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Thexirula (Basque pronunciation:[ʃiˈɾula], spelledchiroula inFrench, also pronouncedtxirula,(t)xülüla inZuberoan Basque;Gascon:flabuta; French:galoubet) is a small three holed woodwind instrument or flute usually made of wood akin to the Basquetxistu orthree-hole pipe, but more high pitched and strident, tuned to D/G and an octave higher than thesilbote.[1] The sound that flows from the flute has often been perceived as a metaphor for the tweet cadences of bird songs.[2] Some scholars point out that flutes found in theCaverns of Isturitz and Oxozelaia going back to a period spanning 35,000 to 10,000 years ago bear witness to the early presence of the instrument's forerunner in the region, while this view has been disputed.[3]
It is an instrument characteristic of the Pyrenees, and it is played on the French side of theBasque Country (the extent of its use has shrunk over the years, having long been supplanted in Labourd and Basse-Navarre by thetxistu),[4] where it provides along with the atabal (atabor-like instrument played with drumsticks) the musical background for various traditional dances. Besides performing the music for dances, in the former viscounty ofSoule (Zuberoa in Basque) it may enliven accompanied on both thettun-ttun and the atabal the traditional carnival-time performances calledmaskaradak as well as thepastorals, age-old region-specific theatre plays popular in the area.[citation needed]
Similar variants have been used to the west and east of the Basque Country up to the 1950s, with some examples occasionally jumping to the spotlight in special events, e.g. the so-called "gigantillos" (dancing characters with magnified masks and costumes) dancing to the tunes of the "chirola" in Burgos (Spain). The "silbu" and "chiflo" fromCantabria andAragón show similar features.[citation needed] The instrument is still used in the vallée d'Ossau in Béarn, and has undergone a revival in parts of Les Landes.[5]
Main xirula activity focuses inSoule, where xirula's musical revival is led byJean-Mixel Bedaxagar (1953) along withMixel Etxekopar (1963).[2]