Peruvian Musical Instruments  (English, Paperback, unknown)

Chapters: Charango, Caj?n, Siku, Antara, Charangon, Tarka, Quijada, Chillador, Tinya, Wakrapuku. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 36. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: The charango is a small South American stringed instrument of the lute family, about 66 cm long, traditionally made with the shell of the back of an armadillo. Many contemporary charangos are now made with different types of wood. It typically has 10 strings in five courses of 2 strings each, although other variations exist. The instrument was invented in the early 18th century in the Viceroyalty of Peru, a South American entity that was controlled by Spain during the times of the Spanish colonization of the Americas, specifically in the region of Cerro Rico in the city of Potosi in present day Bolivia. When the Spanish conquistadores came to South America, they brought the vihuela (an ancestor of the classical guitar) with them. It is not clear from which Spanish stringed instrument the charango is a direct descendant. It may have evolved from the vihuela, bandurria (mandolin), or the lute. There are many stories of how the charango came to be made with its distinctive diminutive soundbox of armadillo. One story says that the native musicians liked the sound the vihuela made, but lacked the technology to shape the wood in that manner. Another story says that the Spaniards prohibited natives from practicing their ancestral music, and that the charango was a (successful) attempt to make a lute that could be easily hidden under a garment such as a poncho. The first historic information on the charango was gathered by Vega going back to 1814, when a cleric from Tupiza documented that "the Indians used with much enthusiasm the guitarrillos mui fuis... around here in the Andes of Bolivia they called them Charangos". Turino ...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=88947