corn husks are placed for vibration. However, as the txalaparta evolved, that kind of equipment has been phased out and only showcased in special festivals (such as the Txalaparta Festival held in the town of Hernani in May) featuring the former and rural txalaparta set. Actually, nowadays the most usual equipment for the txalaparta consists of two trestles with foam attached to the tops usually wrapped up in various fabrics. As for the boards, they have become increasingly shorter in order to fit the musical needs and convenience of the performers, exactly like the sticks, following that the former 2-odd-metre planks stemming from the old cider press may rarely go beyond 1.50 metres, while the 50 cm sticks or more so the light, easily handled 37.5 cm sticks have become a standard, as opposed to the old-time long and heavy strikers. The boards, which may number no less than three in modern txalaparta, are laid on the trestles hip-high, while the boards used to be arranged slightly above knee high. The material of the boards has often shifted from locally available timber (chestnut, alder, cherry, etc.) to more beautifully sounding wood from other geographical reaches (Caribbean, West Africa...) such as iroko, sapele, elondo etc. Furthermore, stone (the group called this variant ) and metal tubes have been added, so widening the range of sounds and contrasts available. In some instances, they have even substituted the customary wooden boards. Big cardboard tubes can be beaten vertically on the floor. It is worth highlighting the manufacture by the group Oreka TX of a txalaparta based on ice blocks on their Scandinavian tour, a making recorded in their 2006 documentary film Nömadak Tx. Operation Music is made using the txalaparta by having one or more performers (known as 'txalaparta players' or 'beaters' in Basque or in Spanish) produce differing rhythms, playing with wood knots and spots of the boards for different tones. Nowadays the boards have often been arranged to play notes and even melody along the lines of the score, which may on the one hand further widen for the the possibilities to sophisticate the music. On the other hand, some txalaparta players rule out this novelty as alien to the instrument, essentially rhythmical. Both players perform consecutively by striking with the sticks on the boards. The performance is played intuitively except for the main lines of the performance, i.e. a rhythmic