Gascon Folk Music

Gascon folk music is the traditional music of Gascony in south-western France, sung in the Gascon dialect of Occitan. Its dance repertory — rondeaux, bourrées and couple dances — is led by the boha, the region's own bagpipe, answered by three-hole flute over the tambourin à cordes, with hurdy-gurdy, fiddle and diatonic accordion. Its song repertory descends from the troubadour country of the medieval south. The 1970s Occitan revival, led by the group *Nadau*, turned this village music into the emblem of Gascon identity, and it remains the living sound of festas and village dances.