Elejalde-García M., Macho-Stadler E., Agos-Esparza A.

The Basque txistu is most likely the first musical instrument unique to the Basque Country. It is like a flute, with only four holes, which is held and played in the left hand. The single most important aspect of txistu playing is use of wind, which touches many aspects of music-making, such as intonation, dynamics, articulation and vibrato production. One of the major difficulties in attaining proficiency on the txistu is getting good control over the instrument’s timbre. This is controlled by the wind intensity, the fingers position and the attack of the notes. Due to the characteristics of the txistu, it is difficult to obtain some transitions among notes. The player surpasses these obstacles by means of alternative positions for the same note and/or a different way of attack. The purpose of this study is therefore to analyze the attacks and the influence that they have on the pitch and timbre. We wish to observe the different kind of attacks as well as their utility for the expressiveness of a melody. Students new to the txistu are instructed to articulate different configurations of the vocal tract. In this study we examine the influence of the elected attack technique and their utility for the playing of specific melody demands.