Kirikoketa

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The kirikoketa (IPA: [ki'ɾikoketa] or [kiɾiko'keta]) is a specialized Basque music device of wood akin to txalaparta closely related to working activity^[1], and it is classified as an idiophone (a percussion instrument). It has lately caught on with cultural circles from the Basque Country at a local level.

Kirikoketa performance in the street

1 Instrument
2 Origin and development
3 Operation
4 Festivals and social events
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Instrument

The kirikoketa, named after the sounds emitted, is made up of a single 1.50 odd metre board and two or three person-high strikers, one per person, with a cone shaped wide base. But for a small elevation, the board stands almost at the ground level sustained on two low and soft piles at both ends.

[edit] Origin and development

Like many other Basque sound instruments and sport activities, the kirikoketa stemms from and/or is linked to working activities. This specific instrument comes out directly from the apple pressing, by which the fruits were ground down for cider. Men used to toil for 8 odd days to that end; when the last day came they gathered together at the village market place and celebrated with the tools employed on their work, playing the kirikoketa while they sang the following tune along: "Kirikoketa, kirikoketa, kirikoketa, koketa, koketa, sagarra jo dela, sagarra jo dela, sagarra jo dela, jo dela, jo dela” (accompanying each syllable on a pounding).^[2]

The inhabitants from the region of the river Bidasoa and Baztan (north of Navarre) hung on to the custom for centuries until it almost died out in the 1920s. Yet thanks to the Basque culture revival and field research carried out by Basque scholars and culture activists, especially since the 1960s, it has enhanced its public profile out of the limbo during the last years much in step with txalaparta's ongoing heyday, while to a far lesser degree than txalaparta.

[edit] Operation

The cider-makers originally beat the strikers alternately on a cider press in order to crush apples, taking on a playful and rhythmic slant as a way to enliven the long toiling hours^[3]. The pattern remains similar: currently two or three people standing up in front of the board beat it each with a striker, they may move along the board in search of different sounds and try faster/slower and harder/softer strikes on it. When the playing comprises three people, the rhythmic pattern is a ternary one (3/8 time or simple triple). Optionally, a player may choose not to strike on the board in their turn (rest). Alongside the beating performance, the players may engage themselves in singing.

[edit] Festivals and social events

Nowadays the festival Kirikoketa Besta is held in Arizkun (Baztan, Navarre) since approx. 2001 organized by the Society Jo Ala Jo Elkartea aimed both at showcasing old cider practices by staging a re-enactment of the cider making process and encouraging the use of kirikoketa as a sound instrument.