If the term ‘Basque music’ exists today, it is because it enables us to describe various forms of musical performance. The provinces inhabited by the Basque people are divided politically in a stateless nation between north-eastern Spain and southern France. The sections that follow will outline what has been and what still is signified by the term. Basque music emerged in the 19th century at a time when Europe was being formed into large national entities, and the very idea of a Basque or Euskarian society assumed significance. Basque music assumes a position alongside the Basque language and Basque customs which constitute the identity of one of the oldest European communities.
DENIS LABORDE
In northern Basque country, at Izturitz in Laburdi, a 22,000-year-old three-hole flute made from the bone of a bird was discovered; it is regarded as an ancestor of the modern txirula or txistu duct flutes. In the south, at Atxeta near Guernica in Biscay, José Miguel de Barandiaran found a trumpet dating from the Azilian period, suggesting that musical performance goes a long way back in this mountainous area. The studies of Resurreccion Maria de Azkue, Francisco Madina, José Antonio de Donostia and José Antonio Arana Martija attempt to trace Basque music’s line of descent. Latin books of plainchant show that there was undoubtedly ritual performance of ecclesiastical chant in the Middle Ages, and the Linguae vasconum primitiae, published by B. Dechepare in 1545, as well as older songs such as Alostorrea, Urtsoak zazpi leio and Bereterretxen kantoria show that poems intended to be sung existed. However, people at that time did not consider them ‘Basque music’. The outlines of a form of Basque music can be traced during the 19th century. A multiplicity of diffracted practices defined as Basque occurred at the very moment the consolidation of the European states threatened these practices, thus legitimizing preservation campaigns such as the publication in 1826 of Juan Ignacio de Iztueta’s Euscaldun anciña anciñaco. Basque music was paradoxically born as a result of such partimonial efforts.
Iztueta intended his collection as a monument, in that future generations ‘must receive the inheritance of their ancestors intact, and must act to preserve the inviolability of their country’ (preface, p.i). Documenting a repertory fixes it, thus constructing an inheritance. In Iztueta’s collection as in others that were to follow, song texts are given without systematic musical transcription. It was not until 1870, when J.D.J. Sallaberry published his Chants populaires du pays basque, that words, music and harmonization are given.
With developments in printing, an enthusiastic desire to publish seized Basque musicians. José Manterola published his Cancionero vasco, a nine-volume series, beginning in 1877. Between 1883 and 1898 the Lasserre publishing house of Bayonne printed four successive editions of A. Goyeneche’s Eskualdun kantaria. In 1894 Iztueta’s Euscaldun ancina ancinaco was reissued in Bordeaux, and Basque institutions soon followed the lead of collectors.
In 1912, a few years before the Euskaltzaindia (the Academy of the Basque Language) was established in Bilbao in 1918, the four districts of southern Basque country organized a competition with the aim of awarding prizes to collections of traditional Basque songs. Two eminent musicologists took part, Don Resureccion Maria de Azkue and Father Donostia, who published, respectively, a Vox populi containing 1810 vocal and instrumental tunes (edited as Cancionero popular vasco, 1920) and a Gure abendaren ereserkiak (in Obras completas, 1983) containing 523 melodies. These two collections mark the climax of a dynamic effort of writing and publication which allowed Basque music to be recorded and made available to a general public. Basque music came to be defined by four criteria: melodic scale, metre, formal structure and song.
The majority of the documented melodies are tonal, most of them in a major key, less frequently in a minor key. Nearly 25% of them, however, are modal. Although defective modes are seldom used, we can at least conclude that the Basques were familiar with modal scales. Most of the melodies are transcribed in single metres. As result, these transcriptions cannot take account of the constant displacement of agogic accent. However, no metres are mentioned in transcriptions of the wordless songs from the province of Soule. Why not extend that principle to the repertory as a whole? This unresolved methodological difficulty is evidence of the complexity of Basque rhythmical structures, as in the zortziko.
Zortziko refers to the eight steps of the dances to which the zortziko provides an accompaniment. This rhythm is in a double compound metre, the result of combining two single heterogeneous metres: binary (ex.1a) and ternary (ex.1b). The asymmetry of the two basic durations makes this ostinato an irregular bichrome measure, which Constantin Brăiloiu would have classified as an aksak rhythm. The zortziko is regarded as peculiarly Basque. The Basque national anthem, Gernikako arbola (1853), composed by Iparraguirre, is sung to a zortziko.
The third characteristic of Basque music is that the strophic form of the melodies adheres to a tripartite structure, ABA, often transmuted to AABA. On the other hand, although the couplet-refrain form is common in France and Spain, it remains rare in the Basque country. The isomorphic syllabic character of the songs with one note of the melody corresponding to each syllable of the text, makes a great deal of borrowing possible. The same text can be sung to different tunes, and the same melody may be adjusted to fit different texts. Such an adaptation of a new text in rhyming verse to a tune that already exists may even take the form of an improvised poem, the special province of the bertsulari.
The bertsulari may improvise alone or, more often, contests are held in which bertsulari dispute among themselves. The process involves four formal structures, depending on whether the strophes consist of four or five lines (eight half-lines in the zortziko, ten in the hammareko), and on whether the lines consist of 13 or 18 syllables. There is the ttiki (small) form for 13-syllable lines (7/6), and the haundi (large) form for 18-syllable lines (10/8). The bederatzi puntuko for is also common with nine monorhymed and non-isometric lines: (7/6), 12 (7/5), 13 (7/6), 13 (7/6), 6, 6, 6, 6, and 12 (7/5). Subtle mnemonic devices are worked out for improvising on these tunes. The bertsulari value the art of sung improvisation, and they like to improvise on complex existing tunes.
This long-practised improvisatory art became especially popular in 1935 when Manuel de Lekuona published his Aozko literatura, the first work devoted to the art of the bertsulari, and Aitzol organized the first Basque bertsulari championship. The plan was for the competition to be held annually, but Aitzol was shot by Francoist soldiers in 1936 after extracting only a short-lived statute of independence from Spain, still Republican at that time. The Basque language, Euskara, was forbidden, and with it all Basque culture. The performance of Basque music thus became synonymous with resistance. The choral group Eresoinka sang all over the world; at home, the Dindirri dancers defied the cultural ban, and the singer Xabier Lete, among others, challenged censorship. During 24 years of silence, the bertsulari continued improvising in secret in remote villages. It was not until 1960 that a third championship was held. The bertsulari phenomenon thus surfaced again in the context of fervent claims for a Basque identity. Championships were held in 1962, 1965 and 1967. In 1968 the first violent confrontations between the Spanish Civil Guard and ETA (Euskadi ta Askatasuna, the Basque Country and Liberty), led to severe repression, and for another 13 years there was silence from the bertsulari who were unable to organize a national competition. From 1980 onwards, the championship has been held every four years. The final round at Anoeta in Gipuzkoa receives wide media coverage, and gives the audience of 12,000 a symbolic satisfaction to counterbalance the feeling that they are not free.
The txistu is a three-hole flute made of ebony or other wood (and today sometimes of plastic), encircled by rings and with a metal mouthpiece. Usually in F, the txistu is played with the left hand by the txistulari, while the right hand beats a drum hanging from the elbow, using a stick. The txistulari plays dance music solo; txistularis also play in ensembles. In Soule, the txirula (txülüla)–ttun-ttun duo is regarded as a predecessor of the txistu and drum ensemble. The txirula is a small wooden flute in C, with a very shrill tessitura, and the ttun-ttun is a carved wooden box over which are stretched six strings that vibrate when struck with a wooden stick. Today, trikititxa ensembles, consisting of diatonic accordion, Basque drum and singer, are extraordinarily popular throughout the country. Such ensembles are used to accompany dances such as jotas, fandangos and arin arin danced in street parades.
The gaita of Arab origin is still found in Alaba in Navarre, and is played together with a drum. It is in the shawm family, with a double reed and eight holes; the txanbela is an additional variant from Soule. The alboka played in Biscay is an unusual instrument consisting of a double wooden pipe that connects two ends made of horn. One of the horns has two tongues, in the manner of a bagpipe, so that the instrumentalist can play using the continuous breathing technique. The albokari is usually accompanied by a pandero, a Basque drum. Finally, the txalaparta is a percussion instrument consisting of three wooden boards approximately 1·5 metres long. They are arranged horizontally and are struck by two instrumentalists using wooden sticks held vertically.
Like the bertsulari tradition, which has its own training colleges where the best improvisers teach, the playing of traditional instruments is well on the way to becoming a professional occupation. Traditional instruments are taught more and more in conservatories, but their performance is still the province of associations, grouped into federations, which organize annual competitions to choose a champion and promote social mobilization. Youth championships are also a great attraction. A Trikitilari gazteen txapelketa [‘Young trikitilari championship’], for instance, brings young players of the trikititxa together, and hundreds of children hear each other singing on the occasion of the Haur kantu txapelketa [‘Children's song championship’] festival.
Traditional musicians are in great demand to play at carnivals, masquerades, pastorales and village festivals. Joaldunak, symbolic carnival figures of Ituren and Zubieta (in Navarre) that are dressed in sheepskins sewn with bells that ring in time to their steps, now figure in many street parades. Traditional instruments are played at the annual demonstration in support of Basque independence. These instruments are also featured in demonstrations supporting the Basque language and the schools that teach it. The bertsulari regularly pay tribute to Basque political prisoners held in French and Spanish jails. The gaita is played in the Baigorri valley at the funerals of any militant belonging to Iparretarrak (the armed separatist movement operating inside France), and the txalaparta is played at the funerals of ETA militants.
The Basque choral movement is one of the strongest in Europe. It includes a unique oxote ensemble, consisting of eight male voices singing a cappella. In Gipuzkoa in Biscay there are a number of wind bands with a great many instrumentalists. In Soule, a different village every year works on the production of a pastorale, a play in the tradition of medieval mystery plays, rendered in a declamatory style to the accompaniment of singing and dancing; it can be traced back to the 16th century. Nearly 5000 people go to the narrow valleys of Soule in summer to watch these open-air performances, which last for over three hours.
The enormous expansion of the modern distribution network for recordings allows singers such as Peio Serbielle and Benat Achiary, or groups like Oskorri, to draw on the traditional repertory. The same network also distributes the hard rock, trash, funk or ragamuffin music of groups such as Negu Gorriak and Ertzainak, which frequently quote traditional music. For instance, the Bersto hop performed by Negu Gorriak, takes up a bertsu improvised at a championship contest, one which everyone will remember, while some pairs of trikititxa players make use of a synthesizer in their performances. The widespread use of imitative forms continues to nourish Basque music, keeping it in an ongoing state of development. Basque music exists in multiple situations involving moments when, at a given moment and in an emotional context, a musician interprets a musical sequence for an audience who can identify it. Basque music is created in the complicity of this partnership, where shared knowledge fashions a common culture.
FasquelleE
B. Dechepare: Linguae vasconum primitiae (Bilbao, 1545, 2/1980)
J.I. de Iztueta: Guipuzcoaco dantza gogoangarrien condaira edo historia (San Sebastián, 1824, 3/1968 in Basque and Sp.) [texts]; (San Sebastián, 1826, 3/1973) [melodies]
J.I. de Iztueta: Euscaldun anciña anciñaco (San Sebastián, 1826)
J.A. Santesteban: Colección de aires vascongados para canto y piano (San Sebastián, 1862–70)
J.D.J. Sallaberry: Chants populaires du pays basque (Bayonne, 1870/R, 2/1930)
J. Manterola, ed.: Cancionero vasco (San Sebastián, 1877–80)
A. Goyeneche: Eskualdun kantaria (Bayonne, 1883)
C. Bordes: Cent chansons populaires basques (Paris, 1894)
C. Bordes: Douze noëls basques anciens (Paris, 1897)
La tradition au pays-basque (Paris, 1899/R) [pubn of the Société d'ethnographie nationale et d'art populaire]
C. Bordes: Douze chansons amoureuses du pays basque française (Paris, 1910)
F. Gáscue: Origen de la música popular vascongada (Paris, 1913)
F. Gáscue: El aurresku en Guipúzcoa a finales del sigio XVIII según Iztueta (San Sebastian, 1916)
F. Gáscue: Materiales para el estudio del folklore músico vasco (San Sebastián, 1917)
R.M. de Azkue: Musica popular vasca: conferencias (Bilbao, 1919)
R.M. de Azkue, ed.: Cancionero popular vasco (Barcelona, 1920/R)
G. Hérelle: ‘Les charivaris nocturnes dans le pays basque français’, Revista internacional de los estudios vascos, xv (1924), 505
G. de [W. von] Humboldt: ‘Bocetos de un viaje a través del país vasco’, Revista internacional de los estudios vascos, xv (1924), 448
H. Olazarán de Estella: Mutil dantza del Baztán [Dance of the young men of the Baztán valley] (Pamplona, 1925)
M. van Eys: ‘Second voyage au pays basque, 1868’, Revista internacional de los estudios vascos, xviii (1927), 527
R.A. Gallop: Vingt-cinq chansons populaires d’Eskual-herria (Bayonne, 1928)
B. Estornés Lasa: ‘De arte popular’, Revista internacional de los estudios vascos, xxi (1930), 206
W. Giese: ‘Txiribita = violin’, Revista internacional de los estudios vascos, xxiv (1933), 616
W. Giese: ‘Vasc. bilarrausi’, Revista internacional de los estudios vascos, xxiv (1933), 71
M. de Lekuona: Aozko literatura [Oral poetry] (Tolosa, 1935; 1978 in Basque and Sp.)
J.A. de Donostia and F. de Madina: De música vasca (Buenos Aires, 1943)
I. Fagoaga: La musique représentative basque (Bayonne, 1944)
L. de Hoyos Sáinz and N. de Hoyos Sancho: Manual de folklore (Madrid, 1947)
H. Olazarán de Estella: Danzas de Baztán (Viña del Mar, 1957)
J.A. de Donostia: Obras musicales del padre Donostia, ed. J. de Riezu (Navarra, 1960–75)
M. García Matos: disc notes, Antología del folklore musical de España, Hispavox HH 10 107 to 110 (1960)
A. Zavala: Auspoa (Tolosa, 1961–) [Basque folksongs]
G. de Barandiaran: Danzas de Euskalerri, i–iii (San Sebastián, 1963–9)
G. de Barandiaran: ‘Gizon-dantza: liturgia y sentido’ [Men’s dance: ritual and significance], Revue de l’association des danseurs du pays basque (1968), no.11, p.13; no.12, p.3
J.L. de Echevarría: Danzas de Vizcaya (Bilbao, 1969)
J. Orúe Matia, ed.: Cancionero del país vasco (Madrid, 1970, 2/1971)
F. Escudero: ‘El txistu y el silbote’, Estudios de deusto (Bilbao, 1972), no.45, p.37
F. Escudero: ‘Peculiaridades morfológicas de la canción popular y de la música vasca’, Txistulari, lxix (1972), 34
H. Olzarán de Estella: Tratado de txistu y gaita (Pamplona, 1972)
M.A. Sagaseta: ‘Estudio de los bailes de Valcarlos’, Cuadernos de etnologia y etnografia de Navarra, vii/20 (Pamplona, 1975)
J.M. Barrenechea: Alboka: entorno folklórico (Lecároz, 1976)
X. Amuriza: Zu ere bertsulari (Donostia, 1982)
J.A. de Donostia: Obras completas, 1917–56 (Bilbao, 1983)
J.-M. Guilcher: La tradition de danse en Béarn et pays basque français (Paris, 1984)
J. Haritschelhar, ed.: Etre basque (Toulouse, 1984)
J.A. Arana Martija: Musica vasca (Bilbao, 1985)
Euskal herriko folklorea, Ikerfolk ELK 142 to 143 (1987); ELK 200 to 201 (1989) [incl. disc notes]
J. Bagües Erriondo: La musica en la Real Sociedad Bascongada de los Amigos del País (Donostia, 1990)
J. Goyheneche: Les basques et leur histoire: mythes et réalités (Donostia, 1993)
A. Artal, I. Zunzunegi and I. Zorrilla: Bizkaiko dultzaina (Bilbao, 1994)
G. Aulestia: Improvisational Poetry from the Basque Country (Reno, NV, 1995)
J. Garmendia Azzuabarrena: Juan Ignacio Iztueta (Zaldibia, 1995)
J.L. Antsonrema Mizanda: Txistua eta txistulariak (San Sebastián, 1996)
D. Laborde, ed.: Tout un monde de musiques (Paris, 1996)
E. López Aguirre: Del txitu a la telecaster: crónica del rock vasco (Oñati, 1996)
D. Laborde: Musiques à l'école (Paris, 1998)
C. Sánchez Equiza: Del danbolin al silbo: txistu tambozil y danza vasca en la época de la Ilustración (Pamplona, 1999)