the Pipe and Tabor compendium

the Pipe and Tabor compendium

essays on the three-hole pipe

South America

archaeology to today

gallery contents

 
"“our cavalcade entered the town ... and every house resounded with the noise of trumpets, tabors, and pipes. ..."
 Before feasts they " select a number of Indians who are to be the dancers ... The music is a pipe and tabor,
and the most extraordinary of their motions some awkward capers; in short, the whole is little to the taste of an European. ...

then one of them plays on a pipe and tabor, whilst others dance, as they call it, though it is not more than moving confusedly
from one side to the other, without measure or order.”

Antonio de. Ulloa in 1806 wrote 'A voyage to South America ..' in Spanish:

 

Argentina
player

panpipes and drums in political demonstration

 

South America with dancers
South America religious procession
South America with solo male dancer

video Txistu from Banfield

end-blown flutekamacheña, end-blown flute

The geographical area where the kamacheña (flute) is built and used comprises northwestern Argentina and southern Bolivia

When performed together with the kamacheña, the caja (drum) is usually fastened by a loop of leather to the right wrist of the male musician, who holds the waqtana or guastána, the stick or mace, in the same hand.  Andean traditional gender taboos do not allow women to play aerophones (wind instruments).

The Andean traditional calendar lays down that each musical instrument can only be performed during a specific time of the year and for specific purposes (usually related to agriculture and other traditional practices).  The kamacheña is played during the awti pacha or "dry season" (comprising from Carnival to All Saints' Day). Hence, its sound will be heard at winter festivals, e.g. during the feast of San Roque (mid-August) and, of course, All Saints celebrations (early November) and Carnival (February and March).

 
 
 
Bolivia
19th century Aymara Indians
1992 Qhochipata Indians
1992 Tambocusi Indians

Pincullo is also called pincollo, pinvollo, pinquillo, pincuillo opingollos and in Quichua aymará pinkiyllu, pinkillo

It adopts different sizes and diameters. It is used especially in carnival and in the past it was used in combat to produce a hellish noise and frighten the enemy.

In today’s Bolivian and Peruvian Andes, pinkullu or pinkillu duct flute performance is exclusively male, strongly associated with courtship and usually restricted to the rainy growing season between All Saints (November) and Carnival (February or March). The instrument’s sound is widely claimed to attract rain and to cause the crops to grow. 

 The name applies equally to the three-hole pipe, played with a drum by a single player, or to five-, six- or seven-hole duct flutes which are typically played in consort. 

 
2014

in the fields

Waka Pinquillo the duct flute of Bolivia. It is made of cane about 45 to 50 cm long and 2.5 cm in diameter, with two fingerholes and one thumbhole, and a square opening at the duct. Overblowing produces multiple harmonics.  
Waka pinquillo  

Kunfur Pinquillo (condor flute) or
quri pinkilly (golden flute)
from Ayllu Macha, northern Bolivia.
photog Henry Stobart

 
 
Chile
procession
 
Colombia
1925 - " Young Indians follow dancing to flute and tambour”
 
Costa Rica
400-1500 pendant
for more pre-Colombian images
see here
     
Ecuador

end blown pipe statuette
tile picture, Quito
     
Guatemala
 
2005 photog.Stan Raucher
 
     
Panama

A gold figurine of a man playing what may be a vertical flute and rattle at the same time. Veraguas culture.
Photog by Dale A.Olsen

 
     
Peru
Also see: double pipes gallery
video, panpipes and drum
18th century pipe and tabor playing for dancing, (Spanish and Peruvian influence)
player

Between 1782 and 1785 the Spanish Bishop of Trujillo made a trip of several years around the northwest of Peru to discover the region of which he was in charge. When he was recalled he sent the king of Spain a series of more than 1,400 illustrations made during that trip. These images are the “Trujillo Codex of Peru” or “Codex Martínez Compañón”. Eighteen of the images from the Trujillo codex contain the scores of 20 musical pieces.

 
procession

playing for dancing

playing whilst building wall  
two players
 
   
panpipes and drum  
Taquile
entertaining tourists
Sikuris    
Annual competition between large bands with dancers:  
Cuzco archangel    
 
 
Mexico
1939
1939
Tlaquepaque, Jalisco  
Transhumara 1998 sitting down  
 

from Veracruz - voladores

The Danza de los Voladores (Dance of the Flyers), or Palo Volador (Pole Flying), is an ancient Mesoamerican ceremony/ritual still performed today, albeit in modified form, in isolated pockets in Mexico. It is believed to have originated with the Nahua, Huastec and Otomi peoples in central Mexico, and then spread throughout most of Mesoamerica. The ritual consists of dance and the climbing of a 30 meter pole from which four of the five participants then launch themselves tied with ropes to descend to the ground. The fifth remains on top of the pole, dancing and playing a flute and drum. According to one myth, the ritual was created to ask the gods to end a severe drought. Although the ritual did not originate with the Totonac people, today it is strongly associated with them, especially those in and around Papantla in the Mexican state of Veracruz. The ceremony was named an Intangible Cultural Heritage by UNESCO in order to help the ritual survive and thrive in the modern world. video


 
Yacatan
at top of pole
           
on the ground
 
statue
     
from Oaxaca - square drum and pipe    
     

 

Paintings by Romeo Tabuena

     

 

 

 


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