Introduction.-
In this page you will find short decriptive introductions to musical
instruments produced by the native and mestizo Aymara culture. But, primarily
you will find mp3 files, which are Aymara musical pieces with
44.1Hz/16bits stereo quality. In order to listen these musics you need to save
them into your disk. Take into account that the downloading of each mp3 file
may be a hard task if you don't have a good internet conexion. On average,
with a standard 56Kb (ITU/V90) modem a file with 2.5 Mb can be downloaded in
10 minutes. Also it is necessary a mp3 player such as winamp(for
windows) or xmms(for linux). Good luck and enjoy the Aymara music!.
Siqu
It is the most famous musical instrument produced by the ancient Aymara
culture. The groups that play the siqu are known as siquris because the
combination of the Aymara substantive root siqu and the suffix
-iri(=agent, player), siquri(= the player of siqu). Since
the post-velat sound q
is unknown in Spanish, then, also it is
known as siku (sikuri) or zampoña. While in quechua it is known
as antara.
A standard siqu have 15 pipes of bamboo in two rows going from
smaller to greater diameter, hitched in scale, that upon blowing them they
emit specific musical notes . The first row possesses 8 pipes (iriri =
leader), while the second row possesses 7 pipes (arkiri =
follower). But it is common to name these rows by the aymara verbal roots
ira and arka. The melodies of the siqu are executed using the
technique of the musical dialogue musical between the iriri and the arkiri.
In Aymara this technique is called Jaqtasiña Iririmpi Arkirimpi ( =
Interaction between the leader and the follower).
Presently, the siquris are groups who
simultaneously play and dance their music. In some groups, each
musician/dancer plays the siqu with one hand and a small bass
drum with the other hand while he shakes his body. It is interesting notice
the similarity in the sound and the form with the panflute(fistula),
which has Greek origin, in any case the principles are the same but their
soul-sounds and soul-rhythms are very differents.
The following mp3 pieces are a proof of that and are performed by
Peruvian aymara siquris from Camilaca and Cairani villages at Tacna
departamento.
Llora zampoña, llora (2.39 Mb) copyrighted by
Angel Serrano and performed by Conjunto Zampoñas de Camilaca(Qamilaka)
Llanto de Camilaca (2.42 Mb) copyrighted by
Cipriano Limachi and performed by Conjunto Zampoñas de Camilaca(Qamilaka)
Flor del Sur (2.22 Mb) copyrighted by Santiago
Mamani and performed by Conjunto Zampoñas de Cairani(K'airani)
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Lakitas
It is a variant of the siqu practiced by the aymaras of Chile. Lakita
is a Aymara word which means either "distributed" or "grouped". In according to
Braulio Avila Hinostroza, a Chilean student of andean music, the meaning used
for "lakita" would be "distributed". This would be because the
distribution of the musical scale of lakita into the rows IRA and ARKA.
In some regions, near the cities, the lakita siqu is made from PVC, instead of
the bamboo. The following mp3 piece is a contribution of Braulio who kindly
sent it for this page
Danza de las Kullakas (2.42 Mb) with
popular copyright and performed by Ballet Folclórico Nacional de Chile
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Lawa K'umu
By its melancholic notes this kind of music/dance is supposed to have a
funeral origin. However, nowadays it is performed at carnival time. The main
musical instrument is made from the log cortex of the Qantuta tree and the name
lawa k'umu, which means twisted stick, describes how this
instrument is. The following pieces are performed by a Peruvian aymara group
from Soq'a village (Acora) at Puno departamento.
Mama Suegra(3.14 MB) with
popular copyright and performed by the Conjunto Chacareros Qantuta de
Soq'a.
Kantutita (3.11 Mb) with popular copyright and
performed by Conjunto Chacareros Qantuta de Soq'a
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Tarqa
The tarqa is a square shaped aymara musical instrument made from pine
wood which have either six or eigth holes in its middle part. A group of
players of tarqa is called tarqada(spanish form). Considering the
oldness of the other aymara musical instruments the tarqa can be regarded as a
young one. It is believed that since its ivention, this instrument, has a
little more than one hundred years.
If you are a linguist interested on Aymara, then you
must remember the jesuit Ludovico Bertonio and its XVII century work,
which is the masterpiece of the Aymara linguistics. Then, immediately,
you will associate to Bertonio the place where he worked on Aymara:
Juli. Today Juli is a small peruvian town at Titicaca shores, we think
with the same inspiring landscape as Bertonio's time. Precisely the
following tarqa piece is performed by a group from Juli at Puno departamento.
Carnaval tarqa de Juli(3.44 Mb) with popular
copyright and performed by Tarqada Mixturitas de Juli
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Khirkhinchu(charango)
All the historic vestigial traces indicate that for the ancient Aymara
people was unknown the string instruments. The Spaniards introduced
them the guitarra, but in some place of the Titicaca plateau and in some
instant of the XVII century, was invented the khirkhinchu, a small
cousin of the guitarra, which
nowadays is most known as charango. The Aymara word khirkhinchu means
armadillo which is a typical Southamerican small animal with a bone-like
material shell on its back. Precisely
this shell was, in the early days, used as the resonance box of the charango
and it had either 10 or 12 strings arranged in 5 or 6 pairs.
Kajelo(q'ajilu) (2.11 Mb, mp3) With popular copyright
and performed by the Theodoro Valcarcel orchestra from Puno.
Lamento del Misti (2.7 Mb, mp3) With popular
copyright and performed by the Trío Yanahuara from Arequipa.
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Brass bands
Since the launch of this website (Oct 1994) the image of the masked devil dancer was in the front page of Aymara
Uta. Many questions were made by many visitors about the relation of this
picture and Aymara. Presently the devil dancer is no more our symbol, but
thanks to mp3 technology we have its soundtrack and the natural responses to
such old questions about the Aymara-Diablada link.
This "dance of the devils", DIABLADA, has its origins at Oruro
(uru uru) mines as a result of the both Aymara/Uru myth of the underground
devil (anchanchu) and the Christian history of the fight of Archangel
Michael against the seven sins. The official music for this dance are
performed by brass bands which are so popular among the Aymara people and the
following pieces are performed by Bolivian bands that are widely
accepted references.
Diablada (2.0 Mb) With popular copyright and performed by
Banda Pagador de Oruro
Caporal (Sayas) (6.47 Mb) With popular copyright
and performed by Banda Imperial de Oruro
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Opera style
In the 1950s the peruvian singer Yma Sumac made a great hit
for American audiences. She was considered as the "QUEEN of the
five octave". Her voice had a wide range of frequencies as never seeing
(hear) before. There are a lot of internet sites, on her biography, her
music and other related stuff, which
you can find with your favorite searcher. In the meantime enjoy her
majestic voice adapted for the following piece of Aymara music.
Chankani Aru (El Canto del Gallo (2.93 Mb)
Copyrighted by M. Vivanco and performed by Yma Sumac.
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