Santiago Lope Gonzalo (1871-1906) was a celebrated Spanish composer and conductor. He wrote zarzuelas and pasodobles and more, and he was the first director of the Banda Municipal de Valencia. His family recognized his musical talent when he was very young: he received piano instruction from an early age, and he began playing piccolo with a town band at age six. He was soon sent to Madrid to begin serious music study at the Royal Conservatory of Music, including instruction in violin, harmony, and composition. He was playing professionally in several groups by his teenage years. He was renowned in his time as a master orchestrator. His last years were spent professionally engaged in Valencia, where he died tragically at the age of only 35. Read up on him at the Wind Repertory Project, Find a Grave, and Rundel Music.
Gallito is a pasodoble (double-time march), a genre often associated with bullfighting. It is one of four pasodobles that Lope wrote for each of the bullfighters in a particular event in the Plaza de Toros in Valencia on June 29, 1905. The fighters often used nicknames, as was the case with Ferdinand “Gallito” Gomez. Gomez must have been notoriously self-assured, because “gallito” translates as “cocky.” The piece itself reflects this remarkable quality. Here it is as recorded by the United States Coast Guard Band:
See more at the Wind Repertory Project, TRN Music, and J. W. Pepper, all of which center on Roy Weger’s 1990 edition of the march. There is also a 1913 Hawkes & Co edition available for free at the Band Music PDF Library.