Trikitixa

The trikiti (

standard Basque Standard Basque () is a standardised version of the Basque language, developed by the Basque Language Academy in the late 1960s, which nowadays is the most widely and commonly spoken Basque-language version throughout the Basque Country. Heavil ...

, pronounced ) trikitixa ( dialectal Basque, pronounced ), or eskusoinu txiki ("little hand-sound", pronounced )) is a two-row

Basque Basque may refer to: * Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France * Basque language, their language Places * Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France * Basque Country (autonomous co ...

diatonic button accordion A melodeon or diatonic button accordion is a member of the free-reed aerophone family of musical instruments. It is a type of button accordion on which the melody-side keyboard contains one or more rows of buttons, with each row producing the ...

with right-hand rows keyed a fifth apart and twelve unisonoric bass buttons. The

onomatopoeia Onomatopoeia (or rarely echoism) is a type of word, or the process of creating a word, that phonetics, phonetically imitates, resembles, or suggests the sound that it describes. Common onomatopoeias in English include animal noises such as Oin ...

''trikitixa'', apparently stemming from the sound emitted by the

tambourine The tambourine is a musical instrument in the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zills". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, thoug ...

, originally referred to a traditional Basque ensemble, made up of the instrument which now bears the name as well as

alboka The Basque () is a single-reed woodwind instrument consisting of a single reed, two small diameter melody pipes with finger holes and a bell traditionally made from animal horn. Additionally, a reed cap of animal horn is placed around the reed ...

txistu The txistu () is a kind of fipple flute that became a symbol for the Basque folk revival. The name may stem from the general Basque word ''ziztu'' "to whistle" with palatalisation of the ''z'' (cf ''zalaparta'' > ''txalaparta''). This three-hol ...

and other instruments. Probably introduced by Italian immigrants coming from the

Alps The Alps () are some of the highest and most extensive mountain ranges in Europe, stretching approximately across eight Alpine countries (from west to east): Monaco, France, Switzerland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Germany, Austria and Slovenia. ...

, the trikitixa's first written evidence is attested late in the 19th century, exactly in 1889, when diatonic accordion was used for music in a popular pilgrimage festivity of

Urkiola Urkiola is a mountain range of the Basque mountains in Biscay near Durango, in the western Basque Country, Spain. The highest mountain in the range is Anboto (1331 m). The range runs from west to east and forms the water divide between the At ...

(

Biscay Biscay ( ; ; ), is a province of the Basque Country (autonomous community), Basque Autonomous Community, heir of the ancient Lordship of Biscay, lying on the south shore of the Bay of Biscay, eponymous bay. The capital and largest city is Bilb ...

). In 1890, a trikiti appears in a picture taken in Altsasu (Navarre), a railway junction. Therefore, some point to the instrument's import to the Basque Country from

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

through the port of

Bilbao Bilbao is a city in northern Spain, the largest city in the Provinces of Spain, province of Biscay and in the Basque Country (greater region), Basque Country as a whole. It is also the largest city proper in northern Spain. Bilbao is the List o ...

, while other sources suggest that this kind of diatonic accordion was brought in by Italian railway workers from the Alps. The

itself was devised in Vienna in 1829, Site in Basque expanding thereafter all over Europe. The pair of

along with

gradually grew in popularity and was adopted to perform in local and popular festivities, where the young danced to its tunes (''fandangos, arin-arin'' etc.), despite the Catholic Church's resistance, who dubbed it "hell's

bellows A bellows or pair of bellows is a device constructed to furnish a strong blast of air. The simplest type consists of a flexible bag comprising a pair of rigid boards with handles joined by flexible leather sides enclosing an approximately airtig ...

" on the grounds that its dance-inciting and lively music would lead Basque youths into temptation. That playing pattern remained unchanged up to the 1980s, when

Kepa Junkera Kepa Junkera Urraza (born 1965 in Bilbao, Basque Country (autonomous community), Euskadi, Spain) is a Basque people, Basque musician and composer. A master of the trikitixa, the diatonic accordion, he has recorded more than 10 albums. Allmusic ...

and Joseba Tapia started to develop unprecedented ways of playing trikiti. While both authors came in for much criticism for their novelties and experimenting, they caught on and both styles, traditional and modern trikiti, have found their way and consolidated their separate paths. Both performers remain nowadays key figures of trikiti accordion. There have been influences of Tejano music">Tejano Tejanos ( , ) are descendants of Texas Creoles and Mestizos who settled in Texas before its admission as an American state. The term is also sometimes applied to Texans of Mexican descent. Etymology The word ''Tejano'', with a ''J'' instead ...

See also

References