EncyclopediaKirikoketa

The kirikoketa, like the txalaparta, is a struck idiophone.

Description of the instrument

As in the txalaparta, a plank is placed without supports but isolated from the ground with some soft material placed under the plank at both ends. The most common thing used to be to place it on the stone wall of the threshing floor. To hit the plank, two maces of the kind used to hit the apple are used, approximately one and a half meters long, and two wooden hammers.

Way of playing

Two players standing, each with a mallet, strike the table vertically. A third hits her with hammers. the three of them they complete a lap or “beat”, creating a cycle or ternary rhythm (ko-ke-ta) with one beat each.

History

Father Donostia (1951) picked up this custom called “Kirikoketa” in Navarra, around the production of cider. He is still remembered by older people in various towns. There was also a litany that was sung while playing (p. 119).

With one syllable per stroke, it went like this:

Alakiketa alakiketa

Alakiketa kiketa kiketa

Sagarra jo dela sagarra jo dela

Sagarra jo dela jo dela jo dela.

Alakiketa alakiketa

Alakiketa kiketa kiketa

The apple has been beaten (pressed),

The apple has been beaten (pressed).

This performance indicates to us that there was a certain message intention, perhaps double: on the one hand, that the work of striking the apple had finished, and on the other, the call to the party.

Current situation

Nowadays, it is used mixed with the txalaparta, and there are more interpreters, who are more constant and more and more skilled, in different parts of Euskal Herria.

SOURCES

Bibliography

BELTRAN ARGIÑENA, Juan Mari. (1996). Soinutresnak euskal herri musikan. Hernani: Orain.

(2009). Txalaparta. (libro+CD+DVD). Donostia-San Sebastián: Editorial Nerea / NO-CD Rekords.

DONOSTIA, Aita. (1924). Toberak. Obras Completas del P. Donostia. (Tomo I, 71-90). Bilbo: La Gran Enciclopedia Vasca.

DONOSTIA, Aita. (1951). Música y Músicos en el País Vasco. Biblioteca Vascongada de los Amigos del País. San Sebastián. Obras Completas del P. Donostia. (Tomo II, 5-112) Bilbo: Ed. La Gran Enciclopedia Vasca.