A kuisi (or kuizi [1] ) is a Native Colombian fipple (or duct) flute made from a hollowed cactus stem, with a beeswax and charcoal powder mixture for the head, with a thin quill made from the feather of a large bird for the mouthpiece. Seagull, turkey and eagle feathers are among the feathers commonly used. [2]
There are male and female versions of the kuisi (or gaita, the Spanish for pipe). The female kuisi bunsi (also rendered kuisi abundjí in Spanish [3] ) is also commonly known as a gaita hembra in Spanish, and has 5 holes; the male kuisi sigi (or kuisi azigí [3] ) is called a gaita macho in Spanish and has two holes. [3] [4]
Players often use wax to close fingerholes and alter the sound of the flute, [2] blocking one or other tone hole on the kuisi sigi, and on the kuisi bunzi either the upper or lower fingerhole so that only four holes are in use at any one time. [5] The change of wax from one fingerhole to another alters the fundamental tone and series of overtones that can be produced. A photograph of the paired flutes of the Cuna Indians of Panama shows that their hembra has only four fingerholes. [1]
Modern Kuisis are between 70 and 80 centimetres long, a length traditionally defined by the arm length of the luthier. [5] Kogi built kuisis are reported to be up to two feet, [1] or 60 centimetres, [5] long. and constructed from cane (carrizo) by the flautist himself (never a woman). [2] The length being measured as 3 times the span between extended thumb and little finger plus the span between extended thumb and index finger. The holes are then located with a distance between them measured by the width of two fingers plus half the width of the thumb. [2] They are constructed from a cactus ( Selenicereus grandiflorus ) which is bored and whose thorns are cut. [5] The center is removed, first moistening and then boring with an iron stick. The cactus stem is thicker at one of its ends, this will go upside and coupled with the bee wax head which carries the feather mouth piece. Though the instrument is slightly conic on the outside, its perforation is cylindrical. [5]
The kuisi bunsi has five tone holes, but only four of them are used when performing: the lower tone hole is rarely used, but when used, the upper tone hole is closed with wax. The lower tone hole of the kuisi sigi is rarely used. [1] [5]
The instrument's head, called a fotuto in Spanish, [6] is made with bee wax mixed with charcoal powder to prevent the wax melting in high temperatures, which also gives the head it a characteristic black color. [5] The mouth piece, a quill made from a large bird feather, is encrusted in this bee wax-charcoal head, with an angle and a distance to the edge of the air column which varies from instrument to instrument. [5]
Since construction is not serial, the only instrument which matches the tuning of a particular kuisi bunsi (female) is the kuisi sigi (male) constructed to accompany it. [5] Their lengths correspond and the position of the two tone holes of the kuisi sigi matches the position of the lower tone holes of the kuisi bunsi. [5]
The earliest known use of kuisis is among Koguis [7] and Ika of Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. Similar flutes are also played in matched pairs by the Kuna (people) (or Cuna) who live around the Darien Gulf in both Colombia and Panama. [1]
The male and female kuisi are traditionally played as a pair in counterpoint to one another; the kuisi sigi usually marking the beat and the kuisi bunsi playing the melody. They are usually accompanied by drums and the maraca. The player of the kuisi sigi often holds that in one hand and a maraca in the other, playing both simultaneously. [8]
In lower slopes of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, for example the Spanish-speaking village of Atánquez, similar flutes are called carrizos from the name of the cane from which they are made, and the ensemble is thus named conjunto de carrizos. This conjunto accompanies the dance chicote, a circle dance in which men and women alternate, placing their arms on each other's shoulders. [1]
On the coastal plain, for example the town of San Jacinto, Bolívar, an ensemble known as the conjunto de gaitas commonly provides the music for the cumbia, porro, and other folk styles such as vallenato. This ensemble consists of two duct flutes (gaitas), a maraca, and two hand-beaten drums of African descent. [1]
A Colombian historian writing in 1865 (Joaquín Posada Gutiérrez, Memorias histórico-politicas, Bogotá: Imprenta Nacional, 1929) has been cited (by Aquiles Escalante, El negro en Colombia, Monograflas sociologicas no. 18, Bogota: Universidad Nacional de Colombia, 1964, 149.) on the fusion of Native American, African and European instruments and music cultures: [1]
...in the early part of the nineteenth century there were great festivities in honor of the patron saint of Cartagena, which at that time was the principal city of the region. At this festival the inhabitants of some wealth and position danced in a pavilion to the accompaniment of a regimental band. Those of the lower classes participated in one of two dances held in the open air. The dancers in one were blacks and pardos (individuals of mixed racial inheritance) and in the second Indians. The blacks and pardos participated in a circle dance of couples, much like the popular cumbia of this century. The dance of the Indians, on the other hand, was a closed circle in which men and women alternated and joined hands, a dance similar to the closed circle of the chicote as danced in Atánquez. The dance of the blacks was accompanied by two or three hand-beaten drums and a chorus of women who clapped. The dance of the Indians was accompanied by gaitas. By 1865 these two castes had lost their mutual antagonism and combined to dance what was then known as the mapalé. Players of gaitas and players of drums joined together to accompany this dance. This merging was apparently the origin of the conjunto de gaitas.
Notable contemporary Colombian performers playing kuisi flutes (or gaitas) include Los Gaiteros de San Jacinto. [8] Emigrant Colombian groups in North American and Europe also perform with kuisis. The New York-based La Cumbiamba eNeYé [9] [10] perform with gaitas constructed by band member Martín Vejarano with mouthpieces made from the feathers of Canada geese sourced in a park in the Bronx. Spanish based Lumbalú, [11] researching and updating of the different traditional coastal Colombian rhythms under the direction of kuisi bunsi player Hernando Muñoz Sánchez, [12] mixing both traditional kuisis with modern instruments and musical styles.
French archaic flautist Pierre Hamon, of the Alla Francesca ensemble, [13] has also performed on the kuisi bunsi in Ritual1, Ritual 2 and Omaggio Kogui on the Hypnos album (2009).
The term conjunto refers to several types of small musical ensembles present in different Latin American musical traditions, mainly in Mexico and Cuba. While Mexican conjuntos play styles such as norteño and tejano, Cuban conjuntos specialize in the son, as well as its derivations such as salsa.
The Galician gaita is the traditional instrument of Galicia and northern Portugal.
Bongos are an Afro-Cuban percussion instrument consisting of a pair of small open bottomed hand drums of different sizes. They are struck with both hands, most commonly in an eight-stroke pattern called martillo (hammer). They are mainly employed in the rhythm section of son cubano and salsa ensembles, often alongside other drums such as the larger congas and the stick-struck timbales.
Northwest Iberian folk music is a traditional highly distinctive folk style, located along Spain's north-west Atlantic coast, mostly Galicia and Asturias, that has some similarities with the neighbouring area of Cantabria. The music is characterized by the use of bagpipes.
Vallenato is a popular folk music genre from Colombia. It primarily comes from its Caribbean region. Vallenato literally means "born in the valley". The valley influencing this name is located between the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and the Serranía de Perijá in north-east Colombia. The name also applies to the people from the city where this genre originated: Valledupar. In 2006, vallenato and cumbia were added as a category in the Latin Grammy Awards. Colombia’s traditional vallenato music is Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding, according to UNESCO.
Son cubano is a genre of music and dance that originated in the highlands of eastern Cuba during the late 19th century. It is a syncretic genre that blends elements of Spanish and African origin. Among its fundamental Hispanic components are the vocal style, lyrical metre and the primacy of the tres, derived from the Spanish guitar. On the other hand, its characteristic clave rhythm, call and response structure and percussion section are all rooted in traditions of Bantu origin.
Guaco is a tropical music band from Venezuela that was formed in Maracaibo by Mario Viloria, Alfonso "Pompo" Aguado, and Fernando Domínguez in 1968. Viloria, the main founder, retired to focus on his college studies; he was the group's main composer for several years. His home was also the main place where practices were held in the group's early years. The name Guaco is attributed a bird named "Guaco" that would fly over Viloria's house every morning. The band began as a gaita zuliana group, and during the 70s diverged from the traditional way of playing the genre by integrating it with elements of salsa music, and adding in violins and electric guitars which were very unusual instruments to be included in a gaita band. Today, the Guaco rhythm continues to evolve through a complex mixture of gaita, salsa, pop music, jazz, funk and even rock and roll and vallenato rhythms, concocting a recognizable and unique style that is considered to be a hallmark of the tropical music genre.
A pipe is a tubular wind instrument in general, or various specific wind instruments. The word is an onomatopoeia, and comes from the tone which can resemble that of a bird chirping.
Pipe and tabor is a pair of instruments played by a single player, consisting of a three-hole pipe played with one hand, and a small drum played with the other. The tabor (drum) hangs on the performer's left arm or around the neck, leaving the hands free to beat the drum with a stick in the right hand and play the pipe with thumb and first two fingers of the left hand.
Gaita zuliana is a style of Venezuelan folk music from Maracaibo, Zulia State. According to Joan Coromines, it may come from the word "gaits," the Gothic word for "goat", which is the skin generally used for the membrane of the furro drum. Other instruments used in gaita include maracas, cuatro, charrasca and tambora. Song themes range from the romantic to the political.
Gaita may refer to:
La Musgaña is a Spanish folk music ensemble, founded in 1986 by Enrique Almendros, José María Climent and Rafa Martin. The band incorporates various instruments such as the dulcimer, fiddle, hurdy-gurdy, bagpipes, flutes, guitar and bass, and performs traditional music from the Iberian peninsula, mostly from the Spanish regions of Castile, Zamora, Leon, Extremadura and La Mancha. La Musgaña means "water-rat" in Spanish.
This page is a glossary of Colombian music.
The three-hole pipe, also commonly known as tabor pipe or galoubet, is a wind instrument designed to be played by one hand, leaving the other hand free to play a tabor drum, bell, psalterium or tambourin à cordes, bones, triangle or other percussive instrument.
Los Gaiteros de San Jacinto are a Colombian traditional folkloric cumbia group formed in the Caribbean Region of Colombia which have been active since 1940. Their folkloric music preserves the traditional rhythms and sounds product of a mixture of the Colombian Indigenous, Spanish and Afro-Colombian heritage.
The gaita de boto is a type of bagpipe native to the Aragon region of northern Spain.
The gaita asturiana is a type of bagpipe native to the autonomous communities of Principality of Asturias and Cantabria on the northern coast of Spain.
The caña de millo, flauta de millo or pito atravesao is a woodwind musical instrument of indigenous origin used in the cumbia music of Colombia's Caribbean coast.
Cumbia[ˈkumbja] is a folkloric genre and dance from Colombia.
