Andean Music

Panpipes, charango and pentatonic melody link highland dances and laments.

Related

ModeRhythmThe sikuThe charango

Andean music is a highland soundscape shared across the Andes, where panpipes, flutes, charango and drums link dances and laments.

Origins and era

Inca and earlier highland cultures left panpipes, vertical flutes and ocarinas. Spanish colonisation brought strings, and the charango took shape around Potosi. In the twentieth century musicians from Peru, Bolivia and Chile carried dances into cities. From the 1950s the Nueva Cancion movement and Inti-Illimani made it an international voice.

What you hear

Listen for panpipe alternation: in sikuri ensembles the melody is split in two, with two groups trading notes. Vertical flutes are bright, charango strums fast on nylon strings, and drums carry a 2/4 or 6/8 step. Melody often uses pentatonic scales, parallel thirds and falling endings. Voices can be high or mournful, with choruses answering in unison.

Key figures

Violeta Parra and Atahualpa Yupanqui brought Andean material into nueva cancion, Inti-Illimani and Quilapayun took panpipes and guitar to the world, and Los Kjarkas turned Bolivian dances into pop. Daniel Alomia Robles wrote El Condor Pasa in 1913.

Lineage

Inca and colonial highland music, Spanish strings and African rhythm feed in; nueva cancion, Andean pop, world music and film scoring come out. Collective playing became a recognisable sound.

Common misunderstandings

El Condor Pasa is not an ancient Inca tune but a composition from 1913. Andean music does not belong to one country either, since Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina have distinct branches. Panpipes are not the only instrument, as charango and flutes are equally central.

Sources

• The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd ed., entry Andes（Oxford University Press），用于核对高原乐器与舞曲
• Thomas Turino, Music in the Andes（Oxford University Press, 2008），用于核对社会场景与新歌运动

Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.