Straddling the border of France and Spain, the Basque region feels almost impenetrable to outsiders because of its unusual language that bears no relation to those spoken throughout Europe. The field recordings that Alan Lomax collected in this region from 1952 to 1953, recently re-issued by Rounder Records on two CDs, show that the music of the Basque people is equally exotic. From frantic, spinning dances, to mothers singing lullabies, to the chant of blind vendors hawking lottery tickets, these recordings offer a glimpse of a culture that thrived in the Pyrenees Mountains for centuries but has fought hard to survive over the last one hundred years.
A jig-like dance played on hand-drums and an alboka, an instrument that sounds like a cross between a fife and a bagpipe, energetically open the first CD, devoted to the music of Biscay and Guipuzcoa. A piercing female voice calls the villagers to dance. Fishermen in the village of Ondarroa improvise verses celebrating the beauty of their town. A singer occasionally interrupts a chorus with a high, squealing vocal style called irrintzi, which provokes laughter in the audience.
The second CD collects songs from Navarre, where the folk melodies are less exotic and songs are sung in Spanish as well as Basque. Young workers sing flirtatious verses while out in the fields shucking corn. A man strums a guitar and instructs us that a good citizen of Navarre will bravely run with the bulls on St. Fermin's day. In a serious drinking song, a thirsty man searches for wine or eue-de-vie to fill his empty wineskin.
These recordings preserve the texture of a culture and are remarkable more as a document of the Basque people than for their individual performances. Certain songs, though, memorably stand apart. In "Hiru Lo-Kanta," or "Three Lullabies," the haunting voice of a mother sings a melody that gently sweeps down at unexpected moments. José María Alzugarai performs a melancholy farewell to his lover entitled "Adios ene maitia," or "Farewell, My Love." Mariano Izeta joyously sings a rapid-fire tune, traditional throughout the Iberian Peninsula, about oxen, rams, and other farm animals.
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