Nowadays, the txistu is made of ebony and grenadilla from Africa. Many old txistus tend to have a yellowish
colour, because this instrument was made of wood for years. Precisely to protect this cylindrical wooden tube,
it usually has metal rings. The mouthpiece is also made of metal. Txistu studies have become official
and today they are taught in most music schools.

A detailed history of the different pipes is here

"the first txistulari hired in Bilbao are from the 15th century, we are very much alive today".

In all regions of the Basque Country, the presence of three-hole flutes has been very prominent for a long time,
with multiple names, materials, trends, styles and functions. 1

Formerly txistus were made of bone or wood, and although they can now be made of plastic or metal, it is more
common for them to be wooden. The txistu player or txistulari, plays mostly dance music, at popular festivities
and in village squares, participating as master of ceremonies in rural areas and in religious processions and official
protocols. Nowadays, the txistu, whose tuning and technique have evolved, is taught and studied at official music schools.

For more details of Basque txistularis today go here.

Since 1515 taborers played in Azpeitia, in the province of Gipuzkoa. Here, throughout the century taborers
are recorded as playing for Sunday dances, Corpus Christi and San Sebastian processions, ritual dances
and any extraordinary occasions such as the royal visit in 1522. In 1516, the town paid ten reales to the musicians
to go to Navarre. For the three day celebration of the coronation of Charles V as Emperor of Germany:
"in the said three days, twenty young men went around with the said taborer with a flag, dancing through
all the said streets."

In Hernani,(Gipuzkoa), the first documented evidence of the pipe and tabor dates back to 1531.Then the Mayor
and the Councillors ordered the sale of municipal land to pay for the taborers that were hired for the San Juan
festivities. The town did not have its own taborers. Until 1536 Juan Sánchez de Oiartzun and his son Martín
were regularly hired. But in 1537 they went to Rentería (Gipuzkoa) to play for the celebrations for the safe
return of His Majesty.

In 1543 Joanet played at the San Juan festivities for six reales and in 1545 Hareso did so for a ducat.

In Bizkaia, province of Biscay, between 1552 and 1564 payments were made to Pedro Gorosarri, a taborer
from Berriatua, who played in the Corpus Christi procession in the parish of Xemein. And in 1559 when the new
peace with France achieved by Philip II was known, to celebrate the town was ordered to place candles
in windows and make lights in the streets:
"they should keep the holiday and not work and thus giving thanks, rejoice and dance and then provide
for Berriatua to play the pipe and tabor for the said Town."

1809 book extract:

“…The Guipuzcoans are likewise very fond of dancing ; they have a dance peculiar to themselves, called zorcicos.
The movements and steps are very lively, hurried, vigorous, and nimble, but devoid of attitude. It is danced to the
pipe and tabour….”

‘A view of Spain; comprising a descriptive itinerary, of each province, and a general statistical account of the country’
by  Laborde, Alexandre Louis Joseph, comte de

1836 dance display in Durango ; newspaper report (extracts)
Morning Post 26 October 1836 (England)

1837 RECOLLECT1ONS OF A RAMBLE THROUGH THE BASQUE PROVINCES IN 1836-7. Part III.
Village Fetes and Diversions of the Basques

“…The Zorcicaa and other dances are Basque; the music
the Basque pipe and tabor, of which the harsh and monotonous
sounds end by becoming pleasing to the ear…”

Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine

1929 folk dancers

“…The first sign of this had been the sound of a Basque pipe and tabor 
issuing joyously from a motor-car which carried six men clothed in fancy
dresses of scarlet and gold down the zigzag road leading to the station …
The pipe and tabor and folk-dancers—for such were the gaily dressed
men in the motor—were accompaniments of their challengers, a team
from a Basque town….”

The Cornhill Magazine 1929-11: Vol 67 Iss 401

1932 from:  'A detailed summary of the Aurresku dance tradition of the Spanish Basques and other dances.' 

“The music is majestic when shrilled forth by a band of txistularis who play in three parts and roll their drums finely."
"The black-clad men of the parish process in pairs, each pair as far apart as the whole breadth of the street,
the txistularis march in the middle..."

Oxford University Press The Musical Quarterly:  Volume XVIII, Issue 3, July 1932, Pages 471–482,

 “musical instruments were persecuted in the past and also more recently during the Franco era. For example in 1964 four people were fined in Sestao for blowing the pipe.
The mayor of the town forbade the use of the instrument”

2013 Bermeo, Biscay

1931 magazine article

late 13th century Peñacerrada-Urizaharra (Álava-Araba).

beginning 16th century
Gothic altarpiece
(nativity) of the church of Lekeitio
Photo Garikoitz Estornés Zubizarreta