What is Andean music?
"MUSIC OF THE CENTRAL ANDES"
by Dale A. Olsen, Ph.D.
The central Andean regions of the countries of Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, and Chile (the list is geographic from north to south) are among the richest in the world with regard to variety of musical and folkloric traditions. Long before the Spanish conquest, and even much before the Inca civilization, the diverse native cultures of the region had rich musical traditions. Ancient tombs from the Nasca, Moche, and other cultures have yielded flutes, trumpets, drums, and other musical artifacts; many ceramic jars found in ancient tombs depict musical instruments being used in various contexts (shamanism, propitiation to the gods, hunting, dancing) that are difficult to interpret. Music was obviously important in the human and supernatural worlds of ancient Andean people (see further Dale A. Olsen, Music of El Dorado: The Ethnomusicology of Ancient South American Cultures , Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2002).
With the coming of the Spanish conquerors in the sixteenth century, accompanied by Catholic missionaries and African slaves, additional musical languages were introduced. Today, three principal racial and cultural strains---Native, Spanish, and African---are unique in some regions of the Andes and have blended in others to form the racial and cultural amalgams known as mestizo and criollo.
The geography, also, makes the central Andes a region of contrasts. As you travel from the highlands of Ecuador, through the northern, central, and southern Andes of Peru, across the altiplano in southern Peru and northern Bolivia, and into the valleys of southern Bolivia, great geographic as well as cultural contrasts can be seen, the latter represented by the numerous ethnic groups that existed in great numbers before the Spanish conquest. Each of these groups spoke its own language at one time, even throughout the centuries of the Incan conquest, until the Spanish imposed Quechua as a lingua franca; and their autonomy still exists to a certain extent today.
The central Andes, however, are somewhat united by several musical/cultural factors. These include patron saint festivals that reveal a fusion of Roman Catholicism and indigenous beliefs; the ubiquitous wayno dance music and its varients; the Spanish-derived guitar and other European instruments; and, since the 1970s, a "pan-Andean" musical style that has diffused from southern Peru and Bolivia into many of the cities and towns in the central Andes, largely because of tourism. The latter features kena flutes, siku panpipes, small charango guitars, bombo drums, and often an indigenous harp (see pictures below).
The native Andes were basically flute and drum oriented. The main winds in ancient times included notched-end kena (quena) flutes of bone (human, llama, and/or pelican), cane, gold, and silver; ocarinas made from clay; and panpipes (antara among the Quechua and siku among the Aymara). Since the colonial period, native Andean people have played fipple flutes of cane or wood (pinquillo), some performed in pipe-and-tabor fashion as in Europe. The main drums were the Quechua tinya, a small-frame drum with two heads, and a larger instrument which today is called bombo (a onomatopeic Western name for a deep-frame drum), also with two heads. All of these exist today, although the kena, siku, and bombo are the most common. The Spanish element began in the sixteenth century, when minstrals, aristocracy, and clergy introduced guitars, harps (see picture below), mandolins, violins, transverse flutes, pipes-and-tabors, and oboes into the land that they called the Viceroyalty of Peru. Later came the brass instruments associated with Western military bands. The early Church fathers considered the harp, the violin, and the transverse flute to be the most pure instruments for the accompaniment of Catholic songs and rituals, while the guitar and guitar types, such as the mandolin and the bandurria, were considered too sensual for religious purposes. Thus, they were not taught to the Indians; the guitar became, rather, the instrument of Spanish gentlemen. Nevertheless, the native people of the central Andes adapted the guitar types to their own use by making them smaller and more portable, and by crafting them from the shells of armadillos in Bolivia, because wood is scarce in the high Andes. This instrument, known as the charango, is the favorite string instrument of southern Peru and Bolivia; it is used as a solo instrument for courtship, as an accompaniment to singing, and as a member of larger ensembles that often include kena flutes, violins, guitars, drums, and other native and Spanish-derived sound makers.
The popular Andean "pan-Andean" musical style of today, which was greatly diffused by the popularity of the nueva canción ("new song") groups of Chile such as Inti-Illimani and Quilapayún, by the popularity of Los Incas from Peru (who recorded "El Condor Pasa" with Simon and Garfunkle), and Savia Andina and others from Bolivia, is largely a phenomenon of urban folklore, perpetuated through folkloric peñas (coffee houses). The basic instruments used by such ensembles are the kena (see below), siku (see below), charango, guitar, and bombo, instruments originally from southern Peru and Bolivia only. This music of today, so popular throughout Europe, Japan, and the United States, is pan-Andean because its repertoire often includes Chilean cuecas and Venezuelan joropos, in addition to Bolivian and Peruvian waynos and Ecuadorian sanjuanitos. The spirit of the music, however, remains a mixture of Native, Spanish, and to a lesser degree, African musical elements (see also The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, Vol. 2, "South America, Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean , edited by Dale A. Olsen and Daniel E. Sheehy, New York: Garland, 1998).
The Peruvian arpa indigena (indigenous harp) is played by Dr. Dale A. Olsen. Originally a Spanish import probably introduced by the Jesuits, the Peruvian diatonic harp has had an indigenous association since colonial times in Peru. Physical and musical differences are noticable from Píura and Ancash in the north, Canta and Junín in the central region, to Ayacucho and Cuzco in the south. Olsen's harp maker and teacher in Lima in 1979 was Fausto Dolorier, then professor in the Escuela Nacional de Artes Folklóricos. The harp in Peru has several roles: as a solo instrument, accompaniment for a singer (usually the harpist himself), or as an ensemble instrument. In the last role it is often hoisted upside down and played while parading or during festivals. The number of strings, their materials and techniques of fastening into the harp box, vary in Peru, but there are usually between 30 and 35 that are made from metal, gut, or nylon. For more information on the Peruvian harp read "The Peruvian Folk Harp Tradition: Determinants of Style" by Dale A. Olsen, in Folk Harp Journal 53 (June 1986), 54 (Fall 1986), 55 (Winter 1986), 56 (Spring 1987), 57 (Summer 1987), 58 (Fall 1987), and 59 (Winter 1987).
A siku panpipe set being performed by Dale A. Olsen on the left, and Karl Barton on the right. The most common name for the panpipe set in this photograph is siku, an Aymara term. The instrument is an end-blown tubular aerophone set without fingerholes, consisting of numerous closed pipes of cane rafted together in two halves, each half played by a single musician who often plays a drum at the same time. In ancient times similar panpipes were played in Peru's northern (among the Moche) and southern (among the Nasca) coasts. Archaeological panpipes from Peru and Bolivia were constructed from cane, ceramic, and stone. The important distinguishing feature of the siku is the instrument's division into two halves, most commonly called ira (the leader) for the half with six tubes, and arca (the follower) for the half with seven tubes. Thus, ira and arca are meant to be played by two people in a musically interlocking fashion called in Aymara jjaktasina irampi arcampi, or "to be in agreement between the ira and the arca." A group of siku instruments are called sikuri, as are the musicians/dancers who play them; and the most common type of music played by a sikuri ensemble is a sikuriada (literally, music for sikuri), although there are also numerous religious/ceremonial forms that have different names. In addition, many sikuri groups play marches,waynos, and other popular Andean dance forms. The present dispersion of the siku is in southern Peru and northern Bolivia, in a region known as the Collao Altiplano, a high plateau with an approximate area of 200,000 square kilometers (77,220 square miles) at an altitude of about 3,500 meters above sea level (11,483 feet). In the north-central part of this high plain, and at the heart of the cosmological world of the Aymara and Quechua Native Americans, is Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world. This lake is also at the center of the largest dispersion of the siku in Peru; although Lima, the capital of Peru, is rapidly replacing this area as the center of Peruvian siku activity because of the large number of migrants from the altiplano.
A member of Aconcagua playing the kena flute. The kena(also spelled quena) is a tubular aerophone with fingerholes whose sound is produced by blowing air across a notched mouthpiece. The term "kena" is from the Aymara language, and was originally kena-kena, emphasizing linguistic dualism. In ancient times the kena was often made from gold, silver, ceramic, bone, and cane. Kena flutes are presently made from a variety of tubular materials, notably types of cane, wood, plastic, and copper. The traditional dispersion of the kena was in southern Peru and northern Bolivia, in a region known as the Collao Altiplano, a high plateau with an approximate area of 200,000 square kilometers (77,220 square miles) at an altitude of about 3,500 meters above sea level (11,483 feet). Ancient cultures, such as the Moche and Chancay along the north and central coast of Peru, also played a similar instrument. Today the kena is popular among folk musicians from Ecuador to Chile, and it is the leading instrument in pan-Andean music groups heard throughout the Western world and Japan.