Modern Bertsolaritza
name: label: Collection Creator
content: Smithsonian Institution. Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage
setName: label: See more items in
content: Smithsonian Folklife Festival records: 2016 Smithsonian Folklife Festival
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content: Smithsonian Folklife Festival records: 2016 Smithsonian Folklife Festival / Series 2: Basque: Innovation by Culture / 2.3: Audio
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 1 Sound recording (digital audio file)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 2016 June 29
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections
identifier: label: Identifier
content: CFCH.SFF.2016, Item SFF2016_0629_Basque_Euskaldunak_Dialogues_0003
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Sound recordings
altformavail: label: Existence and Location of Copies
content: Listening copies available
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: Martin Goicaechea (presenter); Irati Anda; Xabier Paya [Performer] Sometimes called oral poetry, sometimes song, and sometimes sport, berstolaritza is the art of dueling rhymed versus that are sung to enthusiastic audiences of all ages. With several verse structures to choose from, berstolariak, or the performers, are given a topic and must compose the verses on the spot, and are judged on their language creativity in improvisation and connection with the audience, whether through humor or beauty. With roots in fifteenth century women's funeral songs, the modern berstolaritza was born in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and became a social movement of Basque renaissance at the end of the Franco dictatorship.