Altzibar bridge burruna

burruna

burruna: Basque name for the bullroarer, imitative of its roar.

In the 1930s and 40s the children of Oiartzun often met in the little meadow beside the Altzibar bridge, by the stone cross, to whirl their burrunas together. Lino Zapirain, from the Iriberri farmhouse in Ergoien, was one of them. He kept his own burruna all his life, and in old age put a new cord on it, played it again and gave it to the music museum in his valley. In the 1950s other Oiartzun children made theirs from the stone used to sharpen a scythe, four or five of them swinging together on spinning-top string.

Askotan elkartzen omen ziren Altzibarko zubi ondoko zelaitxoan, harrizko gurutzearen ondoan burrunak jotzeko.

They often used to gather in the little meadow beside the Altzibar bridge, next to the stone cross, to play their burrunas.

Soinuenea, Euskal Herriko soinu-tresnen entziklopedia, “Burruna” (Lino Zapirain, interviewed by Juan Mari Beltran, 2002)

Particulars

Object

A long wooden slat, notched along both edges near one end, its cord through a hole at the other: the burruna Lino Zapirain played as a boy and re-corded before giving it to Soinuenea (JMBA 863). Other Oiartzun children made them from scythe whetstones.

Function

Children’s sound toy, played alone and in groups; in the 1930s–40s children met by the Altzibar bridge to whirl them together.