Lehen Euskal Herria
General note
This score library is the result of a partnership between the Basque Cultural Institute (BCI) and the Federation of Choirs of the Northern Basque Country (Iparraldeko Abesbatzen Elkartea). Musicians authorized by the Federation freely distribute their scores there in order to contribute to the practice of Basque choral singing. This collection includes both original versions (compositions and arrangements), often from manuscripts, and transcriptions (adaptation from an original, for a specific vocal formation).
Warning: Both in the original versions and in the transcriptions, for the comfort of listening to the sound files, nuances, tempi, and durations have sometimes been chosen based on the best interpretations. These liberties were dictated by the comfort of listening to the sound files and by the best sound rendering. For example, when no tempo appears in the original, we had to choose one, including for slowdowns. Listening to the sound files is indeed the first objective and advantage of this collection. It is up to the internet user, after listening to and choosing a version among others, to obtain the original score (often a manuscript) from the musical library eresbil.eus. To learn more, consult the important details in the summary of the score library.
About the writing work
The term "transcription" can have a range of meanings: adaptation for choir of an instrumental polyphony; adaptation of a song for mixed choir originally written for equal voices, and vice versa; adaptation of a song for fewer voices than the original score (this is a "reduction"). In all cases, it is a matter of adapting a score for a specific formation according to its particularities. On some scores, the term "transcription" is sometimes wrongly used to designate a work of copying or editing. The indexing has corrected this defect. A "reduction" allows a choir to approach a score that, if not reduced, would be inaccessible due to the number or nature of the voices initially provided. For example, a song for 4 mixed voices is reduced to 3 equal voices, or a song intended for more voices is reduced to 4 mixed voices.
About the spelling of Basque
Most of the time, the spelling of the title and lyrics as well as the syntax used in the scores are those used in the original works. They may not be in line with the rules of unified Basque as defined by the Basque language academy Euskaltzaindia.
Intellectual Property
This work of selection, adaptation, and online posting of scores is carried out by people authorized by the Federation of Choirs of the Northern Basque Country. Copyright holders of a song who do not wish a concerned score to be distributed are invited to contact us. The choice of scores is made in such a way that, normally, this case remains an exception. To contact the people contributing to the editing and online posting of the presented scores, please write to partitions@eke.eus.
