Tarota (shawm)

Technical description: Built in four sections plus a short brass crook set in an ivory pirouette. The first and second sections separate between holes III and IV, the third section is connected below hole VII. Possibly bird's-eye maple although the grain has even more elaborate grain than is normal in that wood, there are numerous knots, the nature of the grain has prevented the wood from acquiring a completely smooth finish. The colour is bright orange but this may be a stain. There are four ivory ferrules, one at each socket including the crook well (there is no bell ring). There are eight finger holes in the upper two sections, the lowest two are duplicates displaced sideways to accommodate the little finger, one of these would be blocked, probably with wax, before playing according to whether the player is right or left-handed. There are three vent-holes in the third section, one at the top of the section and two at the bottom. There are two more vent-holes in the bell. The tarota is a shawm historically played in Catalonia, in the tradition of Mediterranean shawms such as the Catalan gralla, the Spanish dulzaina, the Italian XXX, etc. The primitive tarota called tarota seca has no keys though makers have often added them to their instruments. The tarota fell out of favour in the second half of the 18th century as the instrumentation of the cobla orchestras mutated from the cobla de tres quartans (pipe and tabor, treble shawm such as tarota, bagpipe) to the modern cobla (flabiol, tible I and II, tenora I and II, trumpet I and II, tenor valved trombone, fiscorn I and II, string bass). However, it has seen something of a revival in recent decades through a surge in interest for certain Catalan traditions; It has notably been used by a number of rock bands.