Basque music
| Music of Basque regions | |
|---|---|
| General topics | |
| Regional music | |
Basque music refers to the music made in the Basque Country, reflecting traits related to that 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.
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 instruments and tunes.
Folk instruments widespread in Europe ceased to be used in some places at some point of history and only remained in specific areas, where they took hold and adopted features and a character associated with the region, e.g. the three-hole pipe or tabor pipe in widespread use in Europe ultimately resulted in two specific instruments in the Basque Country: the txistu and the xirula. Accordingly, different instruments may have evolved out of one, such as Navarrese dulzaina and Souletin txanbela, with slight differences between them.
Most instruments adopted in rural and folk circles do not go back more than six centuries, with some having been introduced as late as the 19th century, such as the trikiti, or the txistu, shaped in its present-day form during that period, despite the fact that it resulted from a long evolution. Most Basque instruments originated outside the Basque Country and became popular in the territory at some stage, but the txalaparta is not one of them.
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