Txalaparta - Beats

Beats

There are two distinctive types of beats used on the traditional txalaparta: the ttakuna and the herrena. The former represents the balance (two beats of one of the players), while the latter names the person who tries other combinations that break it or twist it ("herrena" means lame). However, the person playing the regularity can nowadays become a balance-breaker, so triggering an argument between both sides of the performance that struggle to restore the balance.

The basics of txalaparta is quite simple as regards the rhythm. Within a binary scheme the player's choice was originally to play two beats each with a different stick, a single beat or none. When no beat is played on the boards, it is called "hutsunea" (rest), or it can be played once, and if the performer opts to strike all two possible beats, then it is "ttakuna", named after the two onomatopoeic sounds emitted. These choices apply currently to both players.

Yet the binary pattern belongs to the traditional txalaparta (despite qualified remarks that point to a wider rhythmical range, see below), so when the instrument was carried from the couple of farmhouses it was confined to over to wider Basque cultural circles, the txalaparta evolved into more sophisticated rhythms and combinations, such as the ternary pattern. In that pattern, each player may use their own time lapse to play three even strikes on the boards ("ttukuttuna"), or any other combination available, e.g. strike - rest - strike, strike - rest- rest, etc. (a sort of 6/8 time). As for the order of the hands, the first and the third beat may usually be struck with the same stick, so creating a pendulum like, come-and-go motion with the arms.

Starting out from those two schemes, all other modalities developed, e.g. fours (four possible even beats per each player, which may be described as four semiquavers in 2/4 time) or the so-called Papua pattern, among others, where while sticking to a ternary pattern the players add a fourth strike onto the lapse of time belonging to their mate by overlapping their first strike, resulting in a stressed beat repeated every turn of a player that conjures up a tribal like movement.