Award-winning Basque Film "Nomadak TX" Screening In Seomra Spraoi

dublin | arts and media | event notice Sunday May 15, 2011 03:14 by Dublin Basque - Dublin Irish Basque Solidarity Committee basquedublin at gmail dot com

Basque musical journey to some of the nomadic peoples around the world

The film follows two players of the txalaparta, a traditional Basque percussion instrument, as they travel from their country to India, Mongolia, the Sahara and the Artic Circle, linking up with nomadic people and playing music with them. The txalaparta (pronounced tcha-la-parta) is constructed of four thick planks of wood, resting loosely on a trestle, played usually by a pair of players with two wooden strikers each.

Another chance to see award-winning Basque film Nomadak Tx -- screening by Irish Basque Solidarity Committee

7.30pm Thursday 26th May

SEOMRA SPRAOI, BELVEDERE COURT, D9
(between Mountjoy Square, Gardiner St and Dorsett St.)

At various locations around the world, the Basques in the film construct txalapartas of wood, stone and ice in turn and play them all. The film is artfully and beautifully shot, whether the subject is the nomad people, their animals, or the landscape. The rhythms of the txalapartarak merge at various points with the instruments and the singing of the nomads, combining at the end into a blend of all, in which the distinct sounds of each can nevertheless be detected.

The oldest surviving language of Europe, Euskara (Basque), is heard alongside other languages such as those of the Sami and Mongolians. The film is subtitled in a choice of four languages and English will be used for this screening.

Neither the exact antiquity of the instrument nor the procedures associated with the txalaparta in ancient times are known, but most accounts say that the boards were originally used to press the apples to make cider. There are also accounts that they were buried before the end of the year and then dug up again at some point during the following year (suggesting sacredness). Its use now, apart from being a musical performance instrument, is to announce the pressing of the juice from the apple harvest to make sidra (cider).

There are now many txalapartarak in the Basque Country but in the1960s their numbers had fallen to four. The revival of Txalaparta-playing has gone hand-in-hand with the spread of Basque language schools, the huge revival of bertxos performances and of mass struggles by the Basque people. The alboka, made from two cow-horns with a mouthpiece, reed and finger-holes, is another apparently unique Basque instrument that is making a comeback.

There will be an opportunity after the screening to ask questions or to discuss issues around Basque culture and history or around the current political situation in their country.