Siku
The sikus (from Quechua 'tube that gives sound') is a musical instrument generally made up of two rows of cane tubes of different lengths: the ark, normally seven tubes, and the ira, normally 6, although depending on the type of siku these amounts can vary considerably. It is still used in the folk music of the Andean highlands, in Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador and Peru.
Origin
Its origin is unknown. It is believed that it reached the coasts of the South American Pacific with the migratory waves during the Settlement of America, from where it spread and developed in different forms and styles throughout the continent.
It should be noted that the sikus (instruments) were better preserved in coastal cultures to a greater extent thanks to the dry and arid climate. The discovery of these instruments in the ruins of the Caral culture and of 26 Siku bipolar panpipes in the religious center of the Nazca culture called Cahuachi was important. In the Moche culture they represented the execution of the siku in their ceramics where two musicians facing each other can be seen interpreting these instruments that are joined by a rope, a situation that is also represented in another ceramic bas-relief, although they also made other similar representations both in their ceramics as in his painting. The drawback is that the form of execution and musical interpretation of the siku in the coastal cultures is not known because they became extinct and there is no musical record, neither sound nor written, what is tried is to reconstruct how the melodies, harmony, rhythm sounded. and the tempo. Unlike the coastal cultures, other indigenous cultures were able to preserve their music, including the siku of the Aymara.
The forms of the siku varied throughout the history of different indigenous cultures in the execution, interpretation, size and material used for its manufacture, whether metal reeds or ceramics.
Construction
It is common for the same instrument to be made with pieces cut consecutively from the same reed. This means that in addition to getting shorter knot by knot, its diameter decreases in the same proportion.
It is logical if we take into account that the section of the reeds is not perfectly cylindrical. Due to the way plants grow, it always tends to be tapered.
Types
The panpipe family is really extensive, although the differences and variants are mainly due to the number of pipes that make up each instrument and, above all, their length.
Based on the size of the pipes, we can classify them into four large groups that make up and give life to the panpipe orchestra:
According to its size, from smallest to largest, it is classified into:
- Chuli siku (ika suki)
- Malta siku
- Sanqa siku
- T'uyu siku
The panpipes maltas (malta) (usually tuned in "mi") can be:
- Them Chulis, (ch'uli, Aymara writing) tuned an octave above;
- The zankas (Sanqatuned an octave below; and
- Them toyos (t'uyu) with tuning two octaves lower than malts.
Usually they are set up with 13 pipes, although it is also common to find mixed panpipes with 21 or 23 pipes. In this way, the scale is extended by providing the instrument with registers malta-ch'uli, zanka-malta, etc.
In the same way, it is usual to find toyos or zankas in which their scale is reinforced by increasing their lowest register by two tubes.
The most commonly used tunings are "mi" and "la" and serve the records shown in the following tables.
Execution
The player of siku is called a sicuri. The group of performers is called the sicuris band.
The performer holds the reeds vertically (which are rigidly and parallelly attached to each other by means of rods or ropes). He places his lower lip against the edge of one of the tubes, directing the air blast forward, perpendicular to the axis of the tube. The sound will be produced because the air inside the reed enters into resonance with the vibration produced by the friction of the wind against the edge of the reed. The musical note obtained will be in relation to the length of the air column and the internal diameter of the tube. Each attack is punctuated by a click of the tongue (as if he repeated the phoneme "ta" or "cha" while blowing).
The most common type of execution is between two groups that are in charge of a "half" of the melody, because each siku has one half of the scale. Half of the sicuris execute using, for example, the do, mi, sol, si, re, etc. while the other half plays the notes re, fa, la, do, mi, etc. so the scale is inserted between the two performing groups. The effect, being present at the venue, is to be in front of a strange type of organ that "moves the music" according to which of the two groups plays a certain note. The members of the groups usually arrange themselves interspersed, in such a way that the player of the seven-row siku has a six-row siku player at his side, in order to be able to perfectly synchronize the melody, which sounds "one& #34;, but also, "between two".
The siku is an eminently collective instrument, where everyone plays the same instrument, forming a great band. We must specify that the performers intersperse (braid the melody). Each performer has half of the performance. To each cut or size of siku in certain areas of the Bolivian Peruvian highlands, other cuts are added. Thus, a chili has its contra chili and chili bass, the malt has its bass and contra, just as the trench will have its bass and its contra, obtaining in this way many voices and nuances during the interpretation.