Category Archives: Music

Basque Fact of the Week: Composer Juan Crisóstomo Arriaga

When a budding genius dies young, one wonders “what if” they had lived longer, what could they have accomplished? Juan Crisóstomo Arriaga, though not even reaching his 20th birthday, displayed such musical genius that he was often compared to Mozart. His teachers praised him for his deep understanding of composition and harmony, despite the fact […]

A Bit of Basque Miscellany

Today, I’m sharing a number of interesting items that have been sent to me over the last… well, I don’t dare say, as some of these have been sitting in my inbox for far too long. I hope you enjoy these!

Basque Fact of the Week: The Flute and Drum, the Basque One-Person Band

Song and dance are an integral part of Basque culture. It seems that, whenever you get more than a few Basques together, they spontaneously break out in song and dance. At large dinners, whole rooms can bust out into song. At fiestas, small groups dance in the street. And where there is song and dance, […]

Basque Fact of the Week: Basque Radical Rock

Basque festivals, at least in the United States, are characterized by the sounds of folk music: the accordion, the tambourine, and sometimes the txistu. These are core elements of Basque culture and identity. However, in the Basque Country, there co-exists a very different flavor of music, with electric guitars, throbbing bass, and aggressive lyrics. Born […]

Excellent Resources from the Basque Museum

Did you know that the Basque Museum and Cultural Center had so many online resources? If you are interested in pursuing your genealogy, looking at the history of Basques in Boise and America more broadly, or wanting to learn a bit more about Basque culture, the Basque Museum has you covered. Taken from their most […]

Basque Fact of the Week: Ravel Began, But Never Finished, a Basque-Themed Concerto

Maurice Ravel Deluarte is perhaps one of the best known composers in the world. His most famous work is Boléro, a piece he composed while he was on vacation in Donibane Lohizune/San Juan de Luz/Saint Jean-de-Luz, in Iparralde. Before World War I, Ravel had been working on a piano concerto entitled Zazpiak Bat. “Zazpiak Bat” […]

Basque Fact of the Week: Txalaparta

One of the primary ways in which Basques express their culture is through music, and a revival of folk instruments has been, pardon the pun, instrumental in developing a unique sound. Possibly one of the most unique and thus identifiable instruments is the txalaparta. In its simplest form, the txalaparta is simply a set of […]

Buber’s Basque Mix

One of the most striking things for me when I first visited the Basque Country was the music. In jukeboxes in the bars where we played foosball, there were bands I had never heard. While the rest of the US was enraptured by Nirvana, I was discovering the Basque music scene. Negu Gorriak. Kortatu. Su […]

Basque-ing in play by Begoña Echeverria

In this guest article, Professor Begoña Echeverria, a professor of education at the University of California, Riverside, describes how she uses songs to teach basic concepts of the Basque language to adults, focusing not on grammatical aspects, but rather conversation. Eskerrik asko, Begoña! Basque-ing in play: Using song to teach Basque in the American diaspora Begoña Echeverria […]

A few links to share

Ok, so maybe this isn’t a common problem, but if you are hosting a Basque-themed party, you might be at a loss for finding those party favors and decorations that have that Basque touch to them. BSG Baiona has you covered! They have toothpicks with Basque flags, Basque flag banners, and much more. Some nice […]