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[arty]

Could someone explain what Trikitixa is? I believe it is music from northern Spain and I see that Castagnari make a box especially for it but how does it differ from the sort of boxes most of us on here play? Is it dance music?

I found this duo playing this music on You Tube and it certainly seems lively and very appealing.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5h6KaP8p3Q

[Stiamh]

The Basque country extends into France. Maider is a native Basque speaker and a fantastic musician.

Trikitixa is the type of box she plays. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trikiti

[Matthew B]

Trikitixa is the music and the box it is payed on.  It's from the Basque country, and it is one of many brilliant and unique cultural attributes of the region.  The box layout is here: http://forum.melodeon.net/index.php/page,keyboard_2_row.html.  The highest profile trikitixa player is Kepa Junkera, who is a something of an ambassador for all things Basque.  Basques are very . . . . Basque: https://beautiful-basque-country.tumblr.com/post/156759772752/an-anthem-bok-espok-by-basque-trikitilari-kepa

[arty]

Stiamh, Matthew B - Thank you both 

[Chris Ryall]

Voltaire is described the Basques as “a people who dance at the foot of the Pyrenees”. I made an expedition/ pilgrimage there in 08 and … they have some of the most vibrant tunes, and athletic dances I’ve ever seen

Very much a living tradition, though like Breton, much of it is in the villages. This video a fine example musically. The associated fandango would be … exhausting 

Basques see their region as neither French nor Spanish. As far as am aware all their music is dance associated (?)

[baz parkes]

The highest profile trikitixa player is Kepa Junkera, who is a something of an ambassador for all things Basque.  Basques are very . . . . Basque: https://beautiful-basque-country.tumblr.com/post/156759772752/an-anthem-bok-espok-by-basque-trikitilari-kepa

They certainly are...
More years ago than I care to remember we danced in the Basque country as guests of one of their dance teams. Very generous people, very proud of their heritage and identity, and players of some incredible music. Some of their dances bear a marked similarity to Cotswold morris.
Though we did see the inside of an awful lot of pelota halls....

[rees]

Why are there two doors in every pelota hall?
So you don't put all your Basques in one exit.

[Roger Howard]

Groan!

[melodeon]

ARF !!

I spent part of my youth in Winnemucca, Nevada. Principally populated by Basques. Wonderful people, great music.

And don't forget the combination of the Trikitixa and the Txalaparta.

[Alan Pittwood]

And don't forget the combination of the Trikitixa and the Txalaparta.

The Txalaparta [pronounced: chalapárta] consisted of two planks of wood supported on wooden baskets. The two players, known as txalapartaris, each held a thick stick in both hands and beat vertically against the plank, dividing the rhythms between them.

Heading for extinction by the 1950s, Txalaparta was rediscovered in the mid 1960s and today consists of three planks of wood each about 1.5 metres long supported on trestles, tuned to give separate notes and played with shorter sticks.  The ability to play 'notes' has allowed the Txalaparta to be used with the accordion, Trikitixa.

[Winston Smith]

Now that is interesting!

[Alan Pittwood]

The usual form for Trikitixa played for dancing is an accordion with a tambourine [the tambourine, pandero, is held vertically in the left hand at a right angle to the body, and the skin is played with the thumb and fingers of the right hand].  In performance, men and women play both instruments.  The performers are usually identified by their family names, with the accordion player named first, as, for example, Tapia eta Leturia.  Often the tambourine player will add voice to the arrangement, singing for part of the dance.

There are performances by the accordion without the tambourine but with other instruments, for example, Kepa Junkera.
And performances in which the player uses the accordion to accompany songs, for example, Joseba Tapia.

Basques are very . . . . Basque

And highly competitive, there are annual competitions for the trikitixa/pandero pairing.


Highly recommended:

Euskal herriko trikitixa txapelketa nagusia a set of 13 CDs of performances recorded at the big competitions between 1979 and 1991.
Each pair plays a trikitixa, porrusalda, fandangoa and an arin arin.

Joseba Tapia Agur Intxorta Maite an album of anti-fascist songs from 1936-1937, sung in Euskara [the language of Basque] with his own trikitixa accompaniment

Xamar (2012, 3rd edn) Orhipean The country of Basque Iruñea: Pamiela   The English translation is by Margaret L Bullen, and this book covers all aspects of life in Euskal Herria.

[Alan Pittwood]

Some of their dances bear a marked similarity to Cotswold morris.

Members of the hierarchy of the English Folk Dance and Song Society spent time in the 1930s considering the similarities between the Morris and the dances and music in Euskal Herria.  They were also much taken with the Călușari a ritual acrobatic dance found in Romania: and similar dances in the Carpathians and Transylvania.  There have been claims that the Morris could be a common European folk dance.


The uncharitable have suggested that their time might have been rather better spent recording step dancing, clog dancing and hammer dulcimers.  Manifestly neglected.

[Matthew B]

Someone's signature says something about feeding the fire, not worshipping the ashes . . . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goXkBWHhiH8

[Chris Ryall]

Someone's signature says something about feeding the fire, not worshipping the ashes . . . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goXkBWHhiH8

Tex Mex?

[Alan Pittwood]

Someone's signature says something about feeding the fire, not worshipping the ashes . . . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goXkBWHhiH8

The link leads to ispasatastra's uploading of Mila galdera by Alaitz eta Maider which is a track from their first album Alaitz eta Maider.

Between 1989, when, as 14-year-olds, they began competing at championship level, and 2004, when they gave their last performance together in Oiartzun,
Alaitz Telletxea [trikitixa/accordion] and Maider Zabalegi [panderoa/tambourine] produced three albums:  Alaitz eta Maider (1997) Inshala (1999) and Auskalo (2002)

They released their first album when Basque triki-popa bands were appearing.  There are two tracks [4 and 9] by Alaitz eta Maider on the twelve-track Elkarlanean label CD
Rockin trikitixa: the new Basque melodeon aces  released on September 9 1998
and other bands on that CD, for example, Gozategi, Iker Goenaga and the Tapia Eta Leturia Band show the direction of triki-popa.

Two of their tracks were rapidly very popular:

Txanpon baten truke In exchange for a coin https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ju44uWJs-z4
Amets Bat A dream https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_vRRecQJ98

Since the duo split in 2004, though still collaborating on songs in 2006 and 2008, and Alaitz was in the band for Maider's first solo album in 2017:

Alaitz Telletxea joined several groups, such as Lantz; and has been president of Trikitixa Elkarteko Trikitixa Association.

Maider Zabalegi has released two solo popa albums: Zuei (2017, Elkar) and Bidean (2019, Baga Biga)
See, this video of Zirrara a single taken from the album Bidean:

http://nontzeberri.eus/maider-zabalegik-pop-rock-doinuak-bildu-ditu-bakarkako-bigarren-lanean


Brief discography triki-popa
   
Basque music, the sampler! a selection of contemporary basque folk music  [Euskal Herriko musika konpilazioa] Elkarlanean, 1998

Voices of Euskadi a selection of basque voices & songwriters  [Euskal Herriko ahotsak] Elkarlanean, 1998.

Triki 1. Diatonic Dynamite