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INTRODUCTION
1.1 Total absence of mass production 1.2. Public participation and the vital importance of feedback 1.3. The nature of live performance in a public area and group participation 1.4. Integrated nature of the audience 1.5. Accessibility of the bertsolari: economic self-sufficiency and modesty 2. What does the bertsolari sing? 3. Achieving a balance amongst the challenges. What are roots for?
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1.5 Accessibility
of the bertsolari: economic self-sufficiency and modesty In bertsolaritza
the creator, the artist, is more or less an ordinary person belonging
to the social environment in which he performs: he doesn’t acquire
a special social or economic status, nor is he distanced from his natural
environment, physically, symbolically or economically. The bertsolari
elite at the moment consists of two teachers, three students, an electrician,
a journalist, a salesman, a university professor, a farm labourer and
only the occasional one whose principal source of income (excluding students)
is the performance of bertsos. This makes it an economically modest activity
which self-regulates its supply and demand without any external intervention
and therefore with zero dependence on commercial agents or public sponsorship. On the other hand, this implies a large degree of social accessibility on the part of bertsolaris. Accessibility which is both economic and personal. To give an example, the most prestigious bertsolari in the Basque community enjoys, on the one hand, a social prestige comparable to that of the Basque Country’s best writer or musician, but on the other hand is accessible to any person who cares to ring him to ask him to sing at their wedding, or to propose a charity recital for the ikastola, or some other popular body or movement. This availability or easy access is a legacy which the present day bertsolaris maintain, although for some of them this can sometimes mean a furious rate of public performances (there are some bertsolaris who take part in between 150 and 200 performances a year). All this makes the bertsolari a curious figure who stands somewhere between enjoying a general camaraderie with the public and attaining media stardom. |