Bertrand Dubedout

Zazpiak Z

Commissioned by éOle / Ensemble Court-Circuit.

World premiered on November 16th, 2014, at the Auditorium Saint-Pierre des Cuisines in Toulouse (France), by the Ensemble Court-Circuit, dir. Jean Deroyer.

In the Basque language, the phrase ' Zazpiak bat ', literally : ' the seven (zazpiak) ' and ' one (bat) ', expresses the identity of the seven provinces that make up the Basque Country, on both sides of the Pyrenees mountains. The Basque Country is also that of the immemorial musical tradition of ' Txalaparta ', whose rythmic richness has retained, intact, an amazing fascination potential. Since about 40 years, this oral tradition is in a true upsurge process, especially due to the impulse of the famous JosAnton and Jesus Mari Artze brothers duo.

Zazpiak is a a cycle of 7 works based upon rythmic typologies of the Txalaparta, projected in multiples ways from the original work and matrix of the cycle : Zazpiak B, for solo marimba. Substituted to the ' bat ' of the original phrase, the ' Z ' is here the initial letter of the Basque translation for ' Court-Circuit ', name of the ensemble for wich this work has been composed.