In Africa, South and Central America
In Madagascar, Cuba, Brazil and in the "Tierra del Fuego" region in Argentina there is evidence of the art of improvisation.
Henri Basset relates many cases of improvisation by the Berbers "who have always been extremely sensitive to music, or more precisely song. Nowhere is this taste as developed as with the "Chleuhs du Sous".
Many poems have three short parts, which can be improvised by anyone in any circumstance, during dances accompanied by song.
Women are no less expert in this type of exercise, they compose "izians" with as much ingenuity and eloquence as men. Improvisation is today still highly valued by the "Touaregs", a nomad people also of Berber origin living in the Sahara.
In Jean Ithurriagues book (former curator of the Basque Museum in Bayonne, author of "A people who sing: the Basques". 1947, Editions Edimpress, Paris out of print), we learn than amongst Arab improvisers, the name of Kansa remains famous. He improvised a poem in memory of his two dead brothers for twenty years. One morning the chief Omar called for him and asked him to repeat one of his elegies: "I wont repeat it, Ill improvise a new one," he answered. And so it was.
Map of oral improvisation
Africa (North-West)
- Sahara Desert
- Canary Islands
- Azores
- Cape Verde
- Mauritania
South America
- Ecuador
- Peru
- Brazil
- Chile
- Argentina
Central America
- Mexico
- Santo Domingo
- Puerto Rico
- Panama
- Colombia
- Venezuela
What is bertsolaritza? has been carried out with the aim of answering that question and showing people abroad what bertsolaritza is. The film enables people to discover bertsolaritza from its roots and to pay attention to the context, creative process and current situation of the discipline.
Bertsolaritza can designate both the art of improvising verses (bertsogintza) and the social movement created around it (bertsolaritza). The principal goal of this book is to present the necessary means for fully understanding bertsolaritza. A publication of the Etxepare Basque Institute, free to download.
