[Music: Treble clef, ascending quarter note octaves: A C D E G A
C] The highest octave is indistinct, owing to some injury done to
the shortest tubes; but sufficient evidence remains to show that
the intervals were purposely arranged according to the pentatonic
scale. This interesting relic was brought to light from a tomb at
Arica.
Another _huayra-puhura_ (Fig. 19), likewise still yielding sounds, was
discovered placed over a corpse in a Peruvian tomb, and was procured
by the French general, Paroissien. This instrument is made of
soapstone, and contains eight pipes. It now belongs to the Rev. Canon
J. H. Rawdon.[4] In the Museum may be seen a good plaster cast taken
from this curious relic. The height is five and three-quarter inches,
and its width six and a quarter inches. Four of the tubes have small
lateral finger-holes, which, when closed, lower the pitch a semitone.
These holes are on the second, fourth, six, and seventh pipe, as shown
in the engraving. When the holes are open, the tones are: [Music:
Treble clef, quarter notes F# A C# F♮] and when they are closed:
[Music: Treble clef, quarter notes F♮ A♭ C♮ E] The other tubes have
unalterable tones. The following notation exhibits all the tones
producible on the instrument: [Music: Treble clef, quarter notes E F
F# G G# A C C# D E F A]
[Illustration: FIG. 19.――HUAYRA-PUHURA, discovered in a Peruvian
tomb.
The property of the Rev. Canon Rawdon.]
The musician is likely to speculate what could have induced the
Peruvians to adopt so strange a series of intervals: it seems rather
arbitrary than premeditated.
If (and this seems not to be improbable) the Peruvians considered
those tones which are produced by closing the lateral holes as
additional intervals only, a variety of scales or kinds of _modes_ may
have been contrived by the admission of one or other of these tones
among the essential ones. If we may conjecture from some remarks of
Garcilasso de la Vega, and other historians, the Peruvians appear to
have used different orders of intervals for different kinds of tunes,
in a way similar to what we find to be the case with certain Asiatic
nations. We are told, for instance, “Each poem, or song, had its
appropriate tune, and they could not put two different songs to one
tune; and this was why the enamoured gallant, making music at night on
his flute, with the tune which belonged to it, told the lady and all
the world the joy or sorrow of his soul, the favour or ill-will which
he possessed; so that it might be said that he spoke by the flute.”
Thus also the Hindus have certain tunes for certain seasons and fixed
occasions, and likewise a number of different modes or scales used for
particular kinds of songs.
[Illustration: FIG. 20. WOODEN TRUMPET, used by Indians near the
Orinoco.]
Trumpets are often mentioned by writers who have recorded the manners
and customs of the Indians at the time of the discovery of America.
There are, however, scarcely any illustrations to be relied on of
these instruments transmitted to us. The Conch was frequently used as
a trumpet for conveying signals in war.
[Illustration: FIG. 21.――JURUPARIS, with and without cover, used by
Indians on the Rio Haupés.
In the Museum at Kew Gardens.]
Fig. 20 represents a kind of trumpet made of wood, and nearly seven
feet in length, which Gumilla found among the Indians in the vicinity
of the Orinoco. It somewhat resembles the _juruparis_ (Fig. 21), a
mysterious instrument of the Indians on the Rio Haupés, a tributary of
the Rio Negro, South America. The _juruparis_ is regarded as an object
of great veneration. Women are never permitted to see it. So stringent
is this law that any woman obtaining a sight of it is put to
death――usually by poison. No youths are allowed to see it until they
have been subjected to a series of initiatory fastings and scourgings.
The _juruparis_ is usually kept hidden in the bed of some stream, deep
in the forest; and no one dares to drink out of that sanctified
stream, or to bathe in its water. At feasts the _juruparis_ is brought
out during the night, and is blown outside the houses of
entertainment. The inner portion of the instrument consists of a tube
made of slips of the Paxiaba palm (_Triartea exorrhiza_). When the
Indians are about to use the instrument they nearly close the upper
end of the tube with clay, and also tie above the oblong square hole
(shown in the engraving) a portion of the leaf of the Uaruma, one of
the arrow-root family. Round the tube are wrapped long strips of the
tough bark of the Jébaru (_Parivoa grandiflora_). This covering
descends in folds below the tube. The length of the instrument is from
four to five feet. The illustration (Fig. 21), which exhibits the
_juruparis_ with its cover and without it, has been taken from a
specimen in the museum at Kew gardens. The mysteries connected with
this trumpet are evidently founded on an old tradition from
prehistoric Indian ancestors. _Jurupari_ means “demon”; and with
several Indian tribes on the Amazon customs and ceremonies still
prevail in honour of Jurupari.
The Caroados, an Indian tribe in Brazil, have a war trumpet which
closely resembles the _juruparis_. With this people it is the custom
for the chief to give on his war trumpet the signal for battle, and to
continue blowing as long as he wishes the battle to last. The trumpet
is made of wood, and its sound is described by travellers as very deep
but rather pleasant. The sound is easily produced, and its continuance
does not require much exertion; but a peculiar vibration of the lips
is necessary which requires practice. Another trumpet, the _turé_, is
common with many Indian tribes on the Amazon who use it chiefly in
war. It is made of a long and thick bamboo, and there is a split reed
in the mouthpiece. It therefore partakes rather of the character of an
oboe or clarinet. Its tone is described as loud and harsh. The _turé_
is especially used by the sentinels of predatory hordes, who, mounted
on a lofty tree, give the signal of attack to their comrades.
Again, the aborigines in Mexico had a curious contrivance of this
kind, the _acocotl_, now more usually called _clarin_. The former word
is its old Indian name, and the latter appears to have been first
given to the instrument by the Spaniards. The _acocotl_ consists of a
very thin tube from eight to ten feet in length, and generally not
quite straight but with some irregular curves. This tube, which is
often not thicker than a couple of inches in diameter, terminates at
one end in a sort of bell, and has at the other end a small mouthpiece
resembling in shape that of a clarinet. The tube is made of the dry
stalk of a plant which is common in Mexico, and which likewise the
Indians call _acocotl_. The most singular characteristic of the
instrument is that the performer does not blow into it, but inhales
the air through it; or rather, he produces the sound by sucking the
mouthpiece. It is said to require strong lungs to perform on the
_acocotl_ effectively according to Indian notions of taste.
[Illustration: FIG. 22.――BOTUTO, used by Indians near the Orinoco.]
The _botuto_, which Gumilla saw used by some tribes near the river
Orinoco (Fig. 22), was evidently an ancient Indian contrivance, but
appears to have fallen almost into oblivion during the last two
centuries. It was made of baked clay and was commonly from three to
four feet long; but some trumpets of this kind were of enormous size.
The _botuto_ with two bellies was usually made thicker than that with
three bellies and emitted a deeper sound, which is described as having
been really terrific. These trumpets were used on occasions of
mourning and funeral dances. Alexander von Humboldt saw the _botuto_
among some Indian tribes near the river Orinoco.
Besides those which have been noticed, other antique wind instruments
of the Indians are mentioned by historians; but the descriptions given
of them are too superficial to convey a distinct notion as to their
form and purport. Several of these barbarous contrivances scarcely
deserve to be classed with musical instruments. This may, for
instance, be said of certain musical jars or earthen vessels producing
sounds, which the Peruvians constructed for their amusement. These
vessels were made double; and the sounds imitated the cries of animals
or birds. A similar contrivance of the Indians in Chili, preserved in
the museum at Santiago, is described by the traveller S. S. Hill as
follows:――“It consists of two earthen vessels in the form of our
india-rubber bottles, but somewhat larger, with a flat tube from four
to six inches in length, uniting their necks near the top and slightly
curved upwards, and with a small hole on the upper side one third of
the length of the tube from one side of the necks. To produce the
sounds the bottles were filled with water and suspended to the bough
of a tree, or to a beam, by a string attached to the middle of the
curved tube, and then swung backwards and forwards in such a manner as
to cause each end to be alternately the highest and lowest, so that
the water might pass backwards and forwards from one bottle to the
other through the tube between them. By this means soothing sounds
were produced which, it is said, were employed to lull to repose the
drowsy chiefs who usually slept away the hottest hours of the day. In
the meantime, as the bottles were porous, the water within them
diminished by evaporation, and the sound died gradually away.”
As regards instruments of percussion, a kind of drum deserves special
notice on account of the ingenuity evinced in its construction. The
Mexicans called it _teponaztli_. They generally made it of a single
block of very hard wood, somewhat oblong square in shape, which they
hollowed, leaving at each end a solid piece about three or four inches
in thickness, and at its upper side a kind of sound-board about a
quarter of an inch in thickness. In this sound-board, if it may be
called so, they made three incisions; namely, two running parallel
some distance lengthwise of the drum, and a third running across from
one of these to the other just in the centre. By this means they
obtained two vibrating tongues of wood which, when beaten with a
stick, produced sounds as clearly defined as are those of our kettle
drums. By making one of the tongues thinner than the other they
ensured two different sounds, the pitch of which they were enabled to
regulate by shaving off more or less of the wood. The bottom of the
drum they cut almost entirely open. The traveller, M. Nebel, was told
by archæologists in Mexico that these instruments always contained the
interval of a third, but on examining several specimens which he saw
in museums he found some in which the two sounds stood towards each
other in the relation of a fourth; while in others they constituted a
fifth, in others a sixth, and in some even an octave. This is
noteworthy in so far as it points to a conformity with our diatonic
series of intervals, excepting the seventh.
The _teponaztli_ was generally carved with various fanciful and
ingenious designs. It was beaten with two drumsticks covered at the
end with an elastic gum, called _ule_, which was obtained from the
milky juice extracted from the ule-tree. Some of these drums were
small enough to be carried on a string or strap suspended round the
neck of the player; others, again, measured upwards of 5 feet in
length, and their sound was so powerful that it could be heard at a
distance of three miles. In some rare instances a specimen of the
_teponaztli_ is still preserved by the Indians in Mexico, especially
among tribes who have been comparatively but little affected by
intercourse with their European aggressors. Herr Heller saw such an
instrument in the hands of the Indians of Huatusco――a village near
Mirador in the Tierra Templada, or temperate region, occupying the
slopes of the Cordilleras. Its sound is described as so very loud as
to be distinctly audible at an incredibly great distance. This
circumstance, which has been noticed by several travellers, may
perhaps be owing in some measure to the condition of the atmosphere in
Mexico.
Instruments of percussion constructed on a principle more or less
similar to the _teponaztli_ were in use in several other parts of
America, as well as in Mexico.
The largest kind of Mexican _teponaztli_ appears to have been
generally of a cylindrical shape. Clavigero gives a drawing of such an
instrument. Drums, also constructed of skin or parchment in
combination with wood were not unknown to the Indians. Of this
description was, for instance, the _huehuetl_ of the Aztecs in Mexico,
which consisted, according to Clavigero, of a wooden cylinder somewhat
above 3 feet in height, curiously carved and painted and covered at
the top with carefully prepared deer-skin. And, what appears the most
remarkable, the parchment (we are told) could be tightened or
slackened by means of cords in nearly the same way as with our own
drum. The _huehuetl_ was not beaten with drumsticks but merely struck
with the fingers, and much dexterity was required to strike it in the
proper manner. Oviedo states that the Indians in Cuba had drums which
were stretched with human skin. And Bernal Diaz relates that when he
was with Cortés in Mexico they ascended together the _Teocalli_
(“House of God”), a large temple in which human sacrifices were
offered by the aborigines; and there the Spanish visitors saw a large
drum which was made, Diaz tells us, with skins of great serpents. This
“hellish instrument,” as he calls it, produced, when struck, a doleful
sound which was so loud that it could be heard at a distance of two
leagues.
The name of the Peruvian drum was _huanca_; they had also an
instrument of percussion, called _chhilchiles_, which appears to have
been a sort of tambourine.
The rattle was likewise popular with the Indians before the discovery
of America. The Mexicans called it _ajacaxtli_. In construction it was
similar to the rattle at the present day commonly used by the Indians.
It was oval or round in shape, and appears to have been usually made
of a gourd into which holes were pierced, and to which a wooden handle
was affixed. A number of little pebbles were enclosed in the hollowed
gourd. They were also made of pottery. The little balls in the
_ajacaxtli_ of pottery, enclosed as they are, may at a first glance
appear a puzzle. Probably, when the rattle was being formed they were
attached to the inside as slightly as possible; and after the clay had
been baked they were detached by means of an implement passed through
the holes.
The Tezcucans (or Acolhuans) belonged to the same race as the Aztecs,
whom they greatly surpassed in knowledge and social refinement.
Nezahualcoyotl, a wise monarch of the Tezcucans, abhorred human
sacrifices, and erected a large temple which he dedicated to “The
unknown god, the cause of causes.” This edifice had a tower nine
storeys high, on the top of which were placed a number of musical
instruments of various kinds which were used to summon the worshippers
to prayer. Respecting these instruments especial mention is made of a
sonorous metal which was struck with a mallet. This is stated in a
historical essay written by Ixtlilxochitl, a native of Mexico and of
royal descent, who lived in the beginning of the seventeenth century,
and who may be supposed to have been familiar with the musical
practices of his countrymen. But whether the sonorous metal alluded to
was a gong or a bell is not clear from the vague record transmitted to
us. That the bell was known to the Peruvians appears to be no longer
doubtful, since a small copper specimen has been found in one of the
old Peruvian tombs. This interesting relic is now deposited in the
museum at Lima. M. de Castelnau has published a drawing of it. The
Peruvians called their bells _chanrares_; but it remains questionable
whether this name did not designate rather the so-called horse bells,
which were certainly known to the Mexicans, who called them _yotl_. It
is noteworthy that these _yotl_ are found figured in the
picture-writings representing the various objects which the Aztecs
used to pay as tribute to their sovereigns. The collection of Mexican
antiquities in the British Museum contains a cluster of yotl-bells.
Being nearly round, they closely resemble the _Schellen_ which the
Germans are in the habit of affixing to their horses, particularly in
the winter when they are driving their noiseless sledges.
Again, in South America sonorous stones are not unknown, and were used
in olden time for musical purposes. The traveller G. T. Vigne saw
among the Indian antiquities preserved in the town of Cuzco, in Peru,
“a musical instrument of green sonorous stone, about a foot long, and
an inch and a half wide, flat-sided, pointed at both ends, and arched
at the back, where it was about a quarter of an inch thick, whence it
diminished to an edge, like the blade of a knife…. In the middle of
the back was a small hole, through which a piece of string was passed;
and when suspended and struck by any hard substance a singularly
musical note was produced.” Humboldt mentions the Amazon-stone, which
on being struck by a hard substance yields a metallic sound. It was
formerly cut by the American Indians into very thin plates, perforated
in the centre and suspended by a string. These plates were remarkably
sonorous. This kind of stone is not, as might be conjectured from its
name, found exclusively near the Amazon. The name was given to it as
well as to the river by the first European visitors to America, in
allusion to the female warriors respecting whom strange stories are
told. The natives pretending, according to an ancient tradition, that
the stone came from the country of “Women without husbands,” or “Women
living alone.”
As regards the ancient stringed instruments of the American Indians
our information is indeed but scanty. Clavigero says that the Mexicans
were entirely unacquainted with stringed instruments; a statement the
correctness of which is questionable, considering the stage of
civilisation to which these people had attained. At any rate, we
generally find one or other kind of such instruments with nations
whose intellectual progress and social condition are decidedly
inferior. The Aztecs had many claims to the character of a civilised
community and (as before said) the Tezcucans were even more advanced
in the cultivation of the arts and sciences than the Aztecs. “The best
histories,” Prescott observes, “the best poems, the best code of laws,
the purest dialect, were all allowed to be Tezcucan. The Aztecs
rivalled their neighbours in splendour of living, and even in the
magnificence of their structures. They displayed a pomp and
ostentatious pageantry, truly Asiatic.” Unfortunately historians are
sometimes not sufficiently discerning in their communications
respecting musical questions. J. Ranking, in describing the grandeur
of the establishment maintained by Montezuma, says that during the
repasts of this monarch “there was music of fiddle, flute,
snail-shell, a kettle-drum, and other strange instruments.” But as
this waiter does not indicate the source whence he drew his
information respecting Montezuma’s orchestra including the fiddle, the
assertion deserves scarcely a passing notice.
The Peruvians possessed a stringed instrument, called _tinya_, which
was provided with five or seven strings. To conjecture from the
unsatisfactory account of it transmitted to us, the _tinya_ appears to
have been a kind of guitar. Considering the fragility of the materials
of which such instruments are generally constructed, it is perhaps not
surprising that we do not meet with any specimens of them in the
museums of American antiquities.
A few remarks will not be out of place here referring to the musical
performances of the ancient Indians, since an acquaintance with the
nature of the performances is likely to afford additional assistance
in appreciating the characteristics of the instruments. In Peru, where
the military system was carefully organised, each division of the army
had its trumpeters, called _cqueppacamayo_, and its drummers, called
_huancarcamayo_. When the Inca returned with his troops victorious
from battle his first act was to repair to the temple of the Sun in
order to offer up thanksgiving; and after the conclusion of this
ceremony the people celebrated the event with festivities, of which
music and dancing constituted a principal part. Musical performances
appear to have been considered indispensable on occasions of public
celebrations; and frequent mention is made of them by historians who
have described the festivals annually observed by the Peruvians.
About the month of October the Peruvians celebrated a solemn feast in
honour of the dead, at which ceremony they executed lugubrious songs
and plaintive instrumental music. Compositions of a similar character
were performed on occasion of the decease of a monarch. As soon as it
was made known to the people that their Inca had been “called home to
the mansions of his father the sun” they prepared to celebrate his
obsequies with becoming solemnity. Prescott, in his graphic
description of these observances, says: “At stated intervals, for a
year, the people assembled to renew the expressions of their sorrow;
processions were made displaying the banner of the departed monarch;
bards and minstrels were appointed to chronicle his achievements, and
their songs continued to be rehearsed at high festivals in the
presence of the reigning monarch――thus stimulating the living by the
glorious example of the dead.” The Peruvians had also particular
agricultural songs, which they were in the habit of singing while
engaged in tilling the lands of the Inca; a duty which devolved upon
the whole nation. The subject of these songs, or rather hymns,
referred especially to the noble deeds and glorious achievements of
the Inca and his dynasty. While thus singing, the labourers regulated
their work to the rhythm of the music, thereby ensuring a pleasant
excitement and a stimulant in their occupation, like soldiers
regulating their steps to the music of the military band. These hymns
pleased the Spanish invaders so greatly that they not only adopted
several of them but also composed some in a similar form and style.
This appears, however, to have been the case rather with the poetry
than with the music.
The name of the Peruvian elegiac songs was _haravi_. Some tunes of
these songs, pronounced to be genuine specimens, have been published
in recent works; but their genuineness is questionable. At all events
they must have been much tampered with, as they exhibit exactly the
form of the Spanish _bolero_. Even allowing that the melodies of these
compositions have been derived from Peruvian _harivaris_, it is
impossible to determine with any degree of certainty how much in them
has been retained of the original tunes, and how much has been
supplied besides the harmony, which is entirely an addition of the
European arranger. The Peruvians had minstrels, called _haravecs_
(_i.e._, “inventors”), whose occupation it was to compose and to
recite the _haravis_.
The Mexicans possessed a class of songs which served as a record of
historical events. Furthermore they had war-songs, love-songs, and
other secular vocal compositions, as well as sacred chants, in the
practice of which boys were instructed by the priests in order that
they might assist in the musical performances of the temple. It
appertained to the office of the priests to burn incense, and to
perform music in the temple at stated times of the day. The
commencement of the religious observances which took place regularly
at sunrise, at mid-day, at sunset, and at midnight, was announced by
signals blown on trumpets and pipes. Persons of high position retained
in their service professional musicians whose duty it was to compose
ballads, and to perform vocal music with instrumental accompaniment.
The nobles themselves, and occasionally even the monarch, not
infrequently delighted in composing ballads and odes.