Basque Music
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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 growing diversification of its production during the last decades has tipped the scale in favour of a broad definition. Traditional music Basque traditional music is a product of the region's historic development and strategic geographical position on the Atlantic arch at a crossroads between mountains ( Cantabrian mountain range, Pyrenees) and plains (Ebro basin), ocean and inland, European continent and Iberian Peninsula. Its culture and music has thus been exposed to a wide number of influences throughout history, ranging from British and northern European to Mediterranean to Arabic. For example, traditional overseas commerce with England, or international pilgrimage on the Way of St James added greatly to leave an imprint in both i ...
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Basque Country (greater Region)
The Basque Country ( eu, Euskal Herria; es, País Vasco; french: Pays basque) is the name given to the home of the Basque people. Trask, R.L. ''The History of Basque'' Routledge: 1997 The Basque country is located in the western Pyrenees, straddling the border between France and Spain on the coast of the Bay of Biscay. ''Euskal Herria'' is the oldest documented Basque name for the area they inhabit, dating from the 16th century. It comprises the Autonomous Communities of the Basque Country and Navarre in Spain and the Northern Basque Country in France. The region is home to the Basque people ( eu, Euskaldunak), their language ( eu, Euskara), culture and traditions. The area is neither linguistically nor culturally homogeneous, and certain areas have a majority of people who do not consider themselves Basque, such as the south of Navarre. The concept is still highly controversial, and the Supreme Court of Navarre has ruled against scholarly books that include the Navarre c ...
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Trikitixa
The trikiti (standard Basque, pronounced ) trikitixa ( dialectal Basque, pronounced ), or eskusoinu txiki ("little hand-sound", pronounced )) is a two-row Basque diatonic button accordion with right-hand rows keyed a fifth apart and twelve unisonoric bass buttons. The onomatopoeia ''trikitixa'', apparently stemming from the sound emitted by the tambourine, originally referred to a traditional Basque ensemble, made up of the instrument which now bears the name as well as alboka, txistu and other instruments. Probably introduced by Italian immigrants coming from the Alps, the trikitixa's first written evidence is attested late in the 19th century, exactly in 1889, when diatonic accordion was used for music in a popular pilgrimage festivity of Urkiola (Biscay). In 1890, a trikiti appears in a picture taken in Altsasu (Navarre), a railway junction. Therefore, some point to the instrument's import to the Basque Country from Italy through the port of Bilbao, while other sources sug ...
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Trikitixa
The trikiti (standard Basque, pronounced ) trikitixa ( dialectal Basque, pronounced ), or eskusoinu txiki ("little hand-sound", pronounced )) is a two-row Basque diatonic button accordion with right-hand rows keyed a fifth apart and twelve unisonoric bass buttons. The onomatopoeia ''trikitixa'', apparently stemming from the sound emitted by the tambourine, originally referred to a traditional Basque ensemble, made up of the instrument which now bears the name as well as alboka, txistu and other instruments. Probably introduced by Italian immigrants coming from the Alps, the trikitixa's first written evidence is attested late in the 19th century, exactly in 1889, when diatonic accordion was used for music in a popular pilgrimage festivity of Urkiola (Biscay). In 1890, a trikiti appears in a picture taken in Altsasu (Navarre), a railway junction. Therefore, some point to the instrument's import to the Basque Country from Italy through the port of Bilbao, while other sources sug ...
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Psalterium (instrument)
The string drum or Tambourin de Béarn (in German) is a long rectangular box zither beaten with a mallet. It is paired with a one-handed flute (French: galoubet) with three finger holes, similar to a pipe and tabor. It has also been called tambourin de Gascogne, tambourin à cordes in Catalan, Pyrenean string drum, ttun-ttun in Basque , salmo in Spanish, and chicotén in Aragonese. It was known in the middle ages as the ''choron'' or ''chorus''. In specific usage, this name denotes a form of long psaltery-styled instrument that is tuned to provide drone chords when drummed. It can be found in a similar body shape with three to eight strings. The tuning is often held in root, tonic and dominant, or root and fifth. That with one Psaltery-related instrument is easy to play because the strings are struck with a mallet as a whole. The name ''salterio'' or ''psalterium'' for the instrument comes from the Yebra, Spain. Researcher Violet Alford said that it was a mistake to include th ...
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Xirula
The xirula (, spelled ''chiroula'' in French, also pronounced ''txirula'', ''(t)xülüla'' in Zuberoan Basque; Gascon: ''flabuta''; French: ''galoubet'') is a small three holed woodwind instrument or flute usually made of wood akin to the Basque txistu or three-hole pipe, but more high pitched and strident, tuned to D/G and an octave higher than the ''silbote''. The sound that flows from the flute has often been perceived as a metaphor for the tweet cadences of bird songs. Site in Basque Some scholars point out that flutes found in the Caverns of Isturitz and Oxozelaia going back to a period spanning 35,000 to 10,000 years ago bear witness to the early presence of the instrument's forerunner in the region, while this view has been disputed. Extent It is an instrument characteristic of the Pyrenees, and it is played on the French side of the Basque Country (the extent of its use has shrunk over the years, having long been supplanted in Labourd and Basse-Navarre by the txistu), w ...
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Tabor (instrument)
A tabor, tabret ( cy, Tabwrdd), Tambour De Provence, or Tambourin (Provencal) is a portable snare drum typically played either with one hand or with two drumsticks. The word "tabor" is simply an English variant of a Latin-derived word meaning "drum"—cf. french: tambour, links=no, it, tamburo, links=noHarms Historical Percussion's Tabor page
It has been used in the military as a , and has been used as accompaniment in parades and processions.


Construction


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Tabor Pipe
The three-hole pipe, also commonly known as tabor pipe or galoubet, is a wind instrument designed to be played by one hand, leaving the other hand free to play a tabor drum, bell, psalterium or ''tambourin à cordes'', bones, triangle or other percussive instrument. The three-hole pipe's origins are not known, but it dates back at least to the 12th century. It was popular from an early date in France, the Iberian Peninsula and Great Britain and remains in use there today.The Pipe and Tabor Worldwide
In the Basque Country it has increasingly gained momentum and prestige during the last century, especially during the last years of the

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Txistu
The txistu () is a kind of fipple flute that became a symbol for the Basque folk revival. The name may stem from the general Basque word ''ziztu'' "to whistle" with palatalisation of the ''z'' (cf ''zalaparta'' > ''txalaparta''). This three-hole pipe can be played with one hand, leaving the other one free to play a percussion instrument. Evidence of the txistu first mentioned as such goes back to 1864. Yet it is apparent that it was used earlier, although it is not easy to establish when it started out; actually, it is impossible to do so, the txistu being the result of an evolution of the upright flutes widespread as early as the Late Middle Ages, when minstrels scattered all over the Iberian Peninsula brought in instruments that locals, noblemen first and common people later took on and developed. At the beginning, txistu players (''txistularis'') were named in romance written records after the tabor (pipe and tabor were played together): ''tamborer, tamborino, tambolín, tambo ...
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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, as well as the largest cider-producing companies. Ciders from the South West of England are generally higher in alcoholic content. Cider is also popular in many Commonwealth countries, such as India, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. As well as the UK and its former colonies, cider is popular in Portugal (mainly in Minho and Madeira), France (particularly Normandy and Brittany), Friuli, and northern Spain (specifically Asturias). Central Europe also has its own types of cider with Rhineland-Palatinate and Hesse producing a particularly tart version known as Apfelwein. In the U.S., varieties of fermented cider are often called ''hard cider'' to distinguish alcoholic cider from non-alcoholic apple cider or "sweet cider", also made from ...
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Kirikoketa
The kirikoketa ( or ) is a specialized Basque music wooden device akin to the txalaparta and closely related to working activities. It is classified as an idiophone (a percussion instrument). 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. Men used to work for some 8 days in this process and on ...
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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 related to the sound of the instrument. Communication During the last 150 years, txalaparta has been attested as a communication device used for funeral (), celebration () or the making of slaked lime (), or cider (). After the making of cider, the same board that pressed the apples was beaten to summon the neighbours. Then, a celebration was held and txalaparta played cheerfully, while cider was drunk. Evidence gathered in this cider-making context reveals that sound-emitting ox horns were sometimes blown alongside txalaparta. Actually, cider and cider houses are the only traditional context for the txalaparta we have got to know first-hand. The same background applies to a related Basque percussion instrument, the kirikoketa, a recreation o ...
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