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Each region of Peru has specific characteristics, differing in its morphology
as well as in the diverse playing styles.
The musicians are called roncadores, bancadores, chirocos or chiroques, depending on the region. The pipe
is called 'pinkullo'
and the large drum a 'huancar' or a 'caja' (box).
The roncadora is primarily used during patron saint festivals and religious celebrations in the Amazon and Andean
regions of the Peru jungle, for example festivities honouring the patron saints of indigenous communities or celebrations
linked to Andean culture. In recent years, some modern musical genres, such as fusion music, world music,
and contemporary Amazonian music, have incorporated it. This has allowed the instrument to become more visible
in the realm of Peruvian popular music.
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1615 'New Chronicle and Good Government' -
letters written
by a local man to the King of Spain. Of twelve
images illustrating drums, 2 are of the pipe and tabor. One of which shows a Spanish taborer and the other
an indigenous man after the imposition of the Catholic faith on the area. |
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cover: Don Diego de Almagro and Don Francisco Pizarro in Castile [drawing 17] |
1615 player 'The children of noblemen
must dance
before the Blessed Sacrament
during liturgical feasts' [drawing 295] |
 1700-1750 Bible: women musicians welcome David:
Arequipa, chapter house of the Carmen Monastery
[Figure 6] |
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”.
playing for dancing |
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video with further explanations,
music and dancing from
this codex |
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1794
General Description of Peru:
“…one plays on a pipe and tabor, while others dance. Some of the best voices among the Indian women
sing songs in their own language, and those who do not dance, squat down in the usual posture till it comes to their turn….”
‘An historical, geographical, commercial, and philosophical view of the American United States’
by Winterbotham, William |
1805
“The reception was accompanied by all the splendour the wretched Panos could display. Alternating their songs,
which were accompanied by the pipe and tabor, by dancings and clamorous rejoicings….”
‘The Present State of Peru: : comprising its geography, topography, natural history, mineralogy, commerce, the customs and manners
of its inhabitants, the state of literature, philosophy, and the arts, the modern travels of the missionaries in the heretofore unexplored
mountainous territories, &c. &c.’
by Skinner, Joseph |
In 1825 William Bennet Stevenson wrote of his journeys in Peru:
“Among the feasts which the indians of Huacho celebrate, that of Corpus Christi deserves to be spoken of. ....
During the week the village is enlivened with different companies of dancers: one called huancos is composed
of eight or ten men; ....They dance along the streets to the sound of a pipe and tabor, keeping pace to the tune,
that the bells on their legs may beat time to the pipe and tabor...When two companies of these dancers meet,
neither will give way for the other to pass, and the result is, the cudgels are applied to open it. Some of their
skirmishes produce broken heads.... The criollaos go by pairs, accompanied by
a pipe and tabor.”
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1893 The same dance is described:
“At Huacho (a town in Peru) the Indians dance in the street in time to the music of a pipe and tabor, to which time
is given by small bells tied to the legs. They become so passionately absorbed in their dance that when a second
troop of dancers comes up neither will give way to the other to pass until cudgels are brought into requisition.”
‘Primitive Music an inquiry into the origin and development of music, songs, instruments, dances, and pantomimes of savage races’
by Wallaschek, Richard,
page 19 |
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 1945-1965 player, Cajamarca |
 possibly an end-blown flute |
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2001 playing throughout communal harvest  Performer of pincullo and tinya during the harvest of grains. Photo: Raúl R. Romero
(courtesy Center for Andean Ethnomusicology, Catholic University of Peru). |
“…linked to agricultural labor is the music called huauco, played with a tinya (small Andean drum) and pincullo
(vertical flute) in a pipe and tabor fashion during the communal harvest of grains…. Communal labor in the fields
is a special event reserved for specific occasions of the agricultural calendar that require total participation of the
villagers: for the barbecho or volteo (turning of the soil), during the cultivo (first tillage of the land), and for the siega
(harvest) of grain. Communal labor in the fields begins with a general meeting at the central plaza of the village, after
which the workers walk to the field where they labor for the whole day. The musician plays during the whole faena
and during the mishkipas (rest periods)”
‘Debating the Past’ by Raúl R Romero |
 Chirocos playing during planting, Chugay |
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 1981 Callejón de Huaylas, Department of Ancash,
[The link has music, the huayno 'Rio Santa' ]
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 2020 Canticha Festival
San Agustín de Pariac |
 2024 wheat harvest, player and dancer! Ancash |
 2024 Huaraz |
 2025
Shancayán festival, Ancash |
 2025 Carnival of the Crosses, Collón town centre, Taricá district of Huaraz province |
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pre-Columbian tabor-type drum - tinya |
In south and central America the beats of the drums were believed to open a portal between the physical and spiritual
world, allowing for direct communication.
The small drum, without the pipe, seems to have played a significant role
in society. In the 1615 letters
they are depicted as being played by women, which is simlilar to European countries.
[When did the small tabor become the present-day large drum?] |
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panpipes and drum |
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 1000-1476 south Peruvian river
valleys,
Ica-Chincha ceramic |
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18th century paintings of Cuzco archangels |
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 Annual competition between large bands with dancers |
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rattles |
Many north Peruvian pre-Columbian rattles here and here |
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2020 drumstick
