The xirula (, spelled ''chiroula'' in French, also pronounced ''txirula'', ''(t)xülüla'' in Zuberoan Basque; Gascon: ''flabuta''; French: ''galoubet'') is a small three holed woodwind instrument or flute usually made of wood akin to the Basque txistu or

three-hole pipe The three-hole pipe, also commonly known as tabor pipe or galoubet, is a wind instrument designed to be played by one hand, leaving the other hand free to play a tabor drum, bell, psalterium or ''tambourin à cordes'', bones, triangle or other ...

, but more high pitched and strident, tuned to D/G and an octave higher than the ''silbote''. The sound that flows from the flute has often been perceived as a metaphor for the tweet cadences of bird songs. Site in Basque Some scholars point out that flutes found in the Caverns of Isturitz and Oxozelaia going back to a period spanning 35,000 to 10,000 years ago bear witness to the early presence of the instrument's forerunner in the region, while this view has been disputed.

Extent

It is an instrument characteristic of the Pyrenees, and it is played on the French side of the Basque Country (the extent of its use has shrunk over the years, having long been supplanted in Labourd and Basse-Navarre by the txistu), where it provides along with the atabal (a tabor-like instrument played with drumsticks) the musical background for various traditional dances. Besides performing the music for dances, in the former viscounty of

Soule Soule (; Basque language, Basque: Zuberoa; Zuberoan/ Soule Basque: Xiberoa or Xiberua; ) is a former viscounty and France, French Provinces of France, province and part of the present-day Pyrénées-Atlantiques ''département in France, départ ...

(Zuberoa in Basque) it may enliven accompanied on both the ttun-ttun and the atabal the traditional carnival-time performances called '' maskaradak'' as well as the ''

pastoral The pastoral genre of literature, art, or music depicts an idealised form of the shepherd's lifestyle – herding livestock around open areas of land according to the seasons and the changing availability of water and pasture. The target au ...

s'', age-old region-specific theatre plays popular in the area. Similar variants have been used to the west and east of the Basque Country up to the 1950s, with some examples occasionally jumping to the spotlight in special events, e.g. the so-called "gigantillos" (dancing characters with magnified masks and costumes) dancing to the tunes of the "chirola" in Burgos (Spain). The "silbu" and "chiflo" from

Cantabria Cantabria (, ; ) is an autonomous community and Provinces of Spain, province in northern Spain with Santander, Cantabria, Santander as its capital city. It is called a , a Nationalities and regions of Spain, historic community, in its current ...

and Aragón show similar features. The instrument is still used in the vallée d'Ossau in Béarn, and has undergone a revival in parts of Les Landes.

Players

Main xirula activity focuses in

, where xirula's musical revival is led by Jean-Mixel Bedaxagar (1953) along with Mixel Etxekopar (1963).

References

{{Flutes Basque musical instruments Internal fipple flutes