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Panpipe
Book: "Zampoña: Panpipe to Evoke the Collective Memory of
our Soul"
The
Following
Page is a sample of our book about the Zampoña panpipes. In
it you will find the history of these Andean panpipes as well as very
detailed instructions on how to make, and learn how to play the Andean
Zampoña panpipes.
"Zampoña: Panpipe to Evoke the Collective
Memory of our Soul"
The
Zampoña
was
all along with us
always waiting to fill its
heart of reed from the
melodies
of our soul.
The
panpipes
were
our hidden voice
forever expecting our
song
to
give meaning to its
destiny.
Let
the music of our
ancient
collective memory
bloom
again in
your imagination,
let
your senses remember
the music
we
all once knew:
The sound and
the wind
and
its heart singing all over
homeland earth.
Index
Introduction and
Acknowledgments
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3
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About this Book |
4 |
The Zampoña or Andean panpipe
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5
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Some Conceptual Notes |
6 |
A Musical, Historical and
Cultural
context
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7 |
Similar Instruments from Around
the
World
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9 |
The Zampoña Construction
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12 |
Materials Necessary to make a
Zampoña
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13
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Construction Of Your Zampoña |
14
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How to play your Zampoña
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15
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Feed and Care of your Zampoña
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17
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About the Tablature of
Songs
and the Recording Included with the Book
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18 |
Tablature of Songs With Numbers
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19 |
Tablature of Songs With Musical
Notes
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31 |
List and Order of
Songs
Included in the Recording |
43
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Where to buy a Zampoña
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44
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Glossary
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45
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Bibliography
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46
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Credits
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47
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Introduction
and Acknowledgments
During
the many years that I have been playing music, giving workshops,
seminars and lectures on Andean, South American or
Latino American
music and
culture in the United States I have constantly heard from audiences,
students,
teachers, scholars and
professional
or amateur musicians, how much they would like to find out more
information on
the instruments or other aspects of the
culture.
I often found myself spending great amounts of time conversing with
these
wonderful people due to the lack of a centralized
source dealing with
these
interests. A perennial favorite
theme (I guess for being so reminiscent of something very primeval and
collective in all of us) was always the Zampoña. Many of my
closest friends and family for years suggested
that I should finally
put down into writing some of the empirical
knowledge,
realizations, structured observations and research that I had
done/acquired
over
the years. One day while going over
my notes for a Zampoña panpipe making workshop I realized that just
teaching
people
how to make the instrument was rather superfluous and very
removed from
the experience of knowing about our own experience as
humans and
indifferent to
the specific culture of my own country that produced them.
So I decided to write and include some lines
about the musical,
historical and social context of the Zampoña for inclusion in the
workshop
information. Quickly, I found
myself
writing non-stop page after page for about a week, after which
all of the
sudden I realized that the informational pages of my workshop
had
actually
turned into the material for this book. I also realized then that
I wanted people to know a lot more
about the history
and provenance of the instruments as well as the
people that
produce them and their societies. At
the same time I wanted to shed
some light into the darkness created by
certain
parasites within this genre. These
individuals have encouraged a whole aura of mysticism
around the
instrument and
its people just to further profit from the candor, true curiosity and
naiveté
of the audience. I also wanted to
lift the secrecy and pursuit of technicism in the performance of the
Zampoña,
which certain acculturated individuals, would like you to
ascribe to.
This is the most primeval and simple of instruments, which you can pour
your feelings into. Forget about what a certain
musician once
told me, that
feeling in the music does not exist, that feeling is just about where
you put a
musical accent which could
be ultimately written on paper (this is why
he still
doesn’t get the idea despite being a great musician). No! This
instrument
cannot be
intellectualized, it needs to be felt!
I
would also deeply like to thank William Cumpiano and José Gonzalez for
years of
sincere and good hearted life advice and
for always insisting that I
should put
this information onto paper, Jamie Broadhead for demanding that this
knowledge
not be lost, making
me believe that this book would be interesting to
thousands
of people and that my English proficiency was excellent.
Most importantly I
would love to thank my entire family Alfredo Sr.,
Gardelia, Rosa Maria and especially my children Christian and Stefan
for always
putting
up with my crazy schedules, my music and my staying up so late
at night.
This
book was made with non-musicians in mind.
It is for you, the every day human being, interested in diversity,
history, culture,
music, Latin America or new knowledge for yourself or
the
children in your life. If you are a
musician you will still find highly relevant
information on the history
of the
instrument, how to play it as well as how to make one. There is no
sheet music
in here though. I
only hope
that you, the reader, will be willing to experience this book
with the
same perspective that the passing of this knowledge would have had for
the
inhabitants of the Altiplano or high plateaus of the Andes (exception
made that
you are actually reading the book while they would not have).
What I
would want to happen is that you, the reader, get to experience
this book as a whole package, not only as a cooking recipe without
understanding
from where the whole dish came or why is it that certain people cook it
this way
and not that way. Rather, I wish
for you to
understand the instrument, which is the focus of this book
as the
embodiment of the sublime expression of a people and as the messenger
of
the
social environment that encompasses them. After all, for many years I
have had the impression that panpipes were
the proto instrument.
After shakers
and percussion devices came about it just makes perfect sense that for
all time
the true musical present that nature gifted us in
the delicate and
intricate
communion between humans and the earth was the panpipe.
What I mean is that the people from many world regions
understood this
balance objectively, the Indians of the Altiplano actually “steal” the
music
from nature itself. They allow the
wind to blow on
their pipes by exposing them to blowing wind and in
this way
listen to lift their melodies from Mother Nature directly. When
you walk in the
Andes you can hear the music carried by the wind.
The wind actually sounds like music and if you look around attentively
you may discover
bamboo plants while hearing the soothing sound of the
wind
blowing on the top of their stems as the plants curve under their own
weight.
This is the music, these were the melodies that Indian people heard and
stole from the wind. These are the songs that for always change
but
for always
belong to the wind. And from this
idea the inhabitants of the Altiplano discovered the Zampoña as their
instrument. To this date,
people of the Altiplano believe that music is
a soulful
gift from our environment and that music still belongs to it.
They think that if we start killing
our environment, the
earth, and its inhabitants, we will die and its musical gift along with
us.
This is why the Indians of the Andes did not have a
word to designate
music, because humans did not own it and because it was all a
minimalist and an
encompassing element of their everyday
existence.
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The
Zampoña or Andean panpipe
The Zampoña
[Sahm-póhn-yah]
is a generic term for a large family of double
rowed panpipes native to the South
American Andean
regions, each consisting of a collection of two
separate groups
of thin walled bamboo tubes strapped together into two rows with a
cross-beam.
In their most
indigenous form, they are usually tied with llama wool in a manner
similar to Eastern European Pan-pipes.
Each set of pipes can
be played either by two persons or held
together and be performed by one. To play a scale the single player
must jump
between both rows,
as one single row will not contain a whole scale.
Zampoñas
are called Antara in Quechua (among the Quechua people) and sikus in
Aymara
(among the Aymara people). Its two
halves are known as IRA or leader -the row with six pipes-, and ARCA or
follower
–the row with seven
pipes. The
Zampoña family ranges in sizes from the tiny Chuli (about 4.5’’) to the
six-foot long Toyos. Other members
of the Zampoña family
employ various sizing to produce different tuning
arrangements. These include: Maltas,
Zankas, Bastos, Toyos and Semitoyos (in Bolivia-Peru),
Antaras (in
Peru) and
Rondadores and Payas (in Ecuador). The wide array of chosen names is in
accordance with the instruments’ regions of
provenance.
Some of the above named panpipes are single rowed such as the Antara,
the
Rondador and the Paya.
Traditionally,
two individuals divide the Zampoñas into its two separate rows of pipes
IRA
and ARCA. Thus, one player alone
does
not have the whole scale. While one of the players is
“breathing” the other player is playing and
vice versa. A great degree of
synchronization
is required of the players to successfully accomplish
this
activity, which is known as jjaktasina irampi arcampi, in Aymara
language
or “being
in agreement between the IRA and the ARCA”.
The
typical band or troupe of zampoñeros consists of twelve to sixty
panpipe
players, a bombo
and two snare drums. The
troupe divides into two equal groups of people.
They then separate the instruments into their two rows.
Songs are
performed in this manner by alternating the notes according
to
the pipes included in the row which they may be holding, producing a
kind of
“stereo effect”.
The
Andean Indians probably devised the playing of the instrument in this
fashion
due to the high elevations of the Andean Mountains
in which they reside
(at an
average of 12,000 feet). At such
extreme altitudes, where the air is “very thin” (low concentration of
oxygen), a
single player could rapidly hyperventilate and get quite
dizzy while
playing the instrument. Aside from
the practical rationale, the division of
playing between two players
also
correlates with the values of the Indian societies. For the inhabitants
of the
Altiplano, every aspect of life
and existence is defined by a communal
attitude. Thus, their music is also a group activity.
Since the Indians conceptualize music as a group
activity, the idea of
a
soloist is completely alien to them. This is still another
manifestation of
their community-based society. In such a rugged
environment, the
sense of community is
absolutely integral to the concept of survival.
The
Zampoña is the oldest of the South American indigenous flutes. It is
believed
that as early as 5000 years ago this instrument was made out
of bamboo,
stone,
clay and the bones of animals. From
archeological findings it is apparent that in pre-Columbian times it
only
existed in
pentatonic form. It was
not until the arrival of the Europeans that Zampoñas acquired their
most
common, present-day tuning in G. Clay
zampoñas were quite common well into the XVI century and throughout the
colonial times they were fashioned with wood and metal.
During
the XVII century bamboo became the definite material for the
instrument. Today aside from broadly generalized bamboo Zampoñas, there
are
panpipes made out of wood, PVC pipe and even copper pipe and glass
tubes.
Some
ethnomusicologists believe that the name of
this family of
instruments stems from a mispronunciation by the Indians of the word
symphony (sinfonía
in Spanish). The author of this
book also believes it likely that the “Symphony” effect (in sound and
numbers of people)
produced by a troupe of Zampoñeros, usually
consisting of
twelve to sixty players playing Zampoñas of all different sizes, may
have
impressed
and influenced the Spanish conquistadors and colonists into
calling
the troupe of Zampoñeros a “Symphony.”
The musical effect would have
reminded Europeans of the “Symphony”
orchestras that they were accustomed to hearing back in
Europe.
Originally,
zampoñas were used at religious ceremonies, in festivals, for dancing
and
courtship; their sound always haunting and reminiscent
of the wind.
Most surprisingly the Zampoñas were also destined for
entertainment.
This
was quite an accomplishment for the Incan society
and an exponent of
its
advanced civilization especially considering that the great majority of
folk
musics serve roles other than that of entertainment.
Today their use within the region of the Andean countries has extended
to
include all kinds of genres of music and in the western world it has
become
an
indispensable sound/timbre in the realms of World and Jazz influenced
music,
television and movie soundtracks.
In
recent years the capitals of the developing Andean countries have
rapidly
replaced the mountainous regions as the primary centers of
dispersion
and
development for the Zampoña. In a
process that started around the early seventies and due to radical
changes in
their economies,
poverty and centralization, these larger cities have
experienced great migratory and urbanistic movements coming from the
mountains
that have
attracted musicians, sentiments, rhythms, themes and musical
instruments from the Altiplano. These
new variables have now mixed with the more
electrified western-city
sounds of
the urban centers, bringing about a fresh infusion of indigenous
influences.
This phenomenon has revitalized
the Andean region capitals and coastal
cities and ultimately aided in the development of modernized Creole
music while
at the same time encouraging
the creation of newer musical forms.
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A
Musical,
Historical and Cultural Context
The
earliest expressions of
musical culture on the South American continent were recreations of the
natural
aboriginal environment.
Resourcefulness
was the key and the original inhabitants recreated the only music known
then,
the sounds of their native surroundings. They mimicked
the sounds of
wind, rain,
falling water, rushing water, lightning, thunder, heart beat, snakes,
insects
and a multitude of birds with the simplest of artifacts
and found
objects
including reeds, seeds, dried gourds, seashells, turtle shells,
conches,
pebbles, stones, animal bones, human bones, logs, bamboo and
animal
skin.
Bamboo
was the material that most rapidly adapted to the newer musical
developments.
Many flutes and panpipes made with bamboo reeds
appeared thousands of
years before the Inca Empire. Around
1100 A.D. when the Incas arrived to the heart of the South American
Andes, most
indigenous
wind instruments were already being used for hundreds of
years.
Quenas and Zampoñas had become the most important elements of the music
produced
by the nations inhabiting the Andean regions.
The
Incas reigned the whole of the Andes 300 years prior to and up until
the Spanish
invasion in the mid sixteenth century. They were an
extraordinarily
civilized
empire as well as a successful race of conquerors.
They managed to quickly conquer many nations that had existed for
thousands of years and subsequently assimilate them into their vast
kingdom.
The Incan Empire was to become the largest empire of pre-Columbian
times
in the Americas, spanning from southern Colombia in the north through
Ecuador,
Peru, Bolivia and Northern Chile in the south and Brasil in the
east.
They called their kingdom the Tawuantinsuyo or Four Corners
of the World and their capital was named Cuzco or navel of the
world.
Incan music was the
most varied and sophisticatedly developed music of
the whole Americas. Their melodies
tended to be monadic and they would play them in antiphony.
There is still a large debate among scientists regarding the pentatonic
character of Incan music. The
Indians actually had instruments capable of producing
diatonic scales
(such as
the Quena). Why would the Indians
have instruments capable of producing diatonic scales if they were not
to use
them in their full
capacity?
Given
the absence of handwriting in the Inca Empire, music and song later
emerged as
the principal vehicle for passing on history, traditions,
religion and
values
from one generation to the next. For
instance, the oral medium during Inca times was comprised of poetry,
theater,
oral tradition and
most importantly music.
The Amautas or wise men had to recite short stories generation after
generation to instruct the children as well as to remind elders
about
their
traditions. Important events were turned into verse by the poets and
Haravecs
(Inventors) in order to be sung at festivals or after victory.
Before
the
European invasion of South America, many styles of music had already
emerged
aided by the encounters, assimilation, and clashes of cultures
that
took place
during the centuries prior to the European advent. As
civilizations developed, expanded, matured and fell,
literally hundreds of new rhythms
and instruments came about only in
historical
preparation to the encounter of two very different worlds.
Successive
migrations,
some cruel and devastating, some unwilling, and some
welcome, each
left their own unique, indelible stamp on the music
and culture of the
South
American continent. The
Spanish invasion brought about profound changes in the society, modes
of
production, religion and
music of the Andean societies.
As a result of the conquest, a new form of colonial government and
slavery, the Spanish quickly forced the Inca society
into servitude and
patronized the Indians into the adoption of Spanish culture, which
allowed
acculturation to occur rapidly. The
Indians adapted as
their own Spanish folk music forms, rhythms,
harmonies,
polyphony, military style drums and Spanish-influenced string
instruments.
The conquerors
expected that by encouraging the Indians to play
European
music and instruments while outlawing Indian music it would prevent the
natives
from rebelling
because their music was such an integral element of
their native
culture.
So integrally was music weaved within the life of the Indians that, in
Quechua,
the
most important language of the Andes, a word to designate the
concept of
music did not exist.
African
slaves forced from West Africa by the Spanish and Portuguese,
contributed
immensely to the culture, religion and music of the Americas.
Hispanic Roman Catholicism allowed African culture and music to
continue
in ways somewhat reminiscent of the African homeland.
Call-and-response
singing was allowed to persist, contributing to
group-cohesiveness; on the other hand African people found their Indian
counterparts to be culturally and
musically closer to their own. The
African
slaves and Indians blended their races and music over the centuries to
create a
multitude of rhythms and
instruments inspired by the African and
Indigenous
motherlands. African slaves juxtaposed their polyrhythms (layers of
rhythms in
one song) over the
indigenous melodies. At the same time new musical
instruments
such as skin drums made from logs (Andean Bombo), musical bows (the
Brazilian
Berimbau), stringed instruments (the Banjo in the U.S.), and xylophones
(Guatemalan Gourd Marimba) were created from those that were
collectively
recalled from West Africa. These
hybrid musical forms can still be discerned today.
The
historic process of struggle against European colonialism and the
ideals of the
Independence movements’ transformations during the ensuing
centuries
left an
unmistakable trace on the content and context of the music.
The result is that South American music is today a complex blend of
native-indigenous, Euro-Iberian, West African—and most recently—North
American influences. These voices mix with the lyrics, themes,
sentiments and
rhythms of fading indigenous cultures. Nowadays, many South
American tribal groups are extinct, and
much of the aboriginal music, like parts of the rain
forest, has
disappeared.
In place of the silenced traditional musical expressions are new ones,
themselves art forms, some joyful, some sad, but always
expressive like
the
passionate strive of their cultural survival.
FLOR
DE
CACTUS-
Peru
A
E-E-C
E
G-E
E
C
………………..….………..(A)
/
\
/
\ /
\ /
\ /
\
/ \
G
B-B
B
F#
D
D
B
Repeat
(A)
once
E-E-E-C-A
F#-F#-A-A-F#
F#
A
……………..…………….…(B)
\
/
\
/
\ /
B-B-B-G-E
G-E
G
E-E-E-C-A
F#-F#-A-A-F#
……….……………………...…….…(C)
\
/
\
B-B-B-G-E
E
E
G-E
A-A
F#
E
G-E
A-A
F#
E
E
E
\
/
\
/
\ / \
/ \
/ \
/ \
/ \
/ \
/ \ /
F#
B-B
G
E
F#
B-B
G
E
E
E
Vocal
Parts:
Muchachita flor de cactus, pedacito de mi corazón (twice).
Tu vas tejiendo aquel romance de nuestro cariño (twice).
Flor de cactus illusion de amores, flor hermosa, illusion de amores.
Repeat
the whole song once.
(To
end song repeat all zampoña parts twice at increasing speed)
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