On Monday 12 October, the Salamanca University Tuna - a musical group of performers - played some of their best traditional songs at the Msida Campus, University of Malta.
The birth of the University of Salamanca, the oldest university in Spain, brought with it the birth of different artistic manifestations both popular and academic. One of these was La Tuna.
The social disparities present at the University’s inception, spurred the students with less resources to organise themselves in order to get, with their ingenuity, everything they needed to survive and pursue their studies. In this way, the University students created musical groups of troubadours which would go from bar to bar, at weddings, festivals and the like to get the food and money they needed. And so was born La Tuna, a tradition which has stood the test of time and today preserves the popular musical tradition not only of Spain but also of Latin America.
La Tuna is a great way of getting an inside look at the living history of Spanish popular and musical culture, thereby getting to know the traditions, while enjoying the music.