South and Central America

archeology to today

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gold figure
details not known

1514 “Music was performed for the Spanish governors in the privacy of their own households and most maintained
a group of minstrels who played instruments like the harp, pipe and tabor bagpipe and the Moorish xabeba.
In 1514 such a group was present in the retinue of Pedrarias Davila, a nobleman from Avila who was
governor of Castilla de Oro."

‘Music and musicians in Renaissance cities and towns’, 2001

"“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 1758 'A voyage to South America ..'

Argentina

player

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

kamacheña, 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

1954-1970 playing for the Wititi dance, Umala

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.

player 1992 Qhochipata Indians

1992 Tambocusi Indians

2009 Bolivia

2014

player 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

in Ayata

Ilabaya , Feast of the Lord of Sweet Name of Jesus on Eden on Earth, January.
[ Gutierrez William - Audiovisual Images]

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

2022 playing for dancing at Santiago de Huata

Brazil

1848 from a voyage on the river Amazon by H W Bates:

“In the evening we had more visitors. The
sounds of pipe and tabor were heard, and
presently a procession of villagers emerged
from a pathway through the mandioca fields.
They were on a begging expedition for St.
Thome, the patron saint of Indians and Mamelucos.
One carried a banner, on which was
crudely painted the figure of St. Thome
with a glory round his head. The pipe and
tabor were of the simplest description. The
pipe was a reed pierced with four holes, by
means of which a few unmusical notes were
produced, and the tabor was a broad hoop
with a skin stretched over each end. A deformed
young man played both the instruments.”