Alboka

A Basque traditional alboka

The alboka is a double hornpipe or clarinet native to the Basque Country.

Although the alboka is a woodwind instrument, its name is derived from the Arabic "al-bûq" (البوق) (literally "the trumpet" or "the horn"). Though long identified with the Basque people, according to some scholars the instrument was originally native to Asia and may have been brought into Iberia by the Arab conquest. It was evidently already established in Spain by the time of the 13th-century "Poema de Alexandre," in which it is mentioned by name, and there are apparent representations of the instrument in surviving medieval sculptural church decorations.

A modern alboka made by Osses.

Among recent players of the instrument are Ibon Koteron and Alan Griffin, an Irish-born member of a Basque ensemble named after the instrument.

See also

• Basque music
• Ibon Koteron
• Albogue

Bibliography

• Barrenchea, José Mariano y Riezu, P. Jorge de, "Alboka. Entorno folklórico" Archivo Padre Donostia. Lecaroz (Navarra), 1976.

Discography

• Alboka (musical group) Lorius
• Bidaia Oihan
• Kepa Junkera & Ibon Koteron Leonen Orroak

External links

• Alboka's Day 2007 Alan Griffin plays a new alboka in D
• Alboka (Ibon Koteron) (English, French, and Spanish versions)
• Alboka (musicologie.org) (in French)
• Anotaciones historicas sobre el albogue (Juan Bautista Varela de Vega) (in Spanish)
• La alboka y otros albogues (Luis A. Payno) (in Spanish)
• La alboka y los albokaris (Manu Gojenola Onaindia) (in Spanish)
• Bidaia (website of musical group)