(Sp. República de Chile).
Country in South America. It is bordered in the north by Peru, east by Bolivia and Argentina and south and west by the Pacific Ocean. The country occupies a narrow strip of land running for 4200 km from north to south, with an area of 736, 905 km2. Further territory includes Easter Island (Rapa-Nui), the Juan Fernández Islands and many other islands to the west and south.
JUAN A. ORREGO-SALAS/R (I), MARÍA ESTER GREBE (II)
References to music in chronicles and histories dealing with the 16th century are scarce. Opportunities for the Spanish soldiers to sing villancicos, to play the vihuela, flute or trumpet, were limited at a time when the settlers lived under the constant menace of Indian attacks. Yet by the end of the century the officials of the Spanish Church, who had observed the power that music had over the indigenous peoples, began using it as a missionary tool. The singing of the Mass with the participation of Spaniards and indigenous peoples became customary, and Amerindians were trained to make and play European instruments.
More peaceful and prosperous conditions in the 17th century favoured the development of music. In churches the use of plainsong alternated with hymns honouring the Virgin and with villancicos sung in unison, in two, three or four parts, or by a vocal soloist accompanied by guitar or harp. Pontifical Masses were complemented with ‘fanfares of trumpets, cornets and drums’. The death of Charles II in 1700 and the accession of Philip V to the Spanish throne favoured an increasing French influence, notably in music. The first spinets and clavichords were imported, and around these and other instruments there developed among well-to-do Chileans tertulias (social gatherings). Salon dances, imitative of those current in France, also became popular.
The work of the first native composers coincided with the struggle for independence (1810–17) and with the rise of a society increasingly influenced by European Romanticism. Music-making was mainly for an upper-class audience and was largely confined to a repertory of patriotic band tunes although occasionally this was augmented by the works of Stamitz, Haydn or Pleyel. The first pianos were brought to Chile in the early 19th century, and their importation increased at such a pace that in 1820 the British traveller Mary Graham wrote that the ‘love for music in Chile is amazing, there is no house that lacks a piano’.
Composers showed an increasing awareness of the main trends of European music, particularly Italian opera and virtuoso instrumental composition. In spite of their limited techniques they knew how to attract their audiences with faithful replicas of Cramer, Hummel, Herz or Thalberg or with florid imitations of bel canto and coloratura. Such were Manuel Robles (1780–1836), author of Chile’s first national anthem (1820), Isidora Zegers (1803–69), José Zapiola (1802–85), Federico Guzmán (1836–85), Guillermo Frick (1813–1905), a German who moved to Chile in 1840, and Aquinas Ried (1810–69), a native of Bavaria, who composed the first opera written in Chile, Telésfora (1846).
In the early 20th century Chilean composers began to lose interest in opera and increasingly turned to chamber, choral and orchestral forms with a growing concern for the development of a national idiom. Widely different styles existed concurrently: Enrique Soro was committed to the most traditional forms of Romanticism; Pedro H. Allende, Próspero Bisquertt, Carlos Isamitt and Carlos Lavin drew on Impressionism and made deliberate use of folk music idioms, Ibero-American and Amerindian; Alfonso Leng adhered to German post-Romanticism; Acario Cotapos was self-taught and used non-conventional methods; Domingo Santa Cruz avoided the spell of nationalism and drew on Hindemith's linear technique.
The composers of the following generations profited greatly from the Asociación Nacional de Compositores (founded in 1936; since 1948 the Chilean section of the ISCM), and from the generous system for the promotion and remuneration of creative work established in 1947 through the Premios por Obra y Festivales together with private awards such as the Olga Cohen Award (1952) and the CRAV Prize (1964), donated by the Compañia Refineria Azucar Valparaiso, one of Chile's largest sugar refineries.
The scope of composition has broadened to include a growing variety of techniques while all forms of musical nationalism are rapidly disappearing. Even Jorge Urrutia Blondel, Alfonso Letelier and René Amengual, initially its supporters, adopted the more cosmopolitan outlook advocated by Juan Orrego-Salas and a large younger generation, among whom Eduardo Maturana, Abelardo Quinteros, Gustavo Becerra, Claudio Spies, Darwin Vargas, Juan Allende-Blin, León Schidlowsky and José V. Asuar have gained international recognition. This group includes supporters of the most strictly controlled methods of composition, whether tonal or atonal, as well as those who give scope to chance and improvisation in the creative process. The first Chilean electronic music studio was established at the Catholic University of Santiago in 1959.
Steps towards a more organized and permanent musical life that included more than opera were made with the establishment in Santiago of the Sociedad Filarmónica (1827), followed by similar organizations in other cities: Concepción (1829), Valparaiso (1845), Valdivia (1853), Talca (1855), Copiapo (1862), Osorno (1866), Antofagasta (1889) and others. But by the end of the century most of these societies were moribund, although in southern Chile, as well as in Valparaiso, they greatly benefited from the support of the German settlers.
Another important step forward was the foundation of the Conservatorio Nacional de Música in Santiago (1849), which remained until the end of the century the only official institution offering specialized education in music; private teaching also increased considerably throughout the country.
In 1857 the Teatro Municipal, Santiago, was inaugurated with Verdi's Ernani, but opera had started earlier. In 1830 Rossini's L'inganno felice was presented in the Cifuentes's spacious family mansion in Valparaiso a few weeks before its performance in Santiago. Valparaiso's first opera house, the Teatro de la Victoria, opened in 1844, and Copiapo's in 1847; increasingly in the 1850s Chilean citizens enjoyed elegantly ornamented theatres and well-furnished productions of opera and zarzuela. To a repertory dominated by Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti and Mercadante there were gradually added the works of other composers such as Auber, Gounod, Halévy, Hérold, Massenet, Bizet and Verdi. Mozart was first heard in 1870 (Don Giovanni) and Wagner in 1885 (Lohengrin). Before the 20th century the only opera by a native composer to have been staged in Chile was La florista de Lugano (1895) by Eliodoro Ortiz de Zárate (1865–1953), following the première of his Juana la loca at La Scala (1892).
The tours of some soloists of international reputation, such as Henri Herz (1850), Miska Hauser (1853) and Louis Moreau Gottschalk (1866), satisfied Chilean enthusiasm for instrumental virtuosity, but these were still sporadic events. There were no regular concerts by permanent ensembles until after 1910. In 1913 a short-lived orchestral society (1912–14) gave the first performance in Chile of the complete cycle of Beethoven's symphonies. At this time a number of choral and chamber groups were formed by local communities and groups of young people; these sought the guidance of such respected professionals as Alberto Garcia-Guerrero (1886–1959) and Luigi S. Giarda (1868–1952), a skilful Italian composer who settled in Chile.
The Bach Society (1917–32) flourished beyond the rest and prepared the way for Chile's musical life to develop on a level with the best in Latin America. Under the guidance of Domingo Santa Cruz it promoted the reorganization of the Santiago Conservatory (1928) and the establishment of the faculty of fine arts (1929) at the University of Chile, which gave music teaching a place in higher education. Music studies were later introduced elsewhere: at the Catholic University of Santiago in 1959, at the Catholic University of Valparaiso in 1960, at the Austral University, Valdivia, in 1962, and at the University of Concepción in 1963.
The reform of specialized music education in Chile culminated in the creation by a Bill of Congress of the Instituto de Extensión Musical (1941), as part of the University of Chile. Its vast programme began with the establishment of the Symphony Orchestra of Chile (1941) and the National Ballet (1942; based on members of the Jooss Ballet), the University Chorus and Revista Musical Chilena (both 1945); there followed the biennial Chilean music festivals (1948), the sponsoring of various chamber and choral ensembles, and the opening of an educational radio station in Santiago (1967).
A second full-time orchestra, the Municipal PO, was established in Santiago in 1955; other cities that have their own orchestras include Concepción (1952), Valparaiso (1954), Viña del Mar and Osorno (1956), Temuco (1957), La Serena (1959), Valdivia and Antofagasta (1960).
During the mid-20th century choral ensembles reached international standards; outside Santiago these include the Coros Polifónicos of Concepción (1934) and the Coro de Cámara of Valparaiso (1954).
Music education in public and private schools has been given strong encouragement by the Asociación de Educación Musical (1946) and by the Inter-American Institute for Music Education (1960), while research and preservation work was initially entrusted by the University of Chile to the Instituto de Investigaciones Musicales (1947).
The Chilean Jeunesses Musicales (1960) and the Consejo Chileno de la Música (1962), the national branch of UNESCO's International Music Council, reinforced the country's ties with international organizations, and the incorporation of music to the Instituto de Chile through its Academy of Fine Arts (1964) furthered the recognition of the professional musician among other distinguished representatives of the liberal arts and sciences.
The politics and development strategies that were established during the reign of the military government led to a pronounced reduction in state support for public organizations such as the University of Chile, especially after 1980 when the national university system was reorganized. The Agrupación Musical Anacrusa, a private, underground association consisting mainly of young musicians, was established in 1984. Over the next five years, under the leadership of the composer Eduardo Cáceres, the group was successful in disseminating new Chilean and Latin American compositions. In spite of severe budget restrictions, the University of Chile has continued to promote Chilean music. In 1998 it re-established the Festival of Chilean Music. The Music Institute of the Catholic University of Santiago has also supported national and international contemporary music by running various festivals. Since the mid-1980s new universities, including those of La Serena, Playa Ancha (Valparaíso), Santiago, and the Universidad Metropolitana de Ciencias de la Educación (Santiago), have also carried out important work in the field of music.
See also Santiago.
E. Pereira Salas: Los origenes del arte musical en Chile (Santiago, 1941)
G. Chase: A Guide to Latin American Music (Washington DC, 1945, enlarged 2/1962/R as A Guide to the Music of Latin America)
D. Santa Cruz: ‘Mis recuerdos sobre la Sociedad Bach (1917–1933)’, Revista musical chilena, no.40 (1950–51), 8–62
V. Salas Viu: La creación musical en Chile: 1900–1951 (Santiago, c1951)
E. Pereira Salas: Historia de la música en Chile, 1850–1900 (Santiago, 1957)
D. Santa Cruz: ‘El Instituto de Extensión Musical, su origen, fisonomía y objeto’, RMC, no.73 (1960), 7–38
S. Claro Valdés: ‘Panorama de la música experimental en Chile’, RMC, no.83 (1963), 111–18
R. Stevenson: ‘Chilean Music in the Santa Cruz Epoch’, Inter-American Music Bulletin, no.67 (1968), 1–18
S. Claro: Panorama de la música contemporanea en Chile (Santiago, 1969)
R. Escobar and R. Yrarrázaval: Música compuesta en Chile, 1900–68 (Santiago, 1969)
S. Claro and J. Urrutia Blondel: Historia de la música en Chile (Santiago, 1973)
L. Merino: ‘Fluir y refluir de la poesía de Neruda en la música chilena (Homenaje a Pablo Neruda)’, RMC, nos.123–4 (1973), 55–62
E. Pereira Salas: Biobibliografía musical de Chile desde los origenes a 1886 (Santiago, 1978)
S. Claro Valdés: Oyendo a Chile (Santiago, 1979)
J. Hernández Jaque: ‘La Universidad y el desarrollo de la música en Chile’, RMC, nos.146–7 (1979), 101–11 [lecture]
D. Santa Cruz: ‘La Universidad de Chile en la historia musical chilena’, RMC, no.148 (1979), 3–6
L. Merino: ‘Los Festivales de Música Chilena: génesis, propósitos y transcendencia’, RMC, nos.149–50 (1980), 80–105
S. Claro Valdés: ‘La música en la catedral de Santiago de Chile durante el siglo XIX’, Die Musikkulturen Lateinamerikas im 19. Jahrhundert, ed. R. Günther (Regensburg, 1982), 167–97
L. Merino: ‘An 18th Century Source of Haydn's Music in Chile’, Joseph Haydn: Vienna 1982, 504–10
L. Merino: ‘Chile's Musical Traditions’, Chile: Essence and Evolution, ed. Hernán García Vidal (Santiago, 1982), 186–92
L. Merino: ‘Música y sociedad en el Valparaíso decimonónico’, Die Musikkulturen Lateinamerikas im 19. Jahrhundert, ed. R. Günther (Regensburg, 1982), 199–235
E. Pereira Salas: ‘La vida musical en Chile en el siglo XIX’, Die Musikkulturen Lateinamerikas im 19. Jahrhundert, ed. R. Günther (Regensburg, 1982), 237–59
C. Peña: ‘Concurso Anual de Composición del Instituto de Música de la Universidad Católica de Chile’, RMC, no.162 (1984), 132–8
L. Merino: ‘La Revista musical chilena y los compositores nacionales del presente siglo: una bibliografia’, RMC, no.163 (1985), 4–69
G. Peña and R. Torres: ‘Musica’, Enciclopedia temática de Chile (Santiago, 1988)
R. Torres: ‘Gabriela Mistral y la creación musical en Chile’, RMC, no.171 (1989), 42–106
E. Cáceres: ‘La Agrupación Musical Anacrusa y los Encuentros de Música Contemporánea’, RMC, no.174 (1990), 57–110
‘El XIII Festival de música Chilena’, RMC, no.189 (1998), 53–79
From about 12000 bce Chile was inhabited by indigenous hunter-gathering Amerindian peoples. As a result of the Spanish conquest of Chile in 1583 and its subsequent colonization, contemporary Chilean musics comprise both indigenous and Hispanic traditions which have interacted, co-existed and amalgamated in varying degrees. Further hybridization has occurred as a result of urbanization. Although small numbers of African slaves were taken to Chile during the 17th century, it is likely that African musical influences in Chilean music came from shared cultural histories with neighbouring Latin American countries, especially Argentina, Bolivia and Peru. Contemporary indigenous ethnic groups comprise the Aymara, Atacameña, Kolla, Rapa-Nui, Mapuche, Kawéskar and Yámana. These groups still distinguish between the antiguo (old) and nuevo (new), that is, their traditional musics and those which are the result of acculturation.
Some common musical elements may be discerned among the indigenous peoples of Chile. Free musical forms develop from melodic cells which are juxtaposed in varied sequential repetitions. In contrast, strophic musical forms are based on poetical texts, dance schemes or pre-existing patterns. Evidence of acculturation may be seen in the increasing use of equally tempered scale-types. Heterophony, intervallic parallelism and Western functional harmony are associated with certain specific chordophone repertories and with the music of choral or instrumental groups. Free rhythms and strophes as well as isometric or polymetric sequences appear in both fixed and improvised music. In both fixed and free-time performances sudden changes between slow and fast parts occur in some dances, for example in the huayño of the Aymara. Many indigenous vocal music styles are characterized by a lack of vibrato, a nasality of tone, vocal tension and the use of glissando, appoggiatura and portamento. A great variety of vocal techniques are used, including beating, ritenuto, portamento, falsetto, exhalation, inhalation, crying, sobbing, whispering, closed-mouth singing, emphatic accents, fluctuations, oscillations and tonal deflections. Improvisation predominates, based in processes of transformation of melodic outlines or brief melodic cells.
3. The music of the Rapa-Nui (Easter Island).
6. Spanish and mestizo musics.
The Aymara music of Chile is an inseparable part of Andean culture, sharing genre and stylistic features with the Aymara music of neighbouring areas of Bolivia and Peru. Genres of music and dance are related to categories of ritual: animal fertility rites, Carnival, patron saint festivals and the pachallampa or the ritual sowing of potatoes. During animal fertility rituals tonos de enfloramiento are performed by a soloist or by a spontaneous chorus, with or without accompaniment by the bandola, an instrument of Spanish colonial origin, which has a total of 16 strings divided into four sets of four. These songs are sung during the decoration of llamas and alpacas with multicoloured woven pieces of wool, while incisions are made in the ears of new or unmarked animals. Female animals from herds of different origin are considered ‘mestizo’ rather than Andean. Their decoration is undertaken by women a week after the ritual for male animals. Tonos de floreo are performed according to the dedicated animal, its gender and its functions and actions. Other tonos are dedicated to the sacred emblematic animals of the pastoralist, the feline tite or suinave and the chullumpe bird, which represents the spirit of the llama, reflecting pastoralists’ relationship to their animals.
Each tono, based on a solo melody, is usually divided into two phrases repeated according to textual difference and the energy of the interpretor. The scales used indicate gender differentiation: diatonic major for males, pentatonic minor for females. The latter also characterizes the sacred songs of pastoralists and animals. The melodic compass is usually less than an octave; tempo is stable and moderate.
Carnival is the great community event closing the annual cycle of agricultural activities. It coincides with the harvest period and the seasonal transhumance of animals and aims to encourage the fertility of the earth and of animals. Tonos de carnaval (Carnival songs) and ruedas (circle dances) are performed by a pandilla, a group of musicians who accompany adolescent singers and dancers; their leader is usually an expert bandola player and singer. The music accompanies dancing based on dircular movements following the direction of the sun and involving the displacement of the young women. Each young woman wears on her right arm a culebrilla (little snake) of woven wool symbolizing her own maturity and fertility. During Carnival in mountain communities, the tonos and ruedas are led by an expert guitarist and a solo singer who organizes the responses to the songs as well as the circle dances of the ritual community, in particular the zapateo (step dance) parts of the men. Each song has a melodic scheme characterized by intervallic structures which reveal either an Aymaran or Hispanic origin. It has lively, stable tempos underscored by bandola and guitar accompaniment from the instrumental group.
The aesthetic of vocal styles tends to affirm traditional gender roles and power relations: masculine vocal styles are characterized by what is considered an emphatic and self-affirming emotional tension, while female vocal roles are distinguished by what is considered a ‘weak’, ‘timid’ and ‘soft’ approach, of low volume with a sharp register. Two musical groups acompany songs and dances in the pre-Cordelite area: the tarkeada composed of a group of tarkas (indigenous recorders/flutes) with caja (a drum with two skins) and bombo (large drum); and the orchestra, a mestizo Andean group incorporating two kenas (bamboo flutes), mandolins, guitars, violin and accordion, with hand-clapped rhythms and solo and chorus vocalizations, who interpret takiraris and other Carnival dances. The joyful character of this music concludes the final days of Carnival.
The celebrations which take place in each Aymara village in honour of respective patron saints share the same basic organization and communal content as the official Catholic Church model, with some regional and local variation. The syncretic ritual encompasses Christian and Amerindian beliefs. Led by the Alférez or Mayordomo, the ritual Aymara leader, the event falls into three parts: the antevispera, vispera and patron saint’s day itself. The antevispera contains Amerindian elements, while in the vispera and patron saint’s day rituals syncretic Christian patterns are re-enacted.
The traditional music of the patron saint celebrations are the responsibility of four musical groups. The sikuras are a group playing large bamboo panpipes and double-headed drums. The lakitas are a group playing small panpipes made of bamboo or plastic, with a small caja and large bombo drum, while the lichiguayos are a group playing large kena flutes, and the banda play brass instruments. The sikuras and lakitas are the most emblematic indigenous groups, the other wind groups, such as the lichiguayos, and the brass band, enjoy only restricted local use and have become less common in certain areas.
The music of the sikuras group, whose patterns, processions and farewells possess a solemn ceremonial character, has a polyphonic texture, created by pentatonic melodies in 5ths or octaves, punctuated by isochronic drum beats. In contrast the texture of lakitas music is more simple, doubling the basic melody in parallel octaves, to the accompaniment of the pulse of the bombo and caja. The lakitas repertory uses penta-, hexa- and heptatonic melodies, and includes popular dances such as the huayño, takirari, cumbia, vals and cueca, and religious music such as the diana, marcha, procesión and bendito.
Rural–urban migration in northern Chile has resulted in a diminution of sikuras groups. By contrast, the lakitas enjoy great popularity, with numerous groups mostly composed of young Aymara men. In urban Iquique and Arica, lakas are usually made from readily available plastic pipes, used for plumbing, due to the scarcity of bamboo in urban areas and its fragility. This adaptation and acculturation of Aymara organology is inseparable from the growing influence of contemporary genres of Latin American popular music on the lakitas repertory.
The Aymara rite of pachallampe, which takes place during the sowing of potatoes, is an integral part of patron saint festivals. In the most recent past this consisted of songs accompanied by guitar. Although it has been of relative importance in the mountain villages neighbouring the northern port of Arica, the practice has almost disappeared. The Aymara dance repertory is characterized by its rich variety. Choreography includes circular and linear forms, close- or free-dancing couples, whose mundanzas (choreographic steps) exhibit both fantasy and creativity. Spanish influence is present in the frequent inclusion of zapateo. Dances fall into two groups: traditional Andean genres and cultural borrowings from popular Latin American and international musics. The latter have adapted popular models to Andean style through an integration of distinctive features as much choreographic as musical. Traditional dances include the huayño, or trote, the takirari or kollawada, a variety of takirari called the waka-waka, the huacha-torito and the cachimbo. Most of these dances come from the altiplano or mountain villages, except for huachi-torito and cachimbo which come from the desert villages. Dances regarded as not fully traditional include popular forms such as the cumbia, cueca, vals, Bolero and cha cha cha. With lakita and brass groups broadening their repertories by adapting new dance genres to their instrumentation within Andean idiomatic styles, a range of future developments are possible.
According to Aymara mythology, the origin of music is in the manqha-pacha or underworld inhabited by seren-mallku, the male spirit of music and seren-t’all, his female partner. They are accompanied by eight sacred animals including the tite and the chulllumpe which have descriptive onomatopoeic songs dedicated to them as part of animal fertility rites. Seren-mallku and seren-t’all are the patron saints of music and are associated with the natural sound of water and with moving water. A sirena (mermaid in an underground spring) is believed to create the sounds of music from those of springs, waterfalls, streams, brooks and rivers. The sirena has both human and extra-human qualities. The seren-mallku, invoked as the mythological creator of music, is concerned with melodies and the melodic inspiration of musicians, as well as the tuning and timbre of instruments and the ability to synchronize them while playing. On the eve of a ritual festival, musicians go to listen to music at springs or waterfalls, taking their musical instruments with them.
The vibrations of nature, associated by musicians with water, wind, mountains, hills and shrubs, are thought to make the instruments sound. Musicians remain silent as they hear the melodies of seren-mallku through their instruments, and experience deep emotions which generate a state of mystical participation. Seren-mallku symbolizes music as melody generated by nature, the source of the musical repertory of a traditional instrumental group, a powerful means of communication and a necessary condition for ritual.
In the sikuras and lakitas panpipe groups the panpipes are divided into two types, the ira (first or male) and the arka (second or female). In groups of sikus (old cane pipes of differing sizes) there is an interconnected scheme of pulse and metre driven by a group of drums over which the panpipes play. The siku ira (male panpipe) interprets the ‘leading’ sounds in the first ‘strong’ position and its subdivisions, the siku arka (female panpipe) interprets the sounds which ‘follow’ and their subdivisions, which are defined as ‘weak’. They also produce alternations and analogous relationships, with sounds of longer duration in the introductory and cadential passages of the sikuras group. In the lakitas, of smaller size, there are interconnected tonal schemes of 13 sounds ordered according to a descending diatonic scale. Six descending sounds correspond to the male panpipe (ira) (d–b–g–e–c–A) while the female pipe (arka) has seven dovetailing sounds (e–C–a–f–d–B)
While the male panpipes are indigenously defined by ‘virile’ connotations (‘first’, ‘strong’, ‘macho’), the female panpipes are given what are culturally considered feminine attributes (‘second’, ‘following’, ‘weak’ and ‘female’). As a result lakas have been conceived of anthropomorphically as interdependent ‘pairs’ of instruments. According to the musicians and their indigenous public, the male–female pairs of lakas interact as a human couple through an interconnected tonal dialogue which symbolically represents the Aymara couple.
Through these symbolic constructions, the Aymara have tried to legitimize patterns of male leadership and female subordination found in traditional society. That society now faces a number of challenges. Recent decades have witnessed increased migration of Aymaras from the altiplano (high plateau) and mountain foothills of northern Chile towards major urban areas on the coast and into neighbouring countries, with migratory movement towards the south, particularly gravitating to the capital Santiago. This has brought about various socio-cultural transformations within communities and extended families, inevitably affecting their ethnic identity and traditional culture as much as their aesthetic taste and musical activities.
The culture of the Atacameñan people comes from pre-Columbian agrarian pastoralists who lived around the oasies, valleys and ravines of the Atacama desert, considered the most arid on earth. Both the pre-Hispanic peoples, referred to as Atacamas or Likan-antai, and their contemporaries, have lived in ayllus. These extended families, still found today in the Salar de Atacama and at the basin of the river Loa, maintain broad links with the local cultures of Jujuy and Salta in Argentina and with neighbouring people in Bolivia. Atacameñan traditional music forms an integral part of the annual ritual cycle, whose central events are the cleaning of acequias irrigation channels, the marking and decoration of animals to ensure thier identity and fertility, the sowing of crops, village patron saint festivals and Carnival.
Two essential styles co-exist. The first, of ancient Atacameñan origin is associated with the original indigenous kunza language which is no longer used. The second, of post-Hispanic origin, is associated with the Spanish language. The first style, characterized by tritonic melodies, reappears in the sung dance-songs and accompanying instrumentals for the talatur cleaning of the irrigation channels, the sowing of crops, the treading in of the seed and in rituals surrounding animal fertility (ex.1). The second style, characterized by diatonic melodies, is found in the genre used for patronage festivals. Genres of the first style are ceremonial, consisting of mixed circular sung dances accompanied on traditional Atacameñan instruments, with elaborate footwork and rhythmic clapping. Such ancient ceremonial genres use typical three-toned Atacameñan melodies based on the major arpeggio, their tonal centre coinciding with the fundamental. Some sounds appear to be transposed to the higher or lower octave, and in this way amplify the melodic range.
Vocal interpretation comes from either solo or choral songs, the latter characterized by a use of relative or heterophonic unison proper to ancient, ritual kunza styles. Vocal music using an extremely high-pitched register, with a distinctive timbre created by an intense open-throat style, is syllabic with little ornamentation. The accompanying instrumental style is differentiated according to its original repertory. If, for example, it it according to ancient kunza styles, the accompanying instruments – the clarín (trumpet), putu-putu (animal horn) and chorromón (a rattle made of clusters of bells) – freely improvise rather than intervene in the fixed scheme of the music. In contrast to the post-Hispanic musics of Carnival and the patron saint festivals, the accompaniment of guitar and caja chayera (double-skinned/double-ended drum) is fixed and regular, offering necessary support for the poetic couplets while reinforcing metric schemes.
The music of the kunza has a great capacity to be extended. The formal organization of pieces is simple, generally based on the varied repetition of a single unique phrase with any extension of musical parts dependent on function and cultural context. In contrast Carnival couplets are of more restricted duration. In both kunza and carnaval couplets metric organization tends to be additive, changing in response to a need to maintain the regular pulse which affects the time units of preferred groups of prosodic accents. In the post-Hispanic Carnival repertory, couplets which tend to be in ternary metre are affected by the accompaniment which marks the strong beat or even the first and third metrical beats. Rhythmic schemes are simple or subordinate to metric organization. The tempo of the parts in old kunza style is unhurried, with a moderately slow speed the general tendency. In contrast the tempo of post-Hispanic styles tends to be faster and more lively. For the Atacameñans, the triphonic music of kunza is ‘the song of the water’, born in nature and communicating its spirits. Water is the most significant element and its magical power and potency is symbolically represented in the song of the water deity, tata-putarajni.
Water – necessary for desert survival – is granted to the Atacameñans through performance of the ritual song talatur. According to the testimony of a singer from the village of Socaire, the talatur is created and taught by the water:
Listening at night, I heard the water sing and I survived the shock. Later I returned to the village, while the water’s voice followed me. It taught me the melody, even the words. In one night I learnt all there was to know … this song originated in the fume of the water. The water sang it, one has to learn it from the water.
In indigenous testimonies, the presence of an anthropomorphic image of water recurs. Conversations and drum patterns are heard to come from inside water, whose free flow is compared to the joyous human voice. All this enables the cantal to hear and understand the message of the canto del agua. This latter is characterized by tritonic tonal organization, composed of sequences based on the major arpeggio which personify both the water and its song. The melody is accompanied by three ancient ritual instruments, the clarín, putu and chorromón, which improvise and elaborate a free texture.
The clarín is a natural, straight, tubular trumpet with a mouthpiece, played laterally. Its cane tube measures between 1·3 and 1·5 metres in length and it is decorated with multicoloured pieces of wool. It plays tritonic arpeggios, which accompany vocal music, and it shares some characteristics with the Argentine erke and the Mapuche trutuka. The putu is a natural, tubular vertical or lateral trumpet, curved, with or without mouthpiece. Decorated with a cow’s horn, ornamented with balls of multicoloured wool, it emits sustained notes, and is related to the Argentine erkencho, the altiplano pututo (shell trumpet) and the Mapuche küll-küll. The chorromón is a rattle of pre-Columbian Atacameñan origin, made of pyramids of suspended metal bell which are struck indirectly. The top part of each is perforated to allow them to be strung together in threes or as a group of 12, divided into six slim ‘female’ ones and six thicker ‘masculine’ ones.
The Rapa-Nui are the original inhabitants of Easter Island (also called Rapa-Nui), part of Chile since 1886. The culture of the Rapa-Nui is linked to that of greater Polynesia, particularly to the people of Mangareva, Tahiti and the Maori of New Zealand. Although some traditional Rapa-Nui are inheritors of oral tradition, mostly relating to dance, the process of acculturation has been intense and complex, with influences coming not only from Chile but from many other areas. The resulting mestizo culture has also been influenced by island people travelling to study and work in mainland Chile and elsewhere.
Music of remote origin, with ritual community functions, acts as a menas of communication for the ceremonial re-enactment of mythical belief systems. Presided over by the hatu (who directs) it is interpreted by both male and female performers who sit opposite each other on the floor, accompanying their songs with rhythmic body movements, reinforced by sounds from one or two traditional instruments including the shell trumpet.
Songs are generally choral, predominantly using consonant or dissonant irregular, parallel intervals. Each song is habitually preceded by the hatu indicating tuning and intonation. Final cadences, which come after a signal to conclude, depend on specific formulae for the completion of each type of song. Central distinguishing characteristics lie in the relationship between melody, text and dance gestures with dance gestures involving the face and eyes describing the content of the text through metaphor and mimed metonym. As a result older dances are not regarded as autonomous forms of expression. First recognized by missionaries who arrived in 1884, there was gradual influence on such music by music brought by the Catholic Church, particularly through himene (hymns) which have been adapted in distinctive ways on most Polynesian islands.
Nine types of song are commonly found: (1) aku-aku, which are mostly performed on festive occasions, are dedicated to the spirits which iconically represent the giant sculpted Moai kava-kava figures found all over the island. (2) Riu are polyphonic choral songs characterized by their diversity, richness and expressive power and the fantasy embodied in their texts, which commonly allude to wars, triumph and legend. From these riu-tangi evolved, recited funeral laments which are accompanied by cries and vocal expressions of pain. (3) Two types of love song are common: ate, songs of unhappy love, fraternal sentiment, praise and the glorification of particular people or important deeds and events; and uté, songs of requited love. (4) Kai-kai are rhythmically recited with string accompaniment, with the most recent versions adding melodies on top of a rhythmic base. (5) Ei are songs of a burlesque or insulting nature, which play a key part in song competitions. (6) Hakakio are songs of thanks for received favours while (7) ha ipo-ipo are wedding songs. (8) Himene are hymns which refer to the history or legend of the ancient arikis (kings) or other figures. (9) Kohau rongo-rongo is a recited genre, possibly derived from inscribed tablets of the same name.
Most of the ancient dances of the Rapa-Nui are performed to the accompaniment of musical instruments, hand-clapping, shouts, cries and other vocal sounds. Their poetic texts boast of the exploits and heroic deeds of people in earlier times during war, fishing trips and when in love, the content commented upon by mimicry or mimed gestures. In women’s dances a fundamental expressive role is played by undulating arm movements and their measured style. Masculine dances are characterized by broad, agile, energetic movements with displays of physical virtuosity as demanded by the text.
Understanding of the music of the Rapa-Nui has been severely hindered by the impact of key historical events which dramatically affected the population of the island. During the 18th and 19th centuries the island community faced an extensive period of crisis involving piracy and enslavery. Following an attempt by Spain to possess the territory in 1770, a catastrophic episode occurred in 1862–3 when a squadron of ships from various countries, under the flags of North America and Europe, arrived in search of indentured labour to work in Peruvian agriculture, capturing at least 800 men (perhaps double that number) as slaves. In 1863 approximately 12 managed to escape, returning to the island but bringing with them tuberculosis, measles, kokonga and other contagious diseases and subsequently infecting their families. The resulting epidemic of 1877 reduced the population of the island to 110 people, the lowest in its history.
Those who died in Peru and on the island were mostly men, the legitimate bearers of the island’s ancient oral history and traditional culture. With the intention of safeguarding the transmission of their heritage, the islanders created at least 67 rongo-rongo hieroglyphic tablets which recorded this cultural legacy. However, due to the deaths between 1863 and 1877 of those who could decipher them, decoding the tablets has proved impossible. From 1864 the Catholic evangelization of the population, coupled with the assimilation of new cultural influences mostly from Tahiti introduced a new cultural phase. Because of the lack of continuity of original musical traditions and the impossibility of deciphering the rongo-rongo tablets, anthropological understanding of the ancient music of the island in its cultural context has proved extremely difficult.
Modern music of Polynesian origin was brought by the people of Rapa-Nui who had emigrated to Tahiti and other Polynesian islands and who returned home following Chile’s annexation of the island in 1888. From 1914 onwards the sau-sau, tamuré, hula and vals tahitiano were adopted. The island’s youth were attracted by the rhythmic dance music and absorbed elements of it in their own music. The influence of popular music of international origin expanded following World War II when the island started to open up to tourism. Young island men who travelled to the Chilean mainland to do military service brought back many influences, including material recordings and a new commercial cassette culture. The period when the island was used as a base for the North American military saw the introduction of radio, television and film as well as other aspects of north American culture. Hybrid genres developed such as the tango pascuense, followed by the vals, corrido, foxtrot, twist, rock and others. This music in turn influenced the traditional musical repertory. While ‘feminine’ styles are characterized by a high register and smoothness, the ‘masculine’ is emphasized by falsetto styles, sharp sounds and special vibrato, as well as abrupt and rough, deep, low sounds which often include glottal stops.
Following cultural contact with first the Incas and later the Spanish, the Mapuche defended and preserved their original territory and cultural heritage over a long period of wars which lasted over 400 years (16th to 19th centuries). The machi is the principal carrier and transmitter of Mapuche culture, with diverse sacred ritual and shamanic roles within the community. According to Mapuche myth the cosmos is divided into seven square earths, each taking the form of stratified platforms superimposed on each other in a descending order of cosmic space. Such earths represent domains controlled by supernatural powers which are beneficial and constructive as well as malign and destructive. The four superior earths belong to wenu-mapu (the high lands), the supreme space of the forces of good, where beneficient spirits, deities, ancestors, machi (female shamans) and deceased cacique leaders reside. In contrast malign spirits live in the rangiñ-mapu (fifth earth); while in the minche-mapu (seventh earth) the evil agents of weküfes and kalkus (witches) interact, bringing illness and death. Mapuche women and men live in the mapu (sixth earth).
According to Mapuche ritual leaders the musical universe is structured by the two essential domains of the sacred and profane. It is believed that sacred music is generated by deities and spirits belonging to the meli-ñom-wenu (the four platforms of the Mapuche sky); while profane music exists as a means of communication between earthly Mapuches. The tayíl, a sacred song of great power which comes from the divine domain of deities and spirits, is given to certain machi called tayíltufes (interpreters of the tayíl) or Mapuches with shamanic vocation received through a dream, vision or state of trance. Three basic categories of tayíl are distinguished: the puel-tayíl or tayíl of the east; the wenu-tayíl or tayíl of the platforms of the wenu-Mapu (the sky); and the kompa-pulli-tayíl or tayíl of the ecstatic trance of the machi. The first two categories are interpreted in successive form in the ngillatún, the main community fertility ritual associated with the choike-purrún (the dance of the ostrich). The third category, which includes ecstatic trance, forms part of shamanic initiation, post-initiation, therapeutic and diagnostic rites.
In the ngillatún, the great community fertility ritual, as well as in medicinal rites, the machi symbolically reactualizes cosmological beliefs and their significance. In such contexts the role of ritual music is paramount, constituting a transcendent means of communication directed to both the deities and the ritual community. It is the medium which permits communication and interaction between the Mapuche and their mythical pantheon, reinforcing a system of beliefs inseparable from their ethnic identity. The drawing out and the subdivision into squares of ritual space, the actions of the principal ritual actors, the organization, number and repetition of each episode of the rite, regulated always by paired numbers, reproduces the regulating principle of a world view based on the pair and its multiples, dominated by the number four. In this rite music symbolically re-creates the order of the cosmos, thus ensuring the cultural continuity necessary for the regeneration of sustaining vital energies.
Two categories of music co-exist in the second domain of humans. The machi-ül-kantún, which includes varieties of non-ritual, profane song, considered the oldest, most fixed genre, is interpreted at informal meetings or family celebrations. The more recent mapuche-ül-kantún, considered freer in structure, and more entertaining in content, serves as an escape valve for the externalization of emotions and conflict but is considered of lesser importance. Both musical categories are created through improvisation or poetic improvisation based on the adaptation, transformation and re-creation of pre-existing melodic patterns and schemes. It is expected that a good singer will also be a good poet.
The rewe, the sacred totem pole, iconically represents the cosmos and is the ritual focal point of the machi, while the kultrún (shamanic drum) represents the earth. The membrane of the drum is painted with a cross which is polysemic in its symbolism, representing on the one hand the division of Mapuche land into four areas, four regional families with one centre, and, on the other, the four cardinal points, the four astral stars and planets. communication between spirits and the Mapuche people takes place through the ritual activity of the machi because the inner meanings and workings of the cosmos have been revealed to her. Thus the machi generates the vital energy, health and well-being necessary for the survival and positive destiny of the people, defending them against potential harm from kalkus and weküfes, who bring suffering, failure, illness and death.
The Mapuche attribute the power and success of the machi’s song to her role as the carrier of the unlimited spiritual powers of the wenu-mapu, mediating between these beneficial powers and the people. Ritual shamanic music is believed capable of linking and communicating between these supernatural world of deities and spirits and the world of humans, of accessing divine help, of facilitating the diagnosis and cure of illness and with the possibility of extracting malign spirits from the body of a sick person. The machi’s powerful intervention through song draws the attention of deities and spirits to the supplications of the sick person. As a shaman, the machi is not only transcendent, but also the means of bringing about both life and good health. While Mapuches do not take their mapuche-ül-kantún (‘profane songs’) as seriously, they are considered significant ways of communicating emotions and human tensions, shedding light on important aspects of social dynamics. At social gatherings they are used to pass the time, stimulating interaction and the emotional response of listeners.
Mapuche musicians have imposed order and coherence on their sound universe, categorizing genres, principal musical types and inter-relationships. In the machi-ül-kantún certain shamanic songs are designated as part of the ngillatún fertility rites; the machi-elwún, shamanic funeral rites, the machilwún initiation and ngeikurrewén post-initiation rites; while the ülutún (simple), datún (complex) and pewetún are diagnostic healing therapies. The songs of the pallantún, or of the pichi-pillantún, are used by the machi to communicate with her spirit aids.
Diverse sub-categories are recognized which vary according to thematic and functional content. Songs are classified as ‘old’ and ‘new’ according their relative age or youth; while in performance they are classified by gender, according to the age of the respective singer. These include narrative songs about journeys, farewell, return, previous generations of a family, lineage, history, all of which are popular at family gatherings; lyrical songs, of love, nostalgia, welcome, happiness, sadness, and of weddings which are favoured at social encounters, get-togethers and parties; work songs about the search for work, collective work, the construction of the ruka (the traditional thatched Mapuche home, made of dried mud); of the sowing of crops, the reaping and grinding of corn and wheat; and of the spinner and the weaver; drinking songs, for wine, for chicha (cider), the bar, all of which are performed by men; lullabies, performed by women; playful songs for games of palín (pranks and jokes), dice, masks and bird catchers.
Mapuche dances have a ritual function. Their choreographic patterns are circular in movement and they are danced either in mixed- or single-gender groups, or by a couple. Among the most important are: the ngillatún fertility rite, represented by the choike-purrún, a dance with stylized movements which mimic the mountain ostrich; the lonko-meo, a collective dance with semicircular lines; and the machilwün and ngeikurrewén, the dances of shamanic rites of initiation and post-initiation. In each, beliefs are symbolically re-enacted, particularly those representing the circular movement of the sun and spatial associations with cardinal points.
Mapuche musical instruments include the following aerophones: the trutruka, a natural trumpet with a mouthpiece made of a horn; the pifüllka, a vertical wooden flute with finger-holes and without a mouthpiece, which has one or two tubes with one tube closed at the interior end; the nolkiñ, a natural, vertical trumpet, with or without mouthpiece; the corneta, a small trutruka. Membranophones include the kultrúng, a small round shamanic drum, hollowed out of wood, which has a slightly conical shaped bottom, its stretched skin usually divided by drawn lines into four segments, and which has a few sacred stones placed inside it so that it also functions as a rattle. Idiophones include the wada, a shell rattle; the kadkawilla or yüullu, bell rattles; the trompe, a small mouth harp (‘jew’s harp’, birimbau), as a plucked idiophone; and the chueca or wiño, variety of rattle. The ritual orchestra includes a variety of instruments (mostly depending on their availability), among them the kultrúng, the pifüllka (for rhythm) and the trutruka (for melodic improvisation).
Both the Kawéskar and Yámanas form part of the fuegina culture, whose descendants live in the extreme southern Austral area of Chile and Argentina. In the 1970s it was found that while Kawéskar ritual music and children’s games were no longer common, secular music had survived albeit with a reduction in the number and variety of characteristic imitative zoomorphic songs. Younger people have shifted their interest away from solo and collective group traditions and are relatively unfamiliar with songs in their native language.
The growing acculturation of Kawéskar music has reduced its broad thematic scope; the only thriving music is profane and is linked to the family, the expression of emotion, experience or work. The original ancient religious music associated with shamanism, supernatural beliefs and concepts, the mythical pantheon of deities, legend and vital annual rituals has been lost as the Kawéskar have adapted to survive. Educated in Spanish they are now integrated into mestizo culture alongside the fishermen of Chiloé and other residents of the Austral region.
Chilean Hispanic and mestizo music are influenced by three cultures: the Hispanic, the Amerindian and the African. Chilean traditional music of Hispanic origin derives primarily from music brought at the time of the conquest and during the colonial period (16th to late 18th centuries). The interaction between Spanish and Amerindian cultures led either to the retention of Hispanic features or to the generation of mestizo musical forms which, once integrated, became relatively fixed. During the 19th and 20th centuries, new musical elements of either European or Latin American origin (particularly from Argentina, Peru and Bolivia) have been incorporated and adapted. Chronologically, there are two categories: the older colonial music of Spanish origin and the later modern republican music. The former, which dates from the formative period (16th to 18th centuries) is found in an area between Coquimbo, the Bío-Bío and the island of Chiloé. The latter evolved through the transformation of old colonial repertories with the introduction of new genres and styles from both European or Latin American sources, a process favoured by independence from Spain and the subsequent colonization and cultural integration of the new northern and southern regions. Although both older and modern music and dance categories are distinguished by genres, styles, structures, instruments and the festivities of the annual ritual cycle, they share features and have imprecise borderlines, particularly in southern Chile.
Colonial musics from the 16th century to the 18th century fall into three main types: the Romance (ballad) and related forms, ceremonial dances and songs, and some miscellaneous forms and genres. The romance or ballad and its related forms – the copla and glosa – the contemporary verso, tonada and Corrido – were originally based on Spanish medieval and Renaissance sung poetry of secular character and popular folk origin. The romance consisted of various narrative stanzas of four lines sung to the same brief melody, frequently employing the major mode, either solo, or accompanied on vihuela, guitar or other instruments. Although the term romance is now little known among Chilean folk musicians, this genre survives in other narrative songs such as the tonada, canción, corrido and verso and in certain children’s game songs, such as the ronda. In all these cases, the old romance may be recognized easily by its textual content, poetic structure and specific melodic features.
Ceremonial ritual dances of Spanish origin were also introduced in the early colonial period for civil and religious occasions performed by hermandades or bailes (dance groups) sponsored by guilds and the Catholic Church. One of the oldest surviving and most widely known hermandades of ceremonial dances are the bailes de chinos (Dance of the Chinese men); other well-known groups are the morenos, cuyacas, danzantes and various other bailes. Their main traditional elements are characteristic fancy costumes, ornaments, special emblems; the survivals or adaptations of ancient Amerindian dances performed alongside dance movements originally of European origin; instrumental and vocal melodies with a simple strophic structure, employing either major or minor diatonic or minor pentatonic melody types. Performances of such groups are an integral part of the main annual religious festivities of northern and central Chile, such as La Tirana (July), Las Penas (October), Andacollo (24–8 December) and the Cruz de Mayo (3 May).
The Fiesta de Andacollo is the oldest (1585–90). Its religious ceremonies start with a midnight mass and include solemn processions when the musicians and dancers present their songs as gifts to the Virgin. The traditional music and dances are performed by three main hermandades or bailes; the chinos, danzantes and turbantes (ex.2). Religious songs and dances are performed by these groups with their song-texts, derived from the romance, mainly consisting of the tonada al Niño or aguinaldo (Christmas carol) and the verso or Décima. At the end of the 20th century, participating pilgrims introduced popular components inspired by contemporary TV and radio programmes, a new trend promoting a generation of new bailes following the changing subjects and preferences of the mass media. Such practice would suggest a process of incorporation of cultural elements from different popular but no less significant sources in the past.
The tonada al Niño is a lively Christmas carol related to the Spanish cantiga. The ancient term villancico has now practically disappeared, replaced by the terms ‘tonada’ or ‘tonada al Niño’ (tonada for the child Jesus). The musical characteristics of these songs are similar to those of the tonada (ex.3). It consists of a repeated quatrain which usually alternates with a refrain, with major-mode melodies with conjunt movement generally accompanied by guitar, and occasionally by harp. Traditionally it is performed on Christmas Eve in farms or village churches. Imitations of animal cries or the symbolic striking of the churches. Imitations of animal cries or the symbolic striking of the church door are customarily added between stanzas. In the second half of the 20th century it became a feature in urban popular and folk repertories.
The verso or canto a lo pueta (‘sung in the manner of the poet’) is a genre of sung poetry based on the décima form. There are two types of verso, the secular, a lo humano (of the human) and the sacred, a lo divino (of the divine). Versos a lo divino are usually sung at velorios (wakes). The textual form is based on an initial quatrain (which may be omitted in performance) which states the subject, followed by five stanzas of ten octosyllabic lines or décimas, four of which quote one line of the quatrain in their tenth line, the last of which is a despedida (farewell). The music is based on various recitative-like patterns with characteristic descending cadences, organized in simple binary form. Other musical characteristics are tonal (major–minor), modal or mixed melodies of conjunct movement; triadic harmonies, modal or tonal chord progressions and parallelisms; unmeasured or fixed rhythm; moderate tempos; high, loud and plaintive solo voices; and strummed or plucked accompaniments on either guitar or guitarrón. Some of these features are shown in ex.4. The traditional verso survives today in the repertories of representative performers, called payadores, who are mostly based in rural areas. A number of well-known professional performers improvise their sung poetry for large urban audiences, either live in public or on television thus ensuring the tradition survives among an urban public, most of whom have rural roots.
Children’s game songs include the ronda, the pregón (street cry) and arrurrupatas (lullabies), inspired by their function and brought from Spain during the colonial period. Musical instruments of colonial Spanish origin include the guitar, played with various scordatura tunings (ex.5); the guitarrón, a large guitar with 25 strings (fig.1); the rabel, a three-string fiddle (fig.2); the harp and the bandola, a flat-backed lute.
Republican music of the 19th and 20th centuries includes the cueca, tonada, corrido and valse. The cueca is Chile’s national dance. Widely diffused throughout the country, it has regional variants. According to Chilean musician Zapiola (1802–85), the cueca or zamacueca came to Chile from Peru in approximately 1823. The dance developed in both countries under the same name until following the War of the Pacific the Peruvians changed its name to the marinera to honour those marines who had died in battle against the victorious Chileans. Of black American origin, and sung to guitar and pandereta accompaniment, it is a dance of mixed, independent couples with characteristic use of a swirled handkerchief. It consists of three parts called pies, each of which correspond to divisions of the poetic text: a remate, consisting of a concluding pair of verses. In between these parts brief and expressive refrains are inserted.
The choreography of the cueca can be schematically resumed as following: the coming together of the couple, woman on the arm of the man, with a first initial turn to the turn to the right in a circle following a figure of eight; advance and retreating movements between partners following semicircles; a second turn with a circle and change of side; a continuation of advancing and retreating figures; a third turn again with a circle and change of side; a continuation of further advancing and retreating figures; and a turn and finishing figure with the couple close together. The dance steps combine those of the valseado (waltz steps), the escobillado (sliding, skipping steps across the floor), with zapateado (tap-dance) footwork from the male dancer. (Compare with bambuco and marinera.)
Melodies, usually in the major mode, are composed in two phrases, which freely alternate and vary, allowing the insertion of expressive refrains. Such melodies are based on melodic formulas characterized by sesquiattera rhythms and metric alternation between 6/8, 3/4 and 2/4. The vocal melody is interpreted by a singer, usually with a doubling in 3rds or 6ths by a second voice. Both voices are characterized by high-pitched tone and intense volume, probably developing from the need for the voice to carry in a natural manner.
The principal singer accompanies himself on a guitar, the body of which is used percussively (tanada) by the second singer. The main rhythm is underscored by the percussive clapping of those present, often reinforced by a cacharaina (a scraped percussive idiophone made out of a donkey’s jawbone); and a pandera (a particularly robust tambourine). The harp is also sometimes added as an instrument of accompaniment.
Other song and dance forms include the tonada, another traditional song which also enjoys wide presence and diffusion. Its name is derived from the tono, meaning melody or song. During the colonial period, it was sung to the poetic texts of romances and Villancicos en el tono de (‘to the tune of’). The great majority now performed are of recent origin. A profane song of lyric character, in slow time, with or without a chorus, the tonada’s final verse is called the cogollo or coda. Vocal melodies are interpreted either by a soloist or duos who duplicate the principal melody in 3rds or parallel 6ths. Vocal styles of singers are characterized by nasal timbres and high-pitched tessitura. Strummed guitar accompaniment uses alternating chords I and V on a 6/8 metric base, with hemiola marked in a maintained tempo. Occasionally, accompaniment is augmented by an additional guitar or harp to which is added percussion knocked out on the instrument’s body. If slow and fast tempos are alternated, the tonada becomes a tonada-canción. Generally melodies are in the major mode using similar melodic intervals to the cueca with frequent repetitions of phrases. The term tonada is also applied to a group of musical genres which share common features. Among them are the corrido (narrative dance-song), the tonada al Niño (Christmas song), the esquinazo (evening or dawn serenade in honour of a person or saint) and parabienes (wedding songs).
Related to the romance and tonada, the corrido is very popular in central and southern Chile. A narrative dance-song, its text is composed of octosyllabic lines. In certain cases the first pair of verses rhyme, while the second are left free. The verse can be hexa- or hepta-syllabic with a single rhyme. It is based on a basic, single melody, which is repeated successively adapting itself to each new poetic line. The choreography corresponds to a dance in binary metre, with the body movements of participating couples following the movements of the feet. Such characteristics are also present in the contemporary Mexican corrido, which seems to have been influenced by the Chilean model.
Several typical regional folkdances of recent origin but which have almost disappeared are the northern cachimbo, trote, torito, chaya-chaya, zonzo-ternero, las lanchas, la danza; the central southern refalosa, sajuriana, sombrerito, chapecao, mazamorra, aire, cuando, cielito, peuqen, aguilucho, jote, chincolito; the Chiloé islands sirilla, pericona, trastasera, nave, costillar, pavo, cielito, rin and zamba.
Apart form the musical instruments described above, instruments used include the matraca (fig.3) and cacharaina (scraped idiophones); the tormeno and pandero (respectively struck and shaken idiophones); the tambor and bombo (small and large double-headed drums) the charango and chillador (small Andean guitars); bandola (flat-backed lute) and chanango (board zither).
Many
of the characteristics of Chilean Hispanic music are shared by similar
traditions found in other Latin American countries, particularly neighbouring
Argentina, Bolivia and Peru. These characteristics include: the predominance of
fixed, strophic forms corresponding to the text, and of improvised free forms
modelled on melodic patterns; simplified functional harmony employing I, IV, V
and VIII
cadences;
frequent parallel motion in either 3rds or 6ths; the use of hemiola and other
compound rhythmic structures; the predominance of a regular and fixed tempo;
and an alternation between slow and fast sections. Vocal characteristics
include lack of vibrato, nasality, tension, high intensity and pitch; frequent
use of slides, glissandos, portamentos and appoggiatura; solo or duo
performances and singing contests called desafíos in which singers
improvise alternately. Instrumental accompaniment is mainly provided by
chordophones, in particular the five- or six-string guitar, used either solo or
in ensembles, with a variety of afinaciones transpuestas (scordatura
tunings) and occasional double courses. Accompaniments are either strummed or
plucked, with duplications of the vocal melody in the instrumental interludes;
the most traditional instrumental ensemble comprises guitar, harp and
idiophone.
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J. Iribarren: ‘Estudio preliminar sobre los instrumentos musicales autoctonos en el area norte de Chile’, Rehue, no.2 (1969), 91–109
R. Campbell: La herencia musical de Rapa-Nui (Santiago, 1971)
M.E. Grebe: ‘Mitos, creencias y concepto de enfermedad en la cultura mapuche’, Acts psíquiátrica y psicológia de América Latina (Buenos Aires), xvii (1971), 180–93
J.H. Steward, ed.: Handbook of South American Indians (New York, 1963)
J. Iribarren: ‘Instrumentos musicales del norte chico chileno’, Publicaciones del Museo Arqueológico de La Serena, Boletín, xiv (1971), 7–43
A. Metraux: Ethnology of Easter Island (Honolulu, 1971)
M.E. Grebe: ‘Cosmovisión mapuche’, Cuadernos de la realidad nacional, xiv (1972), 46–73
M.E. Grebe: ‘El kultrún mapuche: un microcosmo simbólico’, RMC, no.123–4 (1973), 3–42
C. Alvarez and M.E. Grebe: ‘La trifonía atacameña y sus perspectivas interculturales’, RMC, no.126–7 (1974), 21–46
M.E. Grebe: ‘Instrumentos musicales precolombinos de Chile’, RMC, no.128 (1974), 5–55
M.E. Grebe: ‘La música alacalufe: aculturación y cambio estilístico’, RMC, no.126–7 (1974), 80–111
M.E. Grebe: ‘Presencia del dualismo en la cultura y música mapuche’, RMC, no.126–7 (1974), 47–79
M.E. Grebe: ‘Selk’nam Chants of Tierra del Fuego, Argnentina’, EthM, xviii (1974), 174–8
G. McCall: Reaction to Disaster: Continuity and Change in Rapanui Social Organization (diss., U. of National Australia, 1976)
M.E. Grebe: ‘Relationships between Musical Practice and Cultural Context: the kultrún and its Symbolism’, World of Music, xx (1978), 84–100
M.E. Grebe: ‘Der ulutün, ein musiktherapeutischer ritus’, Musik and medizin, ii (Germany, 1979), 27–30
M.E. Grebe: Generative Models, Symbolic Structures and Acculturation in the Music of the Aymara of Tarapacá, Chile (diss., Queen's U. of Belfast, 1980)
M.E. Grebe: ‘Cosmovisión aymara’, Revista de Santiago, no.1 (1981), 61–79
M.E. Grebe: ‘El discurso chamánico mapuche, consideraciones antropólogicas preliminares’, Actas de lengua y literatura mapuche, no.2 (1986), 47–88
M.E. Grebe: ‘Migración, identidad y cultura aymara, puntos de vista del actor’, Chungara, no.16–17 (1986), 205–23
M.E. Grebe: ‘La concepción del tiempo en la cultura mapuche’, Revista chilena de antropología, no.6 (1987), 59–74
M. Massone: ‘Las culturas aborígenes de Chile austral en el tiempo’, Hombres del sur (Santiago, 1987), 11–47
R. Campbell: ‘Etnomusicología de la Isla de pascua’, RMC, no.170 (1988), 5–74
E. González: ‘Vigencias de instrumentos musicales mapuches’, RMC, no.166 (1988), 4–52
M.E. Grebe: ‘Cambio sociocultural y bilingüismo aymara-español en Isluga’, Lenguas Modernas, no.13 (1988), 37–53
M.E. Grebe: ‘Mito y música en la cultura mapuche: el tayil, nexo simbólico entre dos mundos’, Actas de lengua y literatura mapuche, no.3 (1988), 229–41
M.E. Grebe and B. Hidalgo: ‘Simbolismo atacameño: un aporte etnológico a la comprehensión de significados culturales’, Revista chilena de antropología, no.7 (1988), 75–97
M. Dannemann and A. Valencia: Grupos aborigines chilenos: su situación actual y distribución territorial (Santiago, 1989)
M.E. Grebe: ‘El tayil mapuche: como categora conceptual y medio de comunicación trascendente’, Inter-American Music Review, (1989), 89–75
M.E. Grebe: ‘El culto a los animales sagrados emblemáticos en la cultura aymara de Chile’, Revista chilena de antropología, no.8 (1989–90), 35–51
M.E. Grebe: ‘Concepción del tiempo en la cultura aymara: representaciones icónicas, cognición y simbolismo’, Revista chilena de antropología, no.9 (1990), 63–81
M.E. Grebe: ‘Patrones supralingüisticos en la cognición y simbolismo andino’, Actos del primer simposio sobre cognición, lenguaje y cultura (Santiago, 1990), 247–55
M.E. Grebe: ‘Algunas perspectivas interculturales en la religiosidad andina’, Jornadas interdisciplinarias religión y cultura (Chile, 1993), 60–71
M.E. Greve: ‘El subsistema de los ngen en la religiosidad mapuche’, Revista chilena de antropología, no.12 (1993–4), 45–64
M.E. Grebe: ‘Meli-witrán-mapu: construcció simbólico de la tierra en la cultura mapuche’, Pentukún, no.1. (1994), 55–67
M.E. Grebe: ‘Concepción del tiempo en las cultural indigenas sur-andino’, Time and Astronomy at the Meeting of Two Worlds: Frombork 1992, ed. S. Iwaniszewski (Warsaw, 1994), 297–313
J. Aylwin: Comunidades indígenas de los canales australes: antecedentes históricos y situación actual (Santiago, 1995)
M.E. Grebe: ‘Continuidad y cambio en las representaciones icónicas: significadas simbólicas en el mundo sur-andino’, Revista chilena de antropología, no.13 (1995–6), 137–54
G. McCall: ‘El pasado y el presente de Rapanui (Isla de Pascua)’, Culturas de Chile: Etnografía, sociedades indigenas contemporáneas y su ideología, eds. J. Hidalgo and others (Santiago, 1996), 17–46
T. Gisbert and others: Los chullpares del río Lauca (La Paz, 1996)
O. Ortíz Troncoso: ‘Los ultimos canoeros’, Culturas de Chile: Etnografía, sociedas indigenas contemporáneas y su ideologia, eds. J. Hidalgo and others (Santiago, 1996), 135–47
M.E. Grebe: ‘La construcción simbólico del espacio en la cultura mapuche de Chile’, Antropología del clima en el mundo hispanoamericano, eds. M. Goloubinoff, E. Katz and A. Lammel , i (Quito, 1997), 275–95
M.E. Grebe: ‘Proceses migratorios, identidad étnica y estrategias adaptivas en las culturas indígenas de Chile, una perspectiva preliminar’, Revista chilena de antropología, no.14 (1997–8), 55–68
M.E. Grebe: Culturas indígenas de Chile: un estudio preliminar (Santiago, 1998)
J. Zapiola: Recuerdos de treinta años (1810–1840) (Santiago, 1872, 8/1945)
B. Vicuña Mackenna: ‘La zamacueca y la zanguaraña’, El Mercurio, 1 Aug 1882
E. Pereira Salas: ‘La primera danza chilena’, RMC, no.1 (1945), 38
E. Pereira Salas: ‘La Navidad y sus maitenes’, RMC, no.9 (1946), 47
M.L. Sepúlveda: ‘Generalidades sobre pregones’, RMC, no.25–8 (1947), 30–2
C. Vega: ‘La forma de la cueca chilena’, RMC, no.20–21 (1947), 7; no.22–3 (1947), 15–45
E. Pereira Salas: ‘Una zamacueca erudita para los días del dieciocho’, RMC, no.30 (1948), 63–84
C. Lavin: ‘Nuestra señora de las Peñas’, RMC, no.31 (1948), 9–20; no.32 (1948–9), 27–40
C. Lavin: ‘Las fiestas rituales de la Candelaria’, RMC, no.34 (1949), 26–33
C. Lavin: ‘La Tirana: fiesta ritual de la provincia de Tarapaca’, RMC, no.43 (1952), 12–36
C. Lavin: ‘La vidalita argentina y el vidalay chileno’, RMC, no.43 (1952), 68–75
C. Lavin: ‘La musica sacra de Chiloé’, RMC, no.43 (1952), 76–82
C. Lavin: ‘El rabel y los instrumentos chilenos’, RMC, no.48 (1955), 15–28
E. Pereira Salas: ‘Los villancicos chilenos’, RMC, no.51 (1955), 37–48
R. Barros and M. Dannemann: ‘La poesía folklórica de Melipilla’, RMC, no.60 (1958), 48–70
E. Pereira Salas: ‘Consideraciones sobre el folklore en Chile’, RMC, no.68 (1959), 83–92
L.G. Soublette: ‘Combinaciones de ‘letra’ y ‘entonación’ de la cueca chilena’, RMC, no.65 (1959), 101–3
C. Vega: ‘Música folklórica de Chile’, RMC, no.68 (1959), 3–32
R. Barros and M. Dannemann: ‘El guitarrón en el departamento de Puente Alto’, RMC, no.74 (1960), 7–45
G. Foster: Conquest and Culture (New York, 1960)
R. Barros: ‘La danza folklórica chilena: su investigación y enseñanza’, RMC, no.79 (1962), 60–69
C. Isamitt: ‘El folklore como elemento de la enseñanza’, RMC, no.79 (1962), 75–94
E. Pereira Salas: ‘Nota sobre los origenes del canto a lo divino en Chile’, RMC, no.79 (1962), 41–8
L.G. Soublette: ‘Formas musicales básicas del folklore chileno’, RMC, no.79 (1962), 49–59
J. Urrutia Blondel: ‘Algunas proyecciones del folklore y etnología musicales de Chile’, RMC, no.79 (1962), 95–107
R. Barros and M. Dannemann: ‘La ruta de la Virgen de Palo Colorado’, RMC, no.93 (1965), 6; no.94 (1965), 51–84
M.E. Grebe: La estructura musical del verso folklórico (diss., U. of Chile, 1965)
M.E. Grebe: ‘Modality in Spanish Renaissance Vihuela Music and Archaic Chilean Folksongs: a Comparative Study’, EthM, xi (1967), 326–42
M.E. Grebe: The Chilean Verso: a Study in Musical Archaism (Los Angeles, 1967)
C. Lavin: ‘Romerías chilenas’, RMC, no.99 (1967), 50–56
J. Urrutia Blondel: ‘Danzas rituales en las festividades de San Pedro de Atacama’, RMC, no.100 (1967), 44–80
J. Urrutia Blondel: ‘Danzas rituales en la provincia de Santiago’, RMC, no.103 (1968), 43–78
M.E. Grebe: ‘Introducción al estudio del villancico en Latinoamérica’, RMC, no.107 (1969), 7–31
R. Barros and M. Dannemann: El romance chileno (Santiago, 1970)
M.E. Grebe: ‘Clasificación de instrumentos musicales’, RMC, no.113–14 (1971), 18–34
M.E. Grebe: ‘Modality in the Spanish Vihuela Music of the Sixteenth Century and its Incidence in Latin-American Music’, AnM, xxvi (1971), 25–59; xxvii (1972), 109–29
S. Claro and J. Urrutia Blondel: Historia de la música en Chile (Santiago, 1973)
M.E. Grebe: ‘Objeto, métodos y técnicas de investigación en etnomusicología: algunos problemas básicas’, RMC, no.133 (1976), 5–27
S. Claro Valdés: Oyendo a Chile (Santiago, 1979)
P. Garrido: Historia de la cueca (Valparaíso, 1979)
J.E. Perez Ortega: Música folklorica y popular infantil chilena (Valparaíso, 1980)
M.E. Grebe: ‘Anthropología de la música: nuevas orientaciones y aportes teóricas en la investigación musical’ RMC, no.153–4 (1981) 52–74
M.E. Grebe: ‘Etnoestética: un replanteamiento antropológico del arte’, Aisthesis, no.15 (1983), 19–27
M.E. Grebe: ‘Aportes y limitaciones del análisis musical en la investigación musicólogico y etnomusicológica’, RMC, no.175 (1991) 10–18
S. Claro, C. Peña and M.I. Quevado: Chilena o cueca tradicional (Santiago, 1994)
M. Dannemann: Enciclopedia del folclore de Chile (Santiago, 1998)
The Demonstration Collection of E.M. von Hornbostel and the Berlin Phonogramm-Archive, various pfmrs, rec. 1907–8, coll. C. Wellington Furlong, Ethnic Folkways FE 41475 (1948) [incl. notes by K. Reinhard and G. List]
Selk'nam (Ona) chants of Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, various pfmrs, rec. 1966, coll. A. Chapman, Ethnic Folkways FE 4176 (1972) [incl notes by A. Chapman, cantomeric analysis A. Lomax]
Amerindian music of Chile: aymara, qawashqar, mapuche, various pfmrs, rec. 1969, 1971, 1974, coll. C. Clair-Vasiliadis, R. Medina, A. Salas, M. Grebe, Ethnic Folkways FE 4054 (1975) [incl. notes by C. Clair-Vasiliadis]
Traditional Music of Chile, various pfmrs, ABC Command COMS-9003 (1975) [incl. notes by M. Dannemann and D. Sheehy]
Musica Latinamericana il Canto tradicional chileno en décimas, various pfmrs, EMI Odeon Chilena (1975)
Les Aruacans du Chili (The Araucanians of Chile), various pfmrs, Playsound PS 65149 (1995) [incl. notes by L.P. Chuecas]
Chile, Hispano-Chilean Traditional Music, various pfmrs, Auvidis Unesco Collection D8001 (n.d.) [incl. notes by M. Dannemann]