![]() A modern charango | |
String instrument | |
---|---|
Other names | Quirquincho, Mulita, Tatu, Kirki |
Hornbostel–Sachs classification | 321.321-5 (Composite chordophone sounded by the bare fingers) |
Developed | Early 18th century (perhaps earlier) |
Playing range | |
E4 - (G6) ![]() Charango tuning (Am7/E) | |
Related instruments | |
Walaycho; Chillador; Ronroco; et al (see text). Concheras (also has armadillo back) |
The charango is a small Andean stringed instrument of the lute family, from the Quechua and Aymara populations in the territory of the Altiplano in post-Colonial times, after European stringed instruments were introduced by the Spanish during colonialization. The instrument is widespread throughout the Andean regions of Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, northern Chile and northwestern Argentina, where it is a popular musical instrument that exists in many variant forms. [1]
About 66 cm (26 in) long, the charango was traditionally made with the shell from the back of an armadillo (called quirquincho or mulita in South American Spanish), [2] [3] but it can also be made of wood, which some believe to be a better resonator. Wood is more commonly used in modern instruments. [2] Charangos for children may also be made from calabash. [3] Many contemporary charangos are now made with different types of wood. It typically has ten strings in five courses of two strings each, but many other variations exist.
The charango was primarily played in traditional Andean music. A charango player is called a charanguista.
When the Spanish conquistadors came to South America, they brought the vihuela (an ancestor of the classical guitar) with them. It is not clear whether the charango is a direct descendant of a particular Spanish stringed instrument; it may have evolved from the vihuela, bandurria (mandolin), or the lute. Ernesto Cavour, Bolivian charanguista, composer, and consulting music historian for many museums around the world, [4] has noted characteristics of the charango in various vihuelas and guitars of the 16th century, and maintains the charango is the direct descendant of the vihuela. [5]
There are many stories of how the charango came to be made with its distinctive diminutive soundbox of armadillo. One story says that the native musicians liked the sound the vihuela made, but lacked the technology to shape the wood in that manner. Another story says that the Spaniards prohibited natives from practicing their ancestral music, and that the charango was a successful attempt to make a lute that could be easily hidden under a garment such as a poncho. [6]
There is no clear evidence that points to a specific location or moment in time for the birth of the charango but there are a number of theories being debated. One of those is that it is believed the charango came into its present form in the early 18th century in the city of Potosí in the Royal Audiencia of Charcas part of the Viceroyalty of Peru (in what is present-day Bolivia), probably from Amerindian contact with Spanish settlers. Cavour presents evidence from Bolivian murals and sculptures as early as 1744, in, for example, the Church of San Lorenzo of the city of Potos (Potosí), the facade of which depicts two mermaids playing what he believes to be charangos. [7]
Another two theories that are being researched are that the Charango originally came to Potosí from the Ayacucho region in colonial Peru as a result of migration within the Quechua populations. This suggests that the charango originated in the territory of what is now Peru via cultural exchange and then spread to the rest of the Andean area. This theory has not been proven either. [8]
Because the modern states of Peru and Bolivia had not yet been established at the time, it is difficult to trace the charango's origin to a specific country, and the issue remains highly debated among nationalists from both countries.
One Bolivian musician has posited a third theory which is that the Charango was created as a variant of the timple canario from the Canary islands. More research however is required[ citation needed ].
The first published historic information on the charango may be that gathered by Vega, going back to 1814, when a cleric from Tupiza documented that "the Indians used with much enthusiasm the guitarrillos mui fuis... around here in the Andes of Bolivia they called them Charangos". [9] Turino mentions that he found carved sirens representing playing charangos in some Colonial churches in the highlands of Bolivia. [10] One of the churches to which Turino refers may well be that mentioned by Cavour; construction on the San Lorenzo edifice began in 1547 and wasn't completed until 1744. [11]
According to Eduardo Carrasco of Quilapayún, in the first week after the 1973 Chilean coup d'etat, the military organized a meeting with folk musicians where it was explained that the traditional instruments charango and quena were now banned. [12]
The origin of the term "charango" is not entirely clear. One source suggests that the instrument took its name from its players, who were called charangeros, meaning "someone of questionable character and low morals". [13] Another traces the term to the alteration of a Spanish term, charanga, which could refer to either a type of military music played on wind instruments, or an out-of-tune orchestra. [14] Charanguista Alfredo Coca, offers yet a third theory: asserting that "charango" comes from a Spanish corruption of the Quechua word “Chajwaku”, which means joy, noisy, boisterous, referring directly to the sound of the charango. As support for this he points to the common practice of the Conquistadors appropriating local terminology.
Charanguista Ernesto Cavour disagrees, and tends to support the second origin, maintaining that the word “charango” comes from a mispronunciation of the Spanish word “charanga”, meaning "brass band" (a reasonable corollary to 'military music played on wind instruments'). [15]
One of the most complete contemporary statements on the origin of the term "charango" appears in the introduction to Duran and Pedrotti's, Charango Method, ostensibly the first complete, bilingual charango method to be published:
Traditionally a charango was made with a dried armadillo shell for the back and wood for the soundbox top, neck etc. While still common, this is no longer the norm: rather they are now typically made of wood, with the bowled back merely imitating the shape of the armadillo shell. Unlike most wooden lutes, the body and neck are typically made of a single block of wood, carved into shape. The charango's ten strings require quite a large headstock, often approaching or even exceeding the size of its diminutive sound box. Aside from these visual distinctions, it resembles something between a bowl-backed mandolin and a small ukulele.
The overall length of a typical charango is about 66 cm, with a string scale length of about 37 cm. The number of frets ranges from five to eighteen. The most common form of the instrument has ten strings of nylon, gut, or (less commonly) metal. (Variant forms of the charango may have anywhere from four to fifteen strings, in various combinations of single, double, or triple courses.) The body generally has a narrowed waist, reminiscent of the guitar family, and not the pear-shape of the lute. There are many minor variations in the shape of the body and soundboard (top), and many different kinds of wood are used, although, like guitars, the preferred tone woods for the top come from the cedar or spruce families. Old instruments had friction-style tuning pegs (similar to those used on violins), but today a classical guitar style peghead with geared "machine" tuners is the norm, though these are occasionally positioned perpendicular to the headstock. Most instruments include some degree of ornamentation, which may range from simple purfling inlays around the perimeter of the top, to elaborately carved headstocks, and whole scenes engraved, carved, or burned into the back of the body. Strap buttons are sometimes added, as are position marker dots on the fingerboard.
Variations may include a separate glued-on neck, a two-piece top plate of contrasting woods, old-style friction tuning pegs in palisander or ebony, guitar-style box construction, or even a hollowed-out neck. The size, shape, and number of soundholes is highly variable and may be a single round or oval hole, dual crescents, or even multiple holes of varying arrangement. Another variant is a neck with two holes bored 3/4 of the way through, parallel to the fretboard and close to the headstock (an innovation said to color the instrument's tone).[ dubious – discuss ][ citation needed ]
More recently solid-body electric and hollow-body acoustic-electric charangos have become available. The solid-body instruments are built very much as miniature electric guitars, whereas the acoustic-electrics are usually a standard acoustic charango with the addition of a contact microphone or piezoelectric pickup to run the output of the instrument through an amplifier.
In his book The Motorcycle Diaries , Che Guevara described a charango he saw near Temuco, Chile, in 1952. It was "made with three or four wires some two meters in length stretched tightly across tins fixed to a board. The musician uses a kind of metal knuckle duster with which he plucks the wires producing a sound like a toy guitar." [17]
The basic charango has five pairs (or courses) of strings, typically tuned GCEAE. This tuning, disregarding octaves, is similar to the typical C-tuning of the ukulele or the Venezuelan cuatro, with the addition of a second E-course. Unlike most other stringed instruments, all ten strings are tuned inside one octave. The five courses are pitched as follows (from 5th to 1st course): G4 G4 - C5 C5 - E5 E4 - A4 A4 -E5 E5. Some charanguistas use "octave" strings on other pairs in addition to the middle course. Note that the lowest pitch is the "E" string in the middle (3rd) course, preceded by the higher pitched "g" (5th) course and "c" (4th) course, and followed by still higher pitched "a" (2nd) course and "e" (1st) courses. This tuning pattern is known as a re-entrant pattern because the pitches of the strings do not rise steadily from one string or course to the next, but progress from high to low and then back to high pitch again.
The ramifications of the charango tuning are that there is a very narrow tonal range in most chords, often with many pitch duplications, which produces a surprisingly powerful sound from the small instrument. Seventh and ninth chords shimmer more than on a guitar due to the close harmonies. In terms of melody playing, the charanguista can create a harp-like sound with close intervals ringing out (i.e., like a piano with the sustain pedal engaged). With the close pitch spacing across strings (intervals like 2nds), a simple alternating finger-style pattern in the right hand can produce very rapid chromatic and diatonic runs with only minimal movement of the left hand on the fingerboard. This makes the charango an extremely agile melodic instrument, especially when compared to instruments traditionally played with a flat pick.
As with any stringed instrument, tunings for the charango may vary, but the "standardized" tunings most commonly used (for the 10-stringed, five-course version) are:
Course | Am7 tuning | Comments |
---|---|---|
5 | G4 G4 (391.99 Hz, above middle C) | 2nd lowest tone, nearest the face |
4 | C5 C5 (523.25 Hz) | "C" above Middle C |
3 | E5 E4 (659.26 Hz, 329.63 Hz) | Strings are tuned an octave apart |
2 | A4 A4 (440.00 Hz) | "A" above Middle C |
1 | E5 E5 (659.26 Hz) | Highest tone, nearest the floor |
G#m7 and Gm7 tunings are achieved by tuning a semitone or a full step down, respectively. Em7 is achieved by tuning down by a perfect fourth.
There are metal string, nylon/gut string, and mixed-string charangos. Some metal-stringed versions have all strings at the same gauge. There are also solid-body electric charangos.
There are many types of charango. In many cases the variant is named for the town or region in which it originated, or in which it is most frequently seen, e.g., the Charango Ayquileño of Ayquile, Bolivia. The number of strings on these variant instruments ranges from four to 20, and courses may be single, double, triple, or quadruple strung. (The standard charango has 10 strings in five courses of two strings each.) [18]
Some types of charango are:
Other, less common members of the charango family include:
As one of the most popular stringed instruments in regions along the Andes, countless other regional variations of the charango exist, for example:
Several hybrids of charango with other instruments have also been made, for example: charanquena (charango and quena); charansicu (charango and zampoña); and charango charanguita (charango and guitar). [33]
The charango is known by different names in various regions of the Andes. A few include:
There are also many dialect variants of these terms.
The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted and typically has six or twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strings against frets with the fingers of the opposite hand. A guitar pick may also be used to strike the strings. The sound of the guitar is projected either acoustically, by means of a resonant hollow chamber on the guitar, or amplified by an electronic pickup and an amplifier.
The music of Bolivia has a long history. Out of all the Andean countries, Bolivia remains perhaps the most culturally linked to the indigenous peoples.
Peruvian music is an amalgamation of sounds and styles drawing on Peru's Andean, Spanish, and African roots. Andean influences can perhaps be best heard in wind instruments and the shape of the melodies, while the African influences can be heard in the rhythm and percussion instruments, and European influences can be heard in the harmonies and stringed instruments. Pre-Columbian Andean music was played on drums and string instruments, like the European pipe and tabor tradition. Andean tritonic and pentatonic scales were elaborated during the colonial period into hexatonic, and in some cases, diatonic scales.
The vihuela is a 15th-century fretted plucked Spanish string instrument, shaped like a guitar but tuned like a lute. It was used in 15th- and 16th-century Spain as the equivalent of the lute in Italy and has a large resultant repertory. There were usually five or six doubled strings.
The Appalachian dulcimer is a fretted string instrument of the zither family, typically with three or four strings, originally played in the Appalachian region of the United States. The body extends the length of the fingerboard, and its fretting is generally diatonic.
Los Kjarkas is a Bolivian band from the Capinota province in the department of Cochabamba, and one of the most popular Andean folk music bands in the country's history. Among the styles they play are Saya, tuntuna, huayno, and carnavales. The instruments they use include the charango, quena, zampoña, ronroco, guitar, and bombo.
A course, on a stringed musical instrument, is either one string or two or more adjacent strings that are closely spaced relative to the other strings, and typically played as a single string. The strings in each multiple-string course are typically tuned in unison or an octave.
The Charangón is a small lute-like fretted stringed instrument, of the charango family.
The name chillador can refer either to two related types of charango. The First type, simple called chillador is a type of charango which has a flat back and is usually steel-strung. It exists in both 10-and 12-string forms. When strung with 10-strings it is tuned the same as a charango. With 12 strings, courses 2 and 4 are triple-strung, and the (re-entrant) tuning is more like that of a charangon or ronroco in Argentine tuning. The chillador charango is a standardly-tuned charango but with a body built from bent sides and a flat back like a (smaller) guitar,
On a stringed instrument, a break in an otherwise ascending order of string pitches is known as a re-entry. A re-entrant tuning, therefore, is a tuning which does not order all the strings from the lowest pitch to the highest pitch.
There are many varieties of ten-string guitar, including:
This is a chart of stringed instrument tunings. Instruments are listed alphabetically by their most commonly known name.
A conchera or concha is Mexican stringed-instrument, plucked by concheros dancers. The instruments were important to help preserve elements of native culture from Eurocentric-Catholic suppression. The instruments are used by concheros dancers for singing at velaciones and for dancing at obligaciones.
The Guitarrón Chileno is a guitar-shaped plucked string instrument from Chile, with 25 or 24 (rarely) strings. Its primary contemporary use is as the instrumental accompaniment for the traditional Chilean genre of singing poetry known as Canto a lo Poeta, though a few virtuosi have also begun to develop the instrument's solo possibilities.
The bandolin is a 15-stringed musical instrument in Ecuador. It is used as a rhythm and melody instrument in the Andean region of Ecuador during festivals where dancing and music are involved. It has a flat back and 15 strings in triple courses.
The manguerito is a stringed instrument, a variant of the Andean charango, invented by Ernesto Cavour from La Paz, Bolivia. The instrument was intended to be small enough to be carried and hidden in one's sleeves, thus the term. It has 7 nylon strings in 5 courses and is tuned D4, G4, B4 B3, E4, B4 B4.
Viola da terra is a stringed musical instrument from the islands of the Azores, closely associated with the saudade genre of Portuguese music. Its 12 or 15 metal strings are arranged in either five or six courses.
The hatun charango is a small plucked chordophone from Peru, related to the guitars and lutes. Specifically, it is a form of charango, which has either seven or (usually) eight strings arranged in seven courses.
Lutes are stringed musical instruments that include a body and "a neck which serves both as a handle and as a means of stretching the strings beyond the body".
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