A colleague to whom I referred the question tells me this:
<< "Murga" was a term used in Madrid for a band of street musicians. If the band was made up of students, it was a "Tuna". Murguistas (street musicians) used to gather in corners and play the popular tunes of the day. The old joke went that you gave them a peseta to start playing, then you had to give them fifty to get them to stop. The terms have lost their initial meaning, and now you can find "murguistas" outside of Madrid and "tunos" everywhere there is a university. Another term for these groups is "rondalla".
<< The traditional instruments were (besides tambourines and castanets) guitar, lute and bandurria (a small, high-pitched lute). I've seen a couple of groups include an accordion. The group often had a dancer, whose duty was to pass the hat. You could tell murguistas from tunos by their dress - tunos wore their college colors, while murguistas were known for their shabby dress. They played pasacalles, seguidillas, coplas, and whichever zarzuela tune was popular at the time. Now, it's all part of the tourist trade, ergo has lost its street charm.
<< There is a funny number titled "Los Murguistas" in the zarzuela "El Ultimo Romantico" where the two comics sing "It's truly a bother to hear the same songs over and over again every day", then listing the titles of a half-dozen 19th century zarzuelas. >>
mdl
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