styles.

The lute that appears in the Occidental world will get its evolution towards the one we know coming from the Arab world. So the name arising from the article "al" and from the substantive "UD" meaning word. That lute begins to being perfections from the 11th century. In the 13th it gets into the cultural world of Occidental Europe. The subsequent evolution gives to the lute the feature it has nowadays. That is why it is an instrument we could be qualified as characteristically Mediterranean.

The lute we know today has got a plain box, quite big, that gives a great resonance to the sound of the strings. Over the box it has got three holes named "rosettes" with a characteristic shape. It has got twelve strings, which are really six pairs.

In the Arab world, the lutes were used for interpreting cultivated music(as soloist instruments), as for accompanying the popular music. In the traditional Minorcan music the lute has always been present, filling with sonority the music of the serenaders. The objective of the lute in S'Albaida has that popular element of the traditional music, and includes the virtuosity with which the instrument was perfectionated from the Renaissance. The result of it is a sound that gives character and spontaneity at he same time, and also leaves space to the improvisation as well.

The mandoline

Another string's instrument also used in some themes is the mandoline. In its origins, it takes characteristics of the lute and it dates from the Renaissance. It is Italian and it is there where it has just had its great success. It was present in the popular music there, but it has seen as important cultivated musicians have included it. The first important mandoline-makers were from Milan, but the most widely transmitted are the ones the Napolitan made. It consists of four double strings and it is remarkably smaller than the lute. The main sound difference with that instrument is that the tone of the mandoline is higher and in some songs a grade of very suggestive lirism can be obtained.

The guitar

It is the string's instrument most widely known and used. The origin is confused, but it seems to have a previous predecessor in the Greco-Latin zither, passing to the Arab world afterwards, and being introduced from there to the antique Al-Andalus. During the Renaissance, whereas the lute succeeded in Europe, the guitar was gaining popularity in Castile, which is why it has kept the name of Spanish guitar. By the end of the 17th century the instrument takes its practically definitive form, which is still kept nowadays. It consists of six single strings.

The instrument has always been present between the groups of popular music, as a base for the accompaniment of the melodies. In S'Albaida the guitar is an important instrument not only in the accompaniment but also in the plucking of some own themes. A type of accompaniment such as the flamenco is also used, type of music, which, in some cases, more yield, has taken from this instrument.

The guitarrillo-small guitar (no translation)

That is a really eminently popular instrument. Is like a very small guitar and its function is to accompany and give a higher sound to that accompaniment. It seems -just seems- that its origin is catalano - valencian, although it can be found in the Canary Islands. It is very similar to the so-called tiple, even smaller. It has always been present in all the folkloric groups.

The way of playing it, is always strumming the strings, they are not usually plucked. Also, the charm of the instrument is the way of playing with the rhythm, the counterpoint to the compass has to be found, it is important not to just follow a plain, dull rhythm, at times, but diverse, some times unexpected.

The acoustic bass

It is a string instrument with a resonance box quite big and with four thick strings that emits a quite low sound. This instrument, as all the basses that exist in any musical formation (the bass fiddle, the electric bass, the bass horn…), is the one that sustains the harmonic basis in the music, as many musical theoreticians have pointed out. The low voice gives profundity to the pieces and songs.

The flute

It can be said the flute is one of the more antique instruments known and more universal at the same time, as they have been found around the world fro remote times, as far as from the Palaeolithic, flutes which where made from bone. They are basically divided into two types: verticals and transversals.

Either one or the other type arrive to Europe towards the 12th century and come from Asia, the transversals in particular from China. The vertical flute takes immediately more impulse at both popular and cultivated levels. Nevertheless, in the XVIII century compositions for transversal flute will be made and it will go on growing in importance and technical perfectionism into the field of cultivated music.

At a popular level the vertical flute, named commonly "sweet flute", has been the most uses one. The folkloric groups have used it frequently as soloist in the popular ballads much more than the transversal one, in any case.

S'Albaida use both depending of the type of melody that are being made checking which is the most appropriated one in every case. Another variants of sweet flute, also used in some songs are the "sopranino" and the "fabiol" of Catalan origin (with no translation in English), used in the popular fiestas of Minorca as well. There are some popular melodies especially suitable to being played with "fabiol".

The clarinet

That instrument, as we know it comes from the eighteenth century, when an European builder made the first issue. The significance of this instrument is not, in this case, popular but mainly cultivated, used in classic music and it will take importance in music like jazz, afterwards.

Thus, we can find direct antecedents in the French "chalumeau" that is an European variant relatively modern of the first instruments of this family that are known, and date from the third millennium B.C., with an Egyptian origin, so that we can talk of an essentially Mediterranean instrument. The antique clarinet, named "zumarah", was extended round the basis of this sea, Asia Minor, European countries and Islamic world.

In their compositions, S'Albaida want to become itself an echo of the significance of that Mediterranean instrument present in the music of the Islamic countries, of important influence. On the other hand, it is the technical characteristics of the instrument, -the one dating from the eighteenth century- the ones, which are taken advantage of.

The percussion

We include into such generic term, all the instruments that are used as a rhythmical base in the songs of S'Albaida. It is one of the elements more characteristics of the group. The work to a rhythmical level is evident in which all the instruments participate .It is the percussion instruments, though, the ones with a special relevance, giving its special features to the compositions. The instruments that compose this group and the distribution over the stage is a way of understanding the function of the percussion.

The majority of the instruments are traditional together with some more universals, and we could do a large list: bongos, djembe, darabonka, tambourine, castanets, cardussa, kind of drum, triangle, box drum, plates, drums, bass drum. In practice, the use of all them is quite complete, combining ones and others in the different songs.