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The txalaparta ( or ) is a specialized Basque music device of wood or stone. In some regions of the Basque Country, zalaparta (with ) means "racket", while in others (in Navarre) txalaparta has been attested as meaning the trot of the horse, a sense closely related to the sound of the instrument.
Some claim that txalaparta has been used this way for millennium, but notwithstanding different assumptions its origins remain shrouded in mystery. It is worth mentioning that the very similar Romanian toacă or Greek are used as a call for prayer, so less epic interpretations link txalaparta with a common Christianity 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 today is a 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 beaten vertically with special, thick sticks based on the press handle, the makilak , held upright in the hands. On the two ends, between the long board and the supports, maize husks are placed for oscillation. 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 txalaparta set. 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 the boards used to be arranged 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.
Both players perform consecutively by striking with the sticks on the boards. The performance is played intuitively except for the main lines of the performance, i.e. a rhythmic pattern (binary, ternary), main beat pattern (fours...) etc., which both txalapartaris may agree on in advance of the performance. In addition, ready-made passages may be used embedded in a specific part of the playing, notably at the beginning and the ending. For example, the traditional opening phrase Sagardo Deia, meaning "the Cider Call", is frequently used and easily identifiable with only slight differences from some txalapartaris to others. A pre-established whole composition may be arranged as well, while that kind of playings are rare on bare performances with no accompanying instruments.
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.
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, e.g. strike - rest - strike, strike - rest- rest, etc. (a sort of 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, e.g. fours (four possible even beats per each player, which may be described as four semiquavers in 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.
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 fairly 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 Asparrena. 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:
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, e.g. 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..., e.g. 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 used to be 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.
Beyond the boundaries of music, the sculptor native from Usurbil (Gipuzkoa) Jose Luis Elexpe «Pelex» has turned txalaparta into the subject of his work. Himself a pupil of the renowned txalaparta player Jexux Artze, the exhibition opened at Usurbil in May 2008 attempts to cross over the immovability of Elexpe's 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. Article in Basque
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