[The end is in sight: 7 blog posts to go before I call it a day and say a final farewell to Bilbao…..]
Regular followers of the blog may remember that shortly after we arrived in Bilbao, I wrote an excited post about the phenomenon of the Bertsolariak – a very ancient Basque folk tradition of competitive improvised verse chanting originally done by shepherds, and now appropriated by students, literary types and others as part of the post-Franco Basque cultural revival.
This remains perhaps the most fascinating thing we’ve discovered here. Since the whole thing takes place in Euskara, our appreciation of it has obviously been somewhat limited, but we’ve learnt enough about it, and seen enough of it, to get a pretty good idea of what it involves and how extraordinary it is – helped by a great documentary about it (with English subtitles): ‘Bertsolari’ (www.bertsolarifilm.com). It has been fascinating to see a place where a creative verse tradition has real value amongst young people. Although it is quite, quite different from rap, it is nevertheless similar in the way in which it offers young people a participatory way into word-crafting, and thus it has been of particular interest to me as an English teacher, especially since the teaching of poetry is one of my main research interests. (I have recently had a chapter published entitled ‘Exploring Resistance to Poetry in Advanced English Studies’ (Making Poetry Matter, Bloomsbury 2013, www.bloomsbury.com/uk/making-poetry-matter-9781441101471) – and the phenomenon of Bertsolarism resonates clearly with some of the issues I raise there.)
Anyway, that post was meant to be the first of a series of three on Basque folk culture – verse, music and dance. I have been putting off writing the other two because there’s so much to say about them and I wanted to learn more about them, but now I have come to the last weeks of this blog and I can put it off no longer. So here goes. Folk music....
Regular followers of the blog may remember that shortly after we arrived in Bilbao, I wrote an excited post about the phenomenon of the Bertsolariak – a very ancient Basque folk tradition of competitive improvised verse chanting originally done by shepherds, and now appropriated by students, literary types and others as part of the post-Franco Basque cultural revival.
This remains perhaps the most fascinating thing we’ve discovered here. Since the whole thing takes place in Euskara, our appreciation of it has obviously been somewhat limited, but we’ve learnt enough about it, and seen enough of it, to get a pretty good idea of what it involves and how extraordinary it is – helped by a great documentary about it (with English subtitles): ‘Bertsolari’ (www.bertsolarifilm.com). It has been fascinating to see a place where a creative verse tradition has real value amongst young people. Although it is quite, quite different from rap, it is nevertheless similar in the way in which it offers young people a participatory way into word-crafting, and thus it has been of particular interest to me as an English teacher, especially since the teaching of poetry is one of my main research interests. (I have recently had a chapter published entitled ‘Exploring Resistance to Poetry in Advanced English Studies’ (Making Poetry Matter, Bloomsbury 2013, www.bloomsbury.com/uk/making-poetry-matter-9781441101471) – and the phenomenon of Bertsolarism resonates clearly with some of the issues I raise there.)
Anyway, that post was meant to be the first of a series of three on Basque folk culture – verse, music and dance. I have been putting off writing the other two because there’s so much to say about them and I wanted to learn more about them, but now I have come to the last weeks of this blog and I can put it off no longer. So here goes. Folk music....
Basque folk music has been our constant companion throughout the year in Bilbao. Barely a day has gone past without some great folk music happening on the street outside our flat. In this respect, we’re lucky to have lived on two of the most ‘happening’ streets in Bilbao, but anywhere in the old town one is likely to hear live folk music regularly – and wherever you go in the Basque country, folk music is an integral part of community life, with a particular role in the fiestas, parades and dances that feature so strongly in cultural life here. And it’s not just an activity for older people: it’s thriving amongst the young, too, both in its traditional forms and in the way it has inflected various forms of contemporary popular music.
Difficult to sum up what Basque folk music is like. It has, of course, many of the generic elements of European folk music – and certainly some of it contains things that are similar to the Celtic tradition (although the Basques are not at all Celtic). But it also has elements that are very distinctive. Like most folk music cultures it is very heterogeneous, too, with very different types of music and different instrumental combinations for different cultural contexts, and with different strands of development. Some styles, for instance, sound a little more ‘Celtic mainstream’ whilst others sound more exotically Basque. And then there are the differences between marching music, dance music, song and so on.
Any account of Basque folk music should probably start with the ‘txistu’, the Basque pipe played by a ‘txistulari’ – a piper. The txistu is heard in a variety of contexts, but perhaps the most common is in marching bands with drums. The txistu is played with just one hand, whilst the other hand is used for drumming.
Difficult to sum up what Basque folk music is like. It has, of course, many of the generic elements of European folk music – and certainly some of it contains things that are similar to the Celtic tradition (although the Basques are not at all Celtic). But it also has elements that are very distinctive. Like most folk music cultures it is very heterogeneous, too, with very different types of music and different instrumental combinations for different cultural contexts, and with different strands of development. Some styles, for instance, sound a little more ‘Celtic mainstream’ whilst others sound more exotically Basque. And then there are the differences between marching music, dance music, song and so on.
Any account of Basque folk music should probably start with the ‘txistu’, the Basque pipe played by a ‘txistulari’ – a piper. The txistu is heard in a variety of contexts, but perhaps the most common is in marching bands with drums. The txistu is played with just one hand, whilst the other hand is used for drumming.
Rather like Celtic pipe and drum bands, a lot of Basque txistu music nevertheless sometimes has quite a distinctive feel with some strange melodic and harmonic twists. Txistu bands can be seen wandering the streets of the old town most weekends and sometimes during the week too. Here’s a video of a typical band playing while wandering the streets: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOn8bnDDWCU. And here are a couple of the many txistu bands we saw around town:
The txistu has a special place in Basque music as it is mostly played in the context of ceremonial events and formal folk dance. In the realm of more informal folk music, for dancing or listening, the most popular Basque folk instrument is the ‘trikitixa’ – the Basque accordion, which became popular only in the 19th century but is now a central part of Basque musical culture. Highly virtuosic accordionists are accorded the kind of celebrity status that is perhaps more often accorded to fiddle players in the Celtic tradition. Here’s a video of the trikitixa being played solo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLhsBsbyT94
We’ve also often seen the trikitixa being played with two more ancient Basque instruments – the tambourine and the ‘alboka’ – in a more medieval-sounding style of folk music. The ‘alboka’ is an animal horn equipped with a reed (a hornpipe, in fact), and with a wooden handle inserted into the middle of the horn.
Here’s a great video of the alboka being played: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJt9MHt0TJo. And here's an alboka player we saw in the Casco Viejo one day:
Two ancient rural styles which one is less likely to come across in town are the ‘txalaparta’ and the ‘irrintzi’. The ‘txalaparta’ is a percussion instrument – a sort of cross between wood blocks and a xylophone, played by dropping wooden sticks onto wooden planks.
We’ve seen this played in the streets and at festivals a few times. A good video is here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=505x6YgAgyc. And here are some players who appeared outside our flat one day:
The ‘irrintzi’ is the Basque yodel. We’ve often had cause to make the comparison between the Basque Country and Switzerland – similarly densely wooded, mountainous terrain (although the Basque Country doesn’t have anything as high as the Alps) with similar chalet-style mountain houses built for a similar climate, etc. And it turns out that one of the similarities is the existence of a mountain yodelling tradition. There’s an amazing performance in this documentary clip here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcSaW6JUnUc. And here’s one at an irrintzi competition: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_BTzGHu-QY
And then there’s singing. There is a plentiful supply of Basque folk songs and ballads (some ancient, some modern) and Basques love singing, often bursting into song in the streets outside the bars. There’s a very strong choral tradition. Very similar to the Welsh tradition, it tends now to be the preserve of older people, and one has the feeling it may be dying out in a way that the instrumental music isn’t. But there’s still plenty of it to be heard, and every couple of weeks we’ll be roused by the sound of a choir singing folk ballads in the street below, often extremely well. Or sometimes it might be a group of Basque folk who are simply drinking together and decide to sing a song or two. Here’s a typical group of men singing in the street: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szbE19vUbEo.
And here's a choir we caught singing a concert of folk song in the portico of the cathedral one evening:
Whether it’s a choir, a txistu band, a trikitixa band, a brass band or a traditional folk band, these groups often wander the streets of the old town playing or singing, stopping at the occasional bar and entertaining the punters on the street before having a quick drink and moving on.
There are of course a number of celebrated Basque folk singers and players who have helped to promote folk music – and very importantly the Basque language – and keep it alive and thriving in the post-Franco years, and who have also taken it in new directions. Top of the list are Mikel Laboa, Benito Lertxundi, Joseba Tapia and Kepa Junkera.
Mikel Laboa (1924-2008) is seen as the father of the Basque folk revival – very much the Ewan McColl/Bob Dylan/Joan Baez of the Basque Country. Famous particularly for his song ‘Txoria txori’ (‘A bird is a bird’, covered at one point by Joan Baez), he sang with Bob Dylan at a concert for peace in San Sebastian shortly before he died. He performed classic folks songs, and his own folk compositions, as well as settings of poetry, and some more experimental music. He has a rather thin reedy voice, but some of his performances are extraordinary. Here’s a video of his most famous song ‘Txoria txori’, a song about freedom which almost has the status of a Basque anthem: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NW7CZxOxhI. And here’s the Guardian’s obituary of Mike Laboa: http://www.theguardian.com/music/2008/dec/09/mikel-laboa-obituary
There are of course a number of celebrated Basque folk singers and players who have helped to promote folk music – and very importantly the Basque language – and keep it alive and thriving in the post-Franco years, and who have also taken it in new directions. Top of the list are Mikel Laboa, Benito Lertxundi, Joseba Tapia and Kepa Junkera.
Mikel Laboa (1924-2008) is seen as the father of the Basque folk revival – very much the Ewan McColl/Bob Dylan/Joan Baez of the Basque Country. Famous particularly for his song ‘Txoria txori’ (‘A bird is a bird’, covered at one point by Joan Baez), he sang with Bob Dylan at a concert for peace in San Sebastian shortly before he died. He performed classic folks songs, and his own folk compositions, as well as settings of poetry, and some more experimental music. He has a rather thin reedy voice, but some of his performances are extraordinary. Here’s a video of his most famous song ‘Txoria txori’, a song about freedom which almost has the status of a Basque anthem: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NW7CZxOxhI. And here’s the Guardian’s obituary of Mike Laboa: http://www.theguardian.com/music/2008/dec/09/mikel-laboa-obituary
The most famous name of the next generation is Benito Lertxundi (born 1942) who we went to see giving a concert at the big concert hall, the Euskalduna Palace. Again, he sings both traditional songs and his own, and has played a particularly important role in promoting the Basque language and its old ballads. The concert was a strange experience, since all the songs were in Euskara and we couldn’t understand any of it. But it was clear that some of them were heart-warming reflections on the beauty of the Basque country, and/or contained nationalist Basque sentiment - and the audience (a packed hall) sang along to the most popular songs. Here is an atmospheric video of him with nice shots of the Basque Country: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4MPVgOljoo
And then there is the younger generation, many of whom have taken the music in interesting directions – sometimes quite political, sometimes combining Basque sounds with sounds of other cultures and traditions. The lead names here are Joseba Tapia and Kepa Junkera, both of whom perform in a variety of traditional and more contemporary styles. Both play the trikitixa: Joseba Tapia also sings. I particularly like Joseba Tapia; although we can understand almost nothing of the lyrics (and translations aren’t available), we can make out just enough to know that some of the songs are quite sharp, humorous and political. Unfortunately, we didn´t get a chance to see these two in concert, despite looking out for them. Here’s a good example of a Tapia song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHiDBu1KFGw.
And here’s a recording of Kepa Junkera playing on BBC Scotland: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMuzJyIwbUk
Other forms of folk and street music are popular too. At various times, we’ve heard South American and African music on the streets, and there are several superb street jazz bands, brass bands and drumming bands that have been regular visitors here. The fantastic Bandarra Street Orkestra have played in our street a couple of times. Here’s a video of them at a German street music festival: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfTUChJMT3E#at=68. And some pictures of them playing outside our flat:
Rock and pop music are, of course, also thriving in the Basque Country and there are many Basque bands of all kinds. The Basque Country, with its industrial hinterlands and tradition of left-wing protest, has a reputation as being the most progressive region of Spain in terms of contemporary pop music. If you want the latest in rap, reggae, grunge, etc. (rather than the blander Mediterranean pop which is popular throughout Spain and Italy), the Basque Country will have it. In the 80s, the Basque Country was the leader of Spanish punk with what is now known as ‘Basque Radical Rock.’
Finally, here’s a video of three very Basque young men playing in a very typical band with txistu, trikitixa and tambourine: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWYFunYol24
Finally, here’s a video of three very Basque young men playing in a very typical band with txistu, trikitixa and tambourine: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWYFunYol24
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