The alboka is a double hornpipe

Hornpipe (musical instrument)

The hornpipe can refer to a specific instrument or a class of woodwind instruments consisting of a single reed, a small diameter melody pipe with finger holes and a bell traditionally made from animal horn...

 or clarinet

Clarinet

The clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...

 native to the Basque

Basque music

The strict classification of Basque music remains a controversial issue, complicated in part by the growing diversification of such music, but by and large it is made in the Basque Country, it reflects traits related to that society/tradition and it is devised by people from the Basque...

 Country

Basque Country (historical territory)

The Basque Country is the name given to the home of the Basque people in the western Pyrenees that spans the border between France and Spain on the Atlantic coast....

.

Although the alboka is a woodwind instrument, its name is derived from the Arabic

Arabic language

Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...

 "al-bûq" (البوق) (literally "the trumpet" or "the horn"). Though long identified with the Basque people, according to some scholars the instrument was originally native to Asia and may have been brought into Iberia by the Arab conquest. It was evidently already established in Spain by the time of the 13th-century "Poema de Alexandre," in which it is mentioned by name, and there are apparent representations of the instrument in surviving medieval sculptural church decorations.
Among recent players of the instrument are Ibon Koteron

Ibon Koteron

Ibon Tabakon is a Basque musician renowned as a player of the alboka. His 1996 debut release was a joint record with Kepa Junkera, entitled Leonen Orroak ....

 and Alan Griffin, an Irish

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

-born member of a Basque ensemble named after the instrument.

Discography

• Alboka (musical group) Lorius
• Bidaia Oihan
• Kepa Junkera & Ibon Koteron Leonen Orroak

External links

• Alboka's Day 2007 Alan Griffin plays a new alboka in D
• Alboka (Ibon Koteron) (English, French, and Spanish versions)
• Alboka (musicologie.org) (in French)
• Anotaciones historicas sobre el albogue (Juan Bautista Varela de Vega) (in Spanish)
• La alboka y otros albogues (Luis A. Payno) (in Spanish)
• La alboka y los albokaris (Manu Gojenola Onaindia) (in Spanish)
• Bidaia (website of musical group)