Bapatean 2019, available for the fans of bertsolaritza
The pandemic has forced us to do many things on the Internet and so that, it has accelerated the process towards digital. This has happened with Bapatean 2019 collection. The production that we publish annually is available on BDB, the bertsolaritza database. Apart from being convenient healthwise, not having printed it brings environmental and economic advantages for the project as well. Anyway, people who are hooked on paper can download the entire book in PDF format and those interested in having all the audio files can obtain them writing to xenpelar@bertsozale.eus as well.
You will find everything together at this link. You can also find them searching the publication by its title at the digital library of bdb.bertsozale.eus. Previous publications are located there too: all the audios of the bertsos published since 1988 and the PDF files of the books published since 1999. This is thanks to the great effort made by Xenpelar Documentation Centre to adapt continuously to new times.
A sample of the year
Aroa Arrizubieta Barredo, young bertsolari from Gasteiz, has written the introduction for Bapatean 2019 playing, as a bertsolari usually does, with words and rhymes: "Jolasa, arnasa, kalabaza, erraza…zer da bertsoa eta zer da plaza?" (literal traduction: "Game, breath, pumpkin, easy… what is the bertso and what is the square?" – the square of the town has usually been the place where bertsolaris perform; that’s why we called "bertso plaza" the place where bertso performances are held, being squares or not -.
Actually, Bapatean collection aims to give an insight of what bertsolaritza is and how the plaza runs every year: it wants to give a sample of the anual activity regarding the performances of bertsolaritza. Bapatean 2019 collects 92 exercises of bertsos extracted from 55 bertso performances: there are 632 bertsos transcribed in total. The publication also includes information on melodies, topics given in the shows as well as the most important figures of bertsolaritza (performances and bertsolaris, among others) in 2019. In addition to the transcriptions of bertsos, the audio files to listen them are also available.
In addition to being a joy for the bertso fan, the production carried out by Bertsozale Elkartea through Mintzola Ahozko Lantegia is also useful for researchers since it offers possibilities for research.
So, Bapatean 2019 is on the web both to enjoy and to investigate. Enjoy!
