Music

Musicians were among the many artisans who lived and worked under Inca rule. Panpipes, called sikuris or zampona, have been part of Andes music for centuries, and the haunting notes of the panpipes sang across the mountains and valleys of the Inca Empire. In Inca times, pipers made their own instruments from bamboo. Thin reeds (chillis or icas) produced high soprano notes, while flat, thick reeds (toyos) sang the bass and baritone notes.

Inca Music Today

Traditional music is still used to mark life events in the Andes. A house blessing or the birth of a child is a common cause for celebration, and Andes people have maintained Inca religious customs, such as planting and harvest festivals, during which music fills the thin mountain air. Community events draw pipers, drummers, and flautists to town plazas, recreating the rhythms of past Inca glory.

Several modern music groups play traditional Inca or Andes music. One of the most dramatic groups is Andes Manta. Four brothers of the Lopez family make up the quartet that plays traditional Andes folk music on more than 35 authentic Inca instruments, including the panpipes, quenas, various rattles, and drums. Andes Manta performs in Spanish and in Quechua, the language of the Incas, providing a lingering memory of ancient times long gone.

The pipers formed a circle around their conductor, alternating notes between two or more pipers. They played the pipes by blowing across the opening at the top of each reed. Making music with panpipes is much like blowing across glass bottles; air moving across the hollow space creates a tone. The larger the pipes, the lower the notes and the stronger the breath required to make sound. Thus, toyos players needed powerful lungs.

Flutes, rattles, and drums accompanied the panpipes. Musicians made flutes (quenas) from bamboo and the leg bones of animals. Que-nas range from small instruments for high notes to large ones for low notes. Their sound resembles that of a recorder. Another flute, a wooden tarka, provided music for religious rites and had a tone similar to an oboe.

Rattles added rhythm to Inca music. The chdc-chds consists of a number of llama or goat hooves on a string that produce clicking noises when shaken. The chaucha is a natural rattle made from a dried seedpod with many small beans inside. This instrument produces a noise like Mexican maracas, and has been part of traditional Andes music since long before the Spanish arrived in Peru. Small rattles were attached to ankles or wrists of dancers, enabling them to produce their own rhythms as they moved.

Another interesting rattle is the palo de lluvia, which means “rain stick.” To make a traditional rain stick, a musician drills holes in a long bamboo reed and slides thin sticks through the holes. Dried beans or pebbles partially fill the bamboo tube, and the ends are sealed. To play the instrument, the musician turns it upside down. The beans rattle against the sticks as they roll and produce a sound like rainfall. Like the panpipes and flutes, rattles are still used in traditional Andes music.

Drums have been around since humans first struck hollow logs with animal bones. The Andes version of the drum was made by stretching animals skins over hollow sections of wood. Military drums carried a grisly tradition: the drum skins came from the bodies of slain enemies. The pounding sound of sticks, bones, or hands against a human-skin drum instilled terror in the Incas’ adversaries.

Dance for Joy

Traditional dancing at the Harvest Festival in modern Cuzco preserves many of the dance forms developed by the Incas.

The Incas did not make metal horns, such as trumpets or bugles. However, they did use conch-shell trumpets for military, religious, and civil purposes. The military heralded the start of battle by blowing the conch. The bellow of a conch also called the faithful to temples and plazas for religious rituals. And in the civil arena, chasquis (postal runners) blew on the conch to alert the next post of their arrival.