Costa Verde is now available and can be purchased from the Contact and Order page on this site. The music has been composed to celebrate the new cultural exchange programme between Lancing College, in West Sussex, England and the Colegio Dulce Nombre de Jesús, in the heart of Oviedo, Asturias, Northern Spain. This school will be pictured on the back of the CD.
The exchange programme developed out of an e-mail link which was set up two years ago. The aim is to encourage participating students from Lancing to practise their Spanish and learn something of the rich and varied culture of Asturias. Similarly, the Oviedo students are encouraged to practise English within the cultural setting of outstanding value and beauty that is to be found in West Sussex. Between the grandeur of the South Downs and the cosmopolitanism of Brighton lie a host of unspoiled towns and villages. There is a vast array of places to visit and explore.
Asturias is a land of exceptional beauty and variety, from the dramatic mountain landscape of the Picos and Covadonga to its rugged, wild and green coastal areas. A land of Celtic origin, where bagpipes and cider are typical features, it is often compared to Wales. There are obvious parallels. Asturias, like Wales, is a Principality (el Príncipe Felipe de Asturias, son of King Juan Carlos, is heir to the Spanish throne). The region relied on coal mining and heavy industry as its main source of employment during the 19th and 20th centuries. The Welsh comparison extends even further with regard to a radical and maverick workforce which stubbornly resisted pressures from central government. There was fierce opposition to the Franco regime during and in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War. The landscapes of Wales and Asturias are strikingly similar, with gushing mountain streams, isolated villages and abundant rainfall. Not forgetting, of course, the beautiful Green Coast - Costa Verde in Spanish - a major but unspoilt attraction in both lands. There is even a local language in Asturias, known as 'bable' (which unlike Welsh, however, is not of Celtic origin). The Asturian national dish of 'Fabada' is a rich and hearty stew, as is 'cawl' in Wales.
As there appear to be more similarities than differences between this North-Westerly part of Spain and the Celtic areas in the West of Britain and Ireland, it is not therefore entirely surprising that the music of Costa Verde has, on occasions, a Celtic feel to it in addition to Latin and Hispanic influences.
VERSION CASTELLANA
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Sussex Downs
Lago de la Ercina, Covadonga, Picos de Europa, Asturias
Lancing College Chapel