How musical instruments were tuned in the Inca culture

 

 

The Inca culture, which flourished in ancient Peru from about the 15th century until the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors in the 16th century, had its own musical and tuning practices. Although we do not have detailed records of how they precisely tuned their instruments, we can infer some things about their music and tuning based on the information available about their instruments and musical traditions. 

 

The Incas used a variety of musical instruments, some of which included: 

1. **Quenas**: As I mentioned previously in another article, quenas are wind instruments from the flute family that were played by blowing air through them. The tuning of the Inca quenas could vary, but they were generally adapted to the pentatonic scale, which consists of five notes and is common in many musical cultures around the world.

 

2. **Drums and percussion**: The Incas also used drums and other percussion instruments. The tuning of these instruments may vary depending on their construction and specific purpose. Hand drums, for example, were tuned by hitting different areas of the drum surface to obtain different pitches. 

 

3. **String instruments**: The Incas did not know string musical instruments until Spanish colonization. When they discovered the guitar, they modified it until they obtained the "charango", a type of small string guitar, similar to the lute. The tuning of these instruments was probably based on specific scales and varied depending on the music to be performed. 

 

 

 

4. **Ceremonies and rituals**: Music in Inca culture played a fundamental role in religious ceremonies and rituals. In these cases, the tuning could have been related to spiritual and symbolic aspects of the music, rather than a specific tuning in terms of Hertzian frequencies. In summary, although we do not have exact tuning in hertz like that used in contemporary Western music, we know that Inca music was based on specific scales and modes, and that instruments were tuned according to their musical and cultural traditions. Inca music played an important role in the life of this ancient civilization, both religiously and socially, and followed musical patterns and structures specific to their time and culture.

 

 

QUENA FINGERINGS - QUENA FINGER CHART

The position of the fingers in the Quena (Andean flute) varies according to the note on which the quena has been made.

The position of the fingers with all the holes covered is that the name to the quena. In other words, a quena in G, it sounds in G with all the holes covered. Similarly, a quena in F sounds in F with all the holes covered. So on.

 

 Quena in G major - Relative E minor:

 

 

 

 

Quena in F major - Relative D minor :

 

Quena in D major - Relative B minor :

 

 Quena in C major - Relative A minor :

Quena in B major - Relative G-sharp minor :  

 

Black Professional Lupaca Pan Flute 24 Pipes Burnt Bamboo

TUNABLE.

This a professional panflute 24 pipes comes tuned in C major (Do mayor) 440Hz.
This panflute is tunable.

You can choice for left hand or right hand.

Brand: Lupaca.
It is tuned in G+ (Sol +) 440Hz.
Tunable as other key as well
Number of pipes: 24.
Skill Level: Professional Tunable.

Measures:
Long pipe: 15 inches (38 cms)aprox.
Short pipe: 2.9 inches (7.5 cms) aprox.
Weight: 1.65 pounds (750 gramos) aprox.

Material:
Pipes from Burnt Bamboo,
Base: Stronge devil wood.

Case included

 

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MAINTENANCE OF QUENAS, ZAMPOÑAS, PANFLUTES

 

 

One of the biggest enemies of our bamboo and wood flutes is fungi. When stored for a long time, fungi can grow inside or accumulate dust, which affects the sound of the flute.

Here are some tips that can be applied to the care of your quena or pan flute:

1. After using our wind instruments and before storing them, we must remove any saliva that may have remained. Using a cotton cloth, disinfect the mouthpiece of the tube with 75% medical alcohol.

2. Then sprinkle the inside and outside with almond oil (it can also be coconut oil, olive oil, linseed oil). To apply the oil to the inside of the tube, use a brush of the type used to clean test tubes which has the proper diameter to enter the flute.

 

You can make an oiling tool inside the flutes yourself using a wooden stick or reed with pieces of string tied at the end.

3. If you have stored your flute for a long time, before using it be sure to clean the dust that may be inside. To do this, clean it with a clean test tube brush and then apply almond oil.

4. In case of finding your flute with fungus, clean with a cloth soaked in sodium hypochlorite. Let dry. Then apply almond oil.

5. Always use your flute lightly oiled for more beautiful sounds.

6. Never oil a quena made of bone. The bone tends to stain and lose its beauty.

7. Avoid leaving your flute in direct sunlight for long periods of time. Extreme heat can dry out or crack your flute.

8. Avoid hitting your flute. A small crack may not be seen and it will change the sound of the flute.

9. Extreme temperatures temporarily alter the pitch of flutes made of bamboo. Bamboo flutes are tuned to be played at a certain temperature (Saloon temperture).

10. If you are a beginner in quena, or do not have enough force to blow, ask to the makerfluter a thinner quena than the standard one.

SIKU

The siku (Quechua: antara, Aymara: siku, also "sicu," "sicus," "zampolla" or Spanish zampoña), is a traditional Andean panpipe. This instrument is the main instrument used in a musical genre known as sikuri. It is traditionally found all across the Andes but is more typically associated with music from the Kollasuyo, or Aymara speaking regions around Lake Titicaca. Historically because of the complicated mountain geography of the region, and due to other factors, in some regions each community would develop its own type of siku, with its own special tuning, shape and size. Additionally each community developed its own style of playing. Today the siku has been standardized to fit in with modern western forms of music and has been transported from its traditional roots.

History of the siku

The siku (panpipe) is originally from the Aymaras of Perú and Bolivia, where a woman would play her siku as she came down from the mountains. Since the largest siku has every note (A-G), and was too big for the woman, they often got two sikus (usually smaller ones) that would be played together with someone else, so they could play them continuously after each other and thus the scales could fully be played. Once the women partnered, they then became musically bonded with each other, as part of their religion, and neither could play the pipes with any other for the rest of their life.^{[citation needed]}
Women would also assemble into groups as they came down the mountains, each group would play different tunes, and as they got together, they would blend all the melodies together to create one complete melody. The woman also played the siku to attract wild goat that they would then harvest.

Design

Sikus are typically made from bamboo shoots, but have also been made from condor feathers, bone, and many other materials. Additionally, different types of bamboo are employed to change the quality of the sound. Songo, or shallow-walled bamboo, gives a louder, more resonant sound than regular deep-walled bamboo, but is less common due to its fragility.
The antara are traditionally made from a type of cane known as chuki or chajlla (Arundo donax) that grows in the ceja de la selva, literally "the eyebrow of the forest". The pipes are held together by one or two strips of cane (ties) to form a trapezoidal plane (like a raft). Antaras are of different sizes and they produce diverse sounds.
Siku is split across two rows of pipes. One must alternate rows with every note in order to play a complete scale. Traditionally, two musicians were required to play the siku, each one taking one row of the instrument. One part of instrument is called ira, another arka. It is considered that spiritually ira corresponds to male principle and arka to female. When many musicians divide in two parts, first playing ira and second playing arka, this gives Andean music a distinctive stereophonic sound. Hear example.
Now it is more common to see one musician playing both rows of the instrument together, but rustic ensembles retain traditional playing.

Varieties

The most widespread variety of siku, siku ch'alla, contains 13 pipes (6 in ira and 7 in arka), but less common varieties may have more and less pipes. Some of them employ extra open-ended reeds attached to the front of the instrument to change the sound quality. The tabla siku has all of the pipes cut to the same length, so the instrument is rectangular in shape, but has stoppers inside the tubes to adjust the actual resonant length of the chambers.

• Zampoñas tipo, called maltas (malta) (usually in "E"),
• Chilis, (ch'uli, in aymara language) tuned in a upper octave scale;
• Zankas (sanqa) tuned in a lower octave; and
• Toyos (t'uyu) tuned in two lower octaves as maltas zampoña

Scale and tuning

The Siku uses a diatonic scale. Siku ch'alla is tuned in E minor / G major, arca: D-F^#-A-C-E-G-B and ira:E-G-B-D-F^#-A.
There are a contemporary varieties of siku with chromatic scale having 3 rows, with pitch distribution similar to chromatic button accordion.

Sizes

 There are multiple different sizes of siku, typically tuned an octave apart. The smallest of the family is called ika or chulli (Quechua: ch'ulli). The next larger size, the most common, is called malta (Quechua: malta). An octave lower than the malta is the sanka or zanka (Quechua: sanka). The largest of the family is the toyo (Quechua: t'uyu) or jach'a (Aymara: jach'a). The longest pipe of the toyo is typically around 4 feet (120 centimeters).