The kirikoketa ( or ) is a specialized

Basque music Basque music refers to the music made in the Basque Country, reflecting traits related to its society/tradition, and devised by people from that territory. While traditionally more closely associated to rural based and Basque language music, the ...

wooden device akin to the

txalaparta The txalaparta ( or ) is a specialized Basque music device of wood or stone. In some regions of the Basque Country, (with ) means "racket", while in others (in Navarre) has been attested as meaning the trot of the horse, a sense closely relate ...

and closely related to working activities. It is classified as an

idiophone An idiophone is any musical instrument that creates sound primarily by the vibration of the instrument itself, without the use of air flow (as with aerophones), strings (chordophones), membranes (membranophones) or electricity ( electrophones) ...

percussion instrument A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

). It has lately caught on with cultural circles from the Basque Country at a local level.

Instrument

The kirikoketa, named after the sound it emits, consists of a single board some 1.5m long and two or three strikers the height of a person, one per person, with a cone shaped wide base. Hammers may be used too by hitting them against the board. But for a small elevation, the board stands almost at the ground level sustained on two low and soft mounds at both ends.

Origin and development

Like many other Basque sound instruments and sport activities, the kirikoketa stems from and/or is linked to working activities. This specific instrument comes directly from the apple pressing process in which the fruits are ground down for making

cider Cider ( ) is an alcoholic beverage made from the fermented juice of apples. Cider is widely available in the United Kingdom (particularly in the West Country) and the Republic of Ireland. The UK has the world's highest per capita consumption, ...

. Men used to work for some 8 days in this process and on the day, they gathered together in the village market square and celebrated with the tools employed in their work, playing the kirikoketa while singing the following tune along: (accompanying each syllable with a beat). The inhabitants from the region of the river

Bidasoa __NOTOC__ The Bidasoa (, ; french: Bidassoa, ) is a river in the Basque Country of northern Spain and southern France that runs largely south to north. Named as such downstream of the village of Oronoz-Mugairi (municipality of Baztan) in the pro ...

and Baztan (to the north of

Navarre Navarre (; es, Navarra ; eu, Nafarroa ), officially the Chartered Community of Navarre ( es, Comunidad Foral de Navarra, links=no ; eu, Nafarroako Foru Komunitatea, links=no ), is a foral autonomous community and province in northern Spain, ...

) continued the custom for centuries until it almost died out in the 1920s. Yet thanks to the Basque culture revival and field research carried out by Basque scholars and culture activists, especially since the 1960s, it has enhanced its public profile out of the limbo during the last years, like the renaissance of the

, though to a far lesser extent.

Operation

The cider-makers originally beat the strikers alternatingly on the cider press in order to crush apples, adopting a playful and

rhythm Rhythm (from Greek , ''rhythmos'', "any regular recurring motion, symmetry") generally means a " movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions". This general meaning of regular recu ...

ic pattern as a means to enlivening the long process. Site in Spanish The pattern remains similar: two or three people standing in front of the board beat it each with a striker, they may move along the board in search of different sounds and try faster/slower and harder/softer beats on it. When there are three people playing, the

ic pattern is a ternary one (3/8 time or simple triple). Optionally, a player may choose not to strike on the board on their turn (rest). Alongside the beating performance, the players may engage in singing.

Festivals and social events

Nowadays the festival ''Kirikoketa Besta'' is held in Arizkun (Baztan,

) since approx. 2001 and is organized by the Society Jo Ala Jo Elkartea, aimed both at showcasing old cider practices by staging a re-enactment of the cider making process and encouraging the use of the kirikoketa as a musical instrument.

References

External links

Kirikoketa performance in Hendaye/Bayonne

Advanced kirikoketa exhibition in Hernani

Explanatory clip on txalaparta and kirikoketa
Site in French {{Music of Spain Idiophones Basque musical instruments Basque cider