Alejandro Aldekoa: Master of Pipe and Tabor Dance Music in the Basque Country (Paperback)

by Sabin Bikandi. (No. 18 Occasional Papers Series) Includes DVD of music and dance performances “Aldekoa’s biography is not a unique, isolated, or extreme case. Instead, it reflects the ups and downs in the life of most Basques who experienced the Second Republic, the Spanish Civil War, and Franco’s dictatorship. In that sense, his testimony reflects a part of the history of a country through a highly personal, but culturally and socially embedded point of view—that of a local pipe and tabor player.” —Sabin Bikandi, Alejandro Aldekoa This book explores the pipe and tabor dance music of Berriz (a small town in the Basque Country), as revealed through the life and work of Alejandro Aldekoa (1920–96), dance master and txistularia (“pipe and tabor player”). His life spanned the difficult period of the Spanish Civil War, the Franco regime, and the present uncertain political situation. His art both responded to and shaped the times he lived through, becoming part of the process for express