zortziko

The tradition & historical record

The zortzico is a dance rhythm that originates in the Basque Country. It is also used as an accompaniment rhythm for vocal melodies, such as "Gernikako arbola", the unofficial anthem of the Basques, composed in 1853 by José María Iparraguirre (Laborde 2001). The zortzico has a distinctive 58 time signature, consisting of three subdivisions of 1, 2, and 2 beats. Some theories hold that it is in 54 time, "like the Rueda except that the 2nd and 4th beats are almost always dotted notes" (Kennedy 2006), or that it actually is a double compound meter combining an irregular binary (516 divided 2 + 3) and an irregular ternary (816 divided 2 + 3 + 3), creating an ostinato pattern of "irregular bichrome" measures, which in Constantin Brăiloiu's terminology is called an aksak rhythm (Laborde 2001). Despite the zortzico's origins and continued popularity in folk music, some composers have also incorporated it into classical music. These composers include Isaac Albéniz, Charles-Valentin Alkan, Aita Donostia, Jesús Guridi, Gabriel Pierné, Joaquín Turina, Maurice Ravel (in his piano trio as well as in his final song cycle, Don Quichotte à Dulcinée), Pablo de Sarasate, Pablo Sorozábal, and José María Usandizaga.) British composer Michael Finnissy used the zortziko rhythm as the basis for his 2009 orchestral piece Zortzico, commissioned by the Basque National Orchestra.

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Zortziko”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence.

zortziko is bertso made up of eight lines and four puntus, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. ¹

The source record links this tradition to 8 external registers, which can be verified through the citation. ¹