Txalaparta
Encyclopedia
The txalaparta is a specialized Basque music
device of wood
or stone
, similar to Romania
n toacă. In Basque, zalaparta (with [s]) means "racket", while in the nearby areas of Navarre "txalaparta" has been attested as meaning the trot of the horse, a sense closely related to the sound of the instrument.
During the last 150 years, txalaparta has been attested as a communication
device used for funeral
(hileta), celebration (jai) or the making of slaked lime
(kare), or cider
(sagardo). 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 horn
s 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
, since it is directly associated to the pounding resulting from grinding down the apples. Another instance of the same instrument class and geographical area should be noted here, the toberak.
Some claim that txalaparta has been used this way for millennia
, but notwithstanding different assumptions its origins remain shrouded in mystery. It is worth mentioning that the very similar Romanian toacă or Greek semantron
is used as a call for prayer, so less epical interpretations link txalaparta with a common Christian
practice before the schism between the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church
. Bells
were not used in Christian churches before the 10th century.
The txalaparta's musical use evolved out of its original use. Traditional txalaparta was almost extinct in the 1950s with a handful of couples of peasants maintaining the tradition. It was then revived by folklorists, such as Jesus and Jose Antonio Artze from the group Ez dok amairu. Innovators started to labour and assemble the boards to achieve some melody. Other materials started to be pressed into service.
The txalaparta today is a music
al instrument used in Basque music
. It is classified as an idiophone
(a percussion instrument
). In its traditional construction (known as the txalaparta zaharra), the txalaparta is made of a pair of long wooden boards held up horizontally on two ends and then beat vertically with special thick drum stick
s, makilak maˈkiʎak, held upright in the hands. On the two ends, between the long board and the supports, corn
husks are placed for vibration
.
However, as the txalaparta evolved, that kind of equipment has been phased out and only showcased in special festivals (such as
the Txalaparta Festival held in the town of Hernani
in May) featuring the former and rural outfit of the txalaparta. Actually, nowadays the most usual equipment for the txalaparta consists of two trestles with foam attached to the tops usually wrapped up in various fabrics. As for the boards, they have become increasingly shorter in order to fit the musical needs and convenience of the performers, exactly like the sticks, following that the former 2 odd metre planks stemming from the old cider press may rarely go beyond 1.50 metres, while the 50 cm sticks or more so the light, easily handled 37.5 cm sticks have become a standard, as opposed to the old-time long and heavy strikers.
The boards, which may number no less than three in modern txalaparta, are laid on the trestles hip high, while formerly the boards were arranged at slightly above knee high. The material of the boards has often shifted from locally available timber (chestnut, alder, cherry, etc.) to more beautifully sounding wood from other geographical reaches (Caribbean, West Africa...) such as iroko, sapele
, elondo etc. Furthermore, stone (the group Gerla Beti called this variant harriparta) and metal tubes have been added, so widening the range of sounds and contrasts available. In some instances, they have even substituted the customary wooden boards. Big cardboard tubes can be beaten vertically on the floor. It is worth highlighting the manufacture by the group Oreka TX of a txalaparta based on ice blocks on their Scandinavian tour, a making recorded in their 2006 documentary film Nömadak Tx.
been arranged to play notes and even melody along the lines of the score, which may on the one hand further widen for the txalapartaris the possibilities to sophisticate the music. On the other hand, some txalaparta players rule out this novelty as alien to the instrument, essentially rhythmical.
Both players perform consecutively by striking with the sticks on the boards. The performance is played by ear, except for the
main lines of the playing, say rhythmic pattern (binary, ternary), main beat pattern (fours...) etc., which both txalapartaris may
agree on in advance of the performance. In addition, they may use ready-made passages embedded in a specific part of the playing,
notably at the beginning and the ending. It is worth mentioning in this category the Sagardo Deia, meaning the Cider Call, a
popular set beginning for a traditional txalaparta performance that may differ slightly from some txalapartaris to others.
A pre-established whole composition may be arranged as well, while that kind of playings are rare to be seen.
Much of the success of the performance relies on the collusion between both players, so the more they are acquainted with each other's ways, tricks and likings (the flaws too!) the smoother the performance will go and the easier will be for the txalapartaris to show their aptitudes and excel in their playing.
There are two distinctive types of beat
s used on the traditional txalaparta: the ttakuna
and the herrena
. The former represents the balance (two beats of one of the players), while the latter names the person who tries other combinations that break it or twist it ("herrena" means lame). However, the person playing the regularity can nowadays become a balance-breaker, so triggering an argument between both sides of the performance that struggle to restore the balance.
The basics of txalaparta is quite simple as regards the rhythm. Within a binary scheme the player's choice was originally to play
two beats each with a different stick, a single beat or none. When no beat is played on the boards, it is called "hutsunea" (rest), or it can be played once, and if the performer opts to strike all two possible beats, then it is "ttakuna", named after the two onomatopoeic sounds emitted. These choices apply currently to both players.
Yet the binary pattern belongs to the traditional txalaparta (despite qualified remarks that point to a wider rhythmical range, see below), so when the instrument was carried from the couple of farmhouses it was confined to over to wider Basque cultural circles, the txalaparta evolved into more sophisticated rhythms and combinations, such as the ternary pattern. In that pattern, each player may use their own time lapse to play three even strikes on the boards ("ttukuttuna"), or any other combination available, eg strike - rest - strike, strike - rest- rest, etc. (a sort of 6/8 time). As for the order of the hands, the first and the third beat may usually be struck with the same stick, so creating a pendulum like, come-and-go motion with the arms.
Starting out from those two schemes, all other modalities developed, eg fours (four possible even beats
per each player, which may be described as four semiquavers in 2/4 time) or the so-called Papua pattern, among others,
where while sticking to a ternary pattern the players add a fourth strike onto the lapse of time belonging to their mate by
overlapping their first strike, resulting in a stressed beat repeated every turn of a player that conjures up
a tribal like movement.
), Asentsio and Ramon Goikoetxea (Astigarraga
), Jose and Jose Mari Zabalegi (Martutene), who every so often performed traditional txalaparta. In the 60s, in step with the Basque cultural and musical revival movement, Josean and Juan Mari Beltran, a founder of the School of Hernani
himself, took up txalaparta and encouraged its expansion. Another pair of brothers teaming up to play txalaparta were Jexux and Jose Anton Artze, who should be considered within the wider framework of the Ez dok amairu cultural movement, made up notably of musicians, poets and theoreticians of the Basque culture (Jorge Oteiza
...).
After establishing the School of Hernani, a steady expansion of txalaparta ensued in the 80s among younger generations and out to other regions of the Basque Country
. The Txalaparta Festival was established in 1987, adding to the interest for the instrument and acting as a showcase for fresh trends. Josu Goiri should be cited here, from Arrigorriaga
, who adopted a pretty mystical approach on the instrument and has released several books on the topic. Another significant couple that got together in the 80s is Gerla Beti, standing for Perdi and Ruben, from Araia
. They started to try new materials with the txalaparta.
In the 90s and later, new couples have come out from the txalaparta school network linked to the Txalaparta School of Hernani in the area of Donostia, besides establishing new schools and workshops all over the Basque Country
. A few txalaparta projects of this period worth highlighting:
a pundit on the issue that did major field work and has afterwards elaborated on the topic, he holds that ttukuttunas
(three-strike sets), even fours, were occasionally played by the last old txalaparta performers. Notwithstanding this
comment, it may be contended that they were not ternary or four-strike patterns, but isolated ready-made beat sets inserted
in an otherwise simple binary pattern.
As regards melody in txalaparta, the issue turns out contentious to some degree, due to the rhythmic nature of the instrument. During the last years, txalaparta has broken new ground by playing along other instruments, interacting with them, following
that the txalaparta has sometimes been tuned for melody to fit in the ensemble. On the one hand, not only accompanies it
other instruments by contributing to the bassline, but it also provides melody arranged in advance, which entails establishing
the playing beforehand. Therefore some argue that doing so it is taking on a xylophone
like role devoid of its own primary
musical features at the expense of adopting a subsidiary and decorating function, eg txalaparta in Kepa Junkera
's band.
On the other hand, txalaparta has kept a higher profile in other musician groupings that have clustered around the instrument,
where it has blended in with other percussion instruments alien to the country (djembe
, triangle
..., eg the group Ttakunpa), or rubbing shoulders side by side with autochthonous and foreign melodic instruments, like trikitixa
, alboka
, accordion
or keyboards
, while clinging to its rhythmic nature. To summarize, the rhythm
/melody
issue remains tricky.
Thanks to groups that have sprung up all over the Basque Country
, txalaparta has spread out of its original haven in the School of Hernani
into all directions, even outside the Basque Country. Besides extending geographically, txalaparta and its performers have soaked up the cultural trends of modern society and mixed with other music coming from different parts of the world, resulting in cultural melange. Additionally, new technologies allow for experimentation and complementarity that formerly was simply unfeasible. Multimedia performances with txalaparta that mix images and sound are not unheard of, as well as DJs playing with txalapartaris, featured for one in the Txalaparta Festival of Hernani.
) by Juan Mari Beltran, aimed at providing a suitable txalaparta background for visits (as of March 2008) based on sounds created by playing with elements from the very grotto.
Beyond the boundaries of music art, the sculptor native from Usurbil
(Gipuzkoa) Jose Luis Elexpe «Pelex» has turned txalaparta into the object of his work. Himself a pupil of the famous txalaparta player Jexux Artze, in the exhibition put on in Usurbil as of 09/05/2008 «Pelex» attempts to cross over the immovability of his discipline. Besides wood, metal is used to fashion figures representing txalapartaris, as well as playing with black&white, on the one hand, and colours, on the other, to stress different approaches.
Basque music
The strict classification of Basque music remains a controversial issue, complicated in part by the growing diversification of such music, but by and large it is made in the Basque Country, it reflects traits related to that society/tradition and it is devised by people from the Basque...
device of wood
Wood
Wood is a hard, fibrous tissue found in many trees. It has been used for hundreds of thousands of years for both fuel and as a construction material. It is an organic material, a natural composite of cellulose fibers embedded in a matrix of lignin which resists compression...
or stone
Rock (geology)
In geology, rock or stone is a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals and/or mineraloids.The Earth's outer solid layer, the lithosphere, is made of rock. In general rocks are of three types, namely, igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic...
, similar to Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
n toacă. In Basque, zalaparta (with [s]) means "racket", while in the nearby areas of Navarre "txalaparta" has been attested as meaning the trot of the horse, a sense closely related to the sound of the instrument.
Communication
Communication
Communication is the activity of conveying meaningful information. Communication requires a sender, a message, and an intended recipient, although the receiver need not be present or aware of the sender's intent to communicate at the time of communication; thus communication can occur across vast...
device used for funeral
Funeral
A funeral is a ceremony for celebrating, sanctifying, or remembering the life of a person who has died. Funerary customs comprise the complex of beliefs and practices used by a culture to remember the dead, from interment itself, to various monuments, prayers, and rituals undertaken in their honor...
(hileta), celebration (jai) or the making of slaked lime
Calcium hydroxide
Calcium hydroxide, traditionally called slaked lime, is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula Ca2. It is a colourless crystal or white powder and is obtained when calcium oxide is mixed, or "slaked" with water. It has many names including hydrated lime, builders lime, slack lime, cal, or...
(kare), or cider
Cider
Cider or cyder is a fermented alcoholic beverage made from apple juice. Cider varies in alcohol content from 2% abv to 8.5% abv or more in traditional English ciders. In some regions, such as Germany and America, cider may be termed "apple wine"...
(sagardo). 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 horn
Blowing horn
The blowing horn or winding horn is a sound device by and large shaped like a horn or actually a cattle or other animal horn arranged to blow from a hole in the pointed end of it...
s were sometimes blown alongside txalaparta. Actually, cider and cider houses
Sagardotegi
A sagardotegi is a type of cider house found in the Basque Country. Modern sagardotegis can broadly be described as a cross between a steakhouse and a cider house....
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
Kirikoketa
The kirikoketa is a specialized Basque music wooden device akin to the txalaparta and closely related to working activities. It is classified as an idiophone...
, since it is directly associated to the pounding resulting from grinding down the apples. Another instance of the same instrument class and geographical area should be noted here, the toberak.
Some claim that txalaparta has been used this way for millennia
Millennium
A millennium is a period of time equal to one thousand years —from the Latin phrase , thousand, and , year—often but not necessarily related numerically to a particular dating system....
, but notwithstanding different assumptions its origins remain shrouded in mystery. It is worth mentioning that the very similar Romanian toacă or Greek semantron
Semantron
The semantron or semanterion , also called a xylon is a percussion instrument used in monasteries to summon monks to prayer or at the start of a procession.-Origins and use:...
is used as a call for prayer, so less epical interpretations link txalaparta with a common Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
practice before the schism between the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church
Eastern Orthodox Church
The Orthodox Church, officially called the Orthodox Catholic Church and commonly referred to as the Eastern Orthodox Church, is the second largest Christian denomination in the world, with an estimated 300 million adherents mainly in the countries of Belarus, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece,...
. Bells
Bell (instrument)
A bell is a simple sound-making device. The bell is a percussion instrument and an idiophone. Its form is usually a hollow, cup-shaped object, which resonates upon being struck...
were not used in Christian churches before the 10th century.
Instrument and music
The txalaparta today is a music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
al instrument used in Basque music
Basque music
The strict classification of Basque music remains a controversial issue, complicated in part by the growing diversification of such music, but by and large it is made in the Basque Country, it reflects traits related to that society/tradition and it is devised by people from the Basque...
. It is classified as an idiophone
Idiophone
An idiophone is any musical instrument which creates sound primarily by way of the instrument's vibrating, without the use of strings or membranes. It is the first of the four main divisions in the original Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification...
(a percussion instrument
Percussion instrument
A percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...
). In its traditional construction (known as the txalaparta zaharra), the txalaparta is made of a pair of long wooden boards held up horizontally on two ends and then beat vertically with special thick drum stick
Drum stick
A percussion mallet is an object used to beat drums and other percussion instruments. Some specialized mallets are called beaters, drumsticks.Note: See Rute .-Drum sticks:...
s, makilak maˈkiʎak, held upright in the hands. On the two ends, between the long board and the supports, corn
Maize
Maize known in many English-speaking countries as corn or mielie/mealie, is a grain domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times. The leafy stalk produces ears which contain seeds called kernels. Though technically a grain, maize kernels are used in cooking as a vegetable...
husks are placed for vibration
Oscillation
Oscillation is the repetitive variation, typically in time, of some measure about a central value or between two or more different states. Familiar examples include a swinging pendulum and AC power. The term vibration is sometimes used more narrowly to mean a mechanical oscillation but sometimes...
.
the Txalaparta Festival held in the town of Hernani
Hernani
Hernani may refer to:*Hernani José da Rosa, a Brazilian football defender*Hernani , a Romantic drama by Victor Hugo*Ernani, a Romantic opera based on Hugo's play*Hernani, Eastern Samar, a municipality in Eastern Samar, Philippines...
in May) featuring the former and rural outfit of the txalaparta. Actually, nowadays the most usual equipment for the txalaparta consists of two trestles with foam attached to the tops usually wrapped up in various fabrics. As for the boards, they have become increasingly shorter in order to fit the musical needs and convenience of the performers, exactly like the sticks, following that the former 2 odd metre planks stemming from the old cider press may rarely go beyond 1.50 metres, while the 50 cm sticks or more so the light, easily handled 37.5 cm sticks have become a standard, as opposed to the old-time long and heavy strikers.
The boards, which may number no less than three in modern txalaparta, are laid on the trestles hip high, while formerly the boards were arranged at slightly above knee high. The material of the boards has often shifted from locally available timber (chestnut, alder, cherry, etc.) to more beautifully sounding wood from other geographical reaches (Caribbean, West Africa...) such as iroko, sapele
Sapele
Sapele , also known as Sapelli or Aboudikro, is a large tree, Entandrophragma cylindricum, up to 45 m high and native to tropical Africa. The leaves are deciduous in the dry season, alternately arranged, pinnate, with 5-9 pairs of leaflets, each leaflet about 10 cm long...
, elondo etc. Furthermore, stone (the group Gerla Beti called this variant harriparta) and metal tubes have been added, so widening the range of sounds and contrasts available. In some instances, they have even substituted the customary wooden boards. Big cardboard tubes can be beaten vertically on the floor. It is worth highlighting the manufacture by the group Oreka TX of a txalaparta based on ice blocks on their Scandinavian tour, a making recorded in their 2006 documentary film Nömadak Tx.
Operation
Music is made using the txalaparta by having one or more performers, known as txalapartariak, txalapartaris or jotzaileak produce differing rhythms, playing with wood knots and spots of the boards for different tones. Nowadays the boards have oftenbeen arranged to play notes and even melody along the lines of the score, which may on the one hand further widen for the txalapartaris the possibilities to sophisticate the music. On the other hand, some txalaparta players rule out this novelty as alien to the instrument, essentially rhythmical.
Both players perform consecutively by striking with the sticks on the boards. The performance is played by ear, except for the
main lines of the playing, say rhythmic pattern (binary, ternary), main beat pattern (fours...) etc., which both txalapartaris may
agree on in advance of the performance. In addition, they may use ready-made passages embedded in a specific part of the playing,
notably at the beginning and the ending. It is worth mentioning in this category the Sagardo Deia, meaning the Cider Call, a
popular set beginning for a traditional txalaparta performance that may differ slightly from some txalapartaris to others.
A pre-established whole composition may be arranged as well, while that kind of playings are rare to be seen.
Much of the success of the performance relies on the collusion between both players, so the more they are acquainted with each other's ways, tricks and likings (the flaws too!) the smoother the performance will go and the easier will be for the txalapartaris to show their aptitudes and excel in their playing.
Beats
Beat (music)
The beat is the basic unit of time in music, the pulse of the mensural level . In popular use, the beat can refer to a variety of related concepts including: tempo, meter, rhythm and groove...
s used on the traditional txalaparta: the ttakuna
Ttakuna
Pronounced as well as txakuna . The ttakuna is a basic two beat pounding played by each player of the txalaparta with the sticks. It provides the grounds for the traditional txalaparta alongside the herrena within a binary pattern. In that instrument, played by two performers, each one takes on a...
and the herrena
Herrena
Herrena is one of the parts performed by the traditional txalaparta players, the other one being the ttakuna; another lesser known traditional term for herrena is urguna. The herrena is opposed to the ttakuna in that it breaks the balance the latter intends to maintain...
. The former represents the balance (two beats of one of the players), while the latter names the person who tries other combinations that break it or twist it ("herrena" means lame). However, the person playing the regularity can nowadays become a balance-breaker, so triggering an argument between both sides of the performance that struggle to restore the balance.
The basics of txalaparta is quite simple as regards the rhythm. Within a binary scheme the player's choice was originally to play
two beats each with a different stick, a single beat or none. When no beat is played on the boards, it is called "hutsunea" (rest), or it can be played once, and if the performer opts to strike all two possible beats, then it is "ttakuna", named after the two onomatopoeic sounds emitted. These choices apply currently to both players.
Starting out from those two schemes, all other modalities developed, eg fours (four possible even beats
per each player, which may be described as four semiquavers in 2/4 time) or the so-called Papua pattern, among others,
where while sticking to a ternary pattern the players add a fourth strike onto the lapse of time belonging to their mate by
overlapping their first strike, resulting in a stressed beat repeated every turn of a player that conjures up
a tribal like movement.
Players
Txalaparta was about to die out when it was called back from the cold limbo by activists concerned with the Basque culture. By then, only a few players remained, namely, Miguel and Pello Zuaznabar (LasarteLasarte-Oria
Lasarte-Oria is a town located in the province of Gipuzkoa, in the Autonomous Community of Basque Country, northern Spain.-External links:* Information available in Spanish and Basque.* Information available in Spanish...
), Asentsio and Ramon Goikoetxea (Astigarraga
Astigarraga
Astigarraga is a town located in the province of Gipuzkoa, in the Autonomous Community of Basque Country, in northern Spain. It's famous for its hard cider and the cider houses-External links:* Information available in Spanish and Basque....
), Jose and Jose Mari Zabalegi (Martutene), who every so often performed traditional txalaparta. In the 60s, in step with the Basque cultural and musical revival movement, Josean and Juan Mari Beltran, a founder of the School of Hernani
Hernani
Hernani may refer to:*Hernani José da Rosa, a Brazilian football defender*Hernani , a Romantic drama by Victor Hugo*Ernani, a Romantic opera based on Hugo's play*Hernani, Eastern Samar, a municipality in Eastern Samar, Philippines...
himself, took up txalaparta and encouraged its expansion. Another pair of brothers teaming up to play txalaparta were Jexux and Jose Anton Artze, who should be considered within the wider framework of the Ez dok amairu cultural movement, made up notably of musicians, poets and theoreticians of the Basque culture (Jorge Oteiza
Jorge Oteiza
Jorge Oteiza Enbil , was a Basque Spanish sculptor, painter, designer and writer, renowned for being one of the main theorists on Spanish modern art....
...).
After establishing the School of Hernani, a steady expansion of txalaparta ensued in the 80s among younger generations and out to other regions of the Basque Country
Basque Country (historical territory)
The Basque Country is the name given to the home of the Basque people in the western Pyrenees that spans the border between France and Spain on the Atlantic coast....
. The Txalaparta Festival was established in 1987, adding to the interest for the instrument and acting as a showcase for fresh trends. Josu Goiri should be cited here, from Arrigorriaga
Arrigorriaga
Arrigorriaga is a town and municipality located in the province of Biscay, in the autonomous community of Basque Country, northern Spain. Arrigorriaga is located 7 km south of Bilbao and is part of Bilbao's metropolitan area...
, who adopted a pretty mystical approach on the instrument and has released several books on the topic. Another significant couple that got together in the 80s is Gerla Beti, standing for Perdi and Ruben, from Araia
Aspárrena
Asparrena is a municipality located in the province of Álava, in the Basque Country, northern Spain. The municipality comprises various population nuclei, the main one being the town of Araia.-External links:*...
. They started to try new materials with the txalaparta.
In the 90s and later, new couples have come out from the txalaparta school network linked to the Txalaparta School of Hernani in the area of Donostia, besides establishing new schools and workshops all over the Basque Country
Basque Country (historical territory)
The Basque Country is the name given to the home of the Basque people in the western Pyrenees that spans the border between France and Spain on the Atlantic coast....
. A few txalaparta projects of this period worth highlighting:
- Tomas San Miguel (Gerla Beti): The piano and accordion player teams up with Gerla Beti and they perform together since 1984. In 1994, the album Lezao is released featuring txalaparta to critical acclaim. Two further txalaparta related albums have been released since, Ten (1996) and Dan-Txa (2005), so wrapping up the trilogy. In this latest album, the swinging duo Ttukunak, ie young twin sisters Maika and Sara Gomez, has taken over the sticks from Gerla Beti.
- Ttakunpa: In 2003, the 8-people group releases an album under the same name. They feature a txalaparta made of wood and marble blended with various African (Mali, Senegal...) percussion instruments, songs and influences, such as djembeDjembeA djembe also known as jembe, jenbe, djbobimbe, jymbe, yembe, or jimbay, or sanbanyi in Susu; is a skin-covered drum meant played with bare hands....
s, kenkenis, sanbaghs.
- Felipe and Imanol Ugarte: After taking up txalaparta at the beginning of the 90s, Felipe trains brother Imanol and in no time they start playing in the streets and festivals. They are renowned for their performances at the Donostia Boulevard in summer, they have toured several times all over the world and have edited a couple of albums under their own label.
- Oreka TX ("Balance Tx(alaparta)"): Igor Otxoa and Harkaitz Martinez de San Vicente team up late in the 90s out of other couples and join the Kepa JunkeraKepa JunkeraKepa Junkera is a Basque musician and composer. A master of the trikitixa, the diatonic accordion, he has recorded more than 10 albums...
band in his concerts and album releases, mostly playing along with trikitixaTrikitixaThe trikiti , trikitixa or eskusoinu txiki is a two-row Basque diatonic button accordion with right-hand rows keyed a fifth apart and twelve unisonoric bass buttons...
accordions and other folk instruments of the ensemble. They feature a txalaparta tuned along the notes of a score (melodyMelodyA melody , also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones which is perceived as a single entity...
) and made of exotic wood. After a period of rest, under the patronage of Kepa Junkera they draw up the album Quercus Endorphina (2000) with the contribution of many celebrated folk musicians, eg Phil CunninghamPhil Cunningham (folk musician)Phil Cunningham, MBE, born 1960 in Edinburgh, Scotland is a Scottish folk musician and composer.-Biography:Phil played accordion and violin from a very young age. He attended school in Portobello, and was raised Mormon, attending church regularly and playing organ...
. Then, they engage in a more independent project, taking to travel to various countries (India, Finland...) trying to blend txalaparta with other instruments and cultures, with a view to highlighting diversity and mutual comprehension among the peoples of the world. The result of the experience, the documentary Nomadak TX (2006), proved an outright success, earning them numerous awards in Film Festivals around the world.
Discussion and prospects
It has been a general assumption that txalaparta evolved out of a simple binary pattern. Yet in an interview to Juan Mari Beltran,a pundit on the issue that did major field work and has afterwards elaborated on the topic, he holds that ttukuttunas
(three-strike sets), even fours, were occasionally played by the last old txalaparta performers. Notwithstanding this
comment, it may be contended that they were not ternary or four-strike patterns, but isolated ready-made beat sets inserted
in an otherwise simple binary pattern.
that the txalaparta has sometimes been tuned for melody to fit in the ensemble. On the one hand, not only accompanies it
other instruments by contributing to the bassline, but it also provides melody arranged in advance, which entails establishing
the playing beforehand. Therefore some argue that doing so it is taking on a xylophone
Xylophone
The xylophone is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars struck by mallets...
like role devoid of its own primary
musical features at the expense of adopting a subsidiary and decorating function, eg txalaparta in Kepa Junkera
Kepa Junkera
Kepa Junkera is a Basque musician and composer. A master of the trikitixa, the diatonic accordion, he has recorded more than 10 albums...
's band.
On the other hand, txalaparta has kept a higher profile in other musician groupings that have clustered around the instrument,
where it has blended in with other percussion instruments alien to the country (djembe
Djembe
A djembe also known as jembe, jenbe, djbobimbe, jymbe, yembe, or jimbay, or sanbanyi in Susu; is a skin-covered drum meant played with bare hands....
, triangle
Triangle
A triangle is one of the basic shapes of geometry: a polygon with three corners or vertices and three sides or edges which are line segments. A triangle with vertices A, B, and C is denoted ....
..., eg the group Ttakunpa), or rubbing shoulders side by side with autochthonous and foreign melodic instruments, like trikitixa
Trikitixa
The trikiti , trikitixa or eskusoinu txiki is a two-row Basque diatonic button accordion with right-hand rows keyed a fifth apart and twelve unisonoric bass buttons...
, alboka
Alboka
The alboka is a double hornpipe or clarinet native to the Basque Country.Although the alboka is a woodwind instrument, its name is derived from the Arabic "al-bûq"...
, accordion
Accordion
The accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....
or keyboards
Keyboard instrument
A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
, while clinging to its rhythmic nature. To summarize, the rhythm
Rhythm
Rhythm may be generally defined as a "movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions." This general meaning of regular recurrence or pattern in time may be applied to a wide variety of cyclical natural phenomena having a periodicity or...
/melody
Melody
A melody , also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones which is perceived as a single entity...
issue remains tricky.
Thanks to groups that have sprung up all over the Basque Country
Basque Country (historical territory)
The Basque Country is the name given to the home of the Basque people in the western Pyrenees that spans the border between France and Spain on the Atlantic coast....
, txalaparta has spread out of its original haven in the School of Hernani
Hernani
Hernani may refer to:*Hernani José da Rosa, a Brazilian football defender*Hernani , a Romantic drama by Victor Hugo*Ernani, a Romantic opera based on Hugo's play*Hernani, Eastern Samar, a municipality in Eastern Samar, Philippines...
into all directions, even outside the Basque Country. Besides extending geographically, txalaparta and its performers have soaked up the cultural trends of modern society and mixed with other music coming from different parts of the world, resulting in cultural melange. Additionally, new technologies allow for experimentation and complementarity that formerly was simply unfeasible. Multimedia performances with txalaparta that mix images and sound are not unheard of, as well as DJs playing with txalapartaris, featured for one in the Txalaparta Festival of Hernani.
Miscellaneous
In the pursuit of taking out the most of the materials, a whole range of experimentation is being made steadily, such as the one conducted in the cavern of Mendukilo (NavarreNavarre
Navarre , officially the Chartered Community of Navarre is an autonomous community in northern Spain, bordering the Basque Country, La Rioja, and Aragon in Spain and Aquitaine in France...
) by Juan Mari Beltran, aimed at providing a suitable txalaparta background for visits (as of March 2008) based on sounds created by playing with elements from the very grotto.
Beyond the boundaries of music art, the sculptor native from Usurbil
Usurbil
Usurbil is a town and region located in the province of Gipuzkoa in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country, in the North of Spain.It lies in an area well known for its sagardotegiak and the area adjacent to the river for its eels....
(Gipuzkoa) Jose Luis Elexpe «Pelex» has turned txalaparta into the object of his work. Himself a pupil of the famous txalaparta player Jexux Artze, in the exhibition put on in Usurbil as of 09/05/2008 «Pelex» attempts to cross over the immovability of his discipline. Besides wood, metal is used to fashion figures representing txalapartaris, as well as playing with black&white, on the one hand, and colours, on the other, to stress different approaches.
External links
- Euskal Musika Basque Music NABO's site
- The txalaparta in communication (page from the Wayback Machine)
- The txalaparta @ the Irish World Music Centre
- Txalaparta Site in French, English, Basque and Spanish
- Nömadak Tx film website
- Explanatory clip on the txalaparta's origin Site in French
- The txalaparta group Ttakun
- Tomas San Miguel's website
- Txalaparta Site in Spanish Auñamendi Encyclopedia
- Txalaparta Site in Spanish
- Clip series from txalaparta performances
- A picture of a txalaparta with makilak
- A picture of the txalaparta being played
- A picture of the txalaparta players by Anoop Negi
