Charango
The charango is a small bowl-lute chordophone native to the Andean regions of Bolivia, Peru, and Argentina, featuring ten strings arranged in five double courses and traditionally constructed with an armadillo shell as the resonator back.[1][2] Developed during the early 18th century in areas like Potosí, Bolivia, it represents a hybrid instrument born from indigenous Quechua and Aymara adaptations of Spanish colonial vihuelas or guitars, reflecting cultural synthesis amid colonial influences.[2][1] Plucked or strummed, the charango produces a bright, high-pitched tone suited to folk traditions, with modern versions often using wood instead of armadillo due to conservation laws prohibiting the former material.[1] Its compact size, approximately 66 cm in length, and paired strings enable versatile playing in mestizo and indigenous musical contexts across the Altiplano.[3]
History
Etymology and Terminology
The term charango originates from the Quechua language spoken by indigenous Andean peoples, with the root "ch'arango" or "charangu" likely referring to a small stringed instrument or evoking its lively, high-pitched sound.[4] This etymology reflects the instrument's adaptation by Quechua and Aymara communities in the Altiplano region spanning modern-day Bolivia and Peru, where linguistic influences from both groups shaped its nomenclature during the colonial period.[5] Some accounts link the name to the Quechua term for armadillo (ch'ara or related forms), alluding to the animal's shell traditionally used as the instrument's resonator, though this connection remains unconfirmed and debated among researchers.[5] Regional terminology varies across Andean locales, incorporating local indigenous dialects and adaptations. In Bolivia and Peru, diminutive or variant forms include kirkinchu (or quirquinchu) for smaller types and walaycho for a compact Bolivian version often constructed from wood or armadillo shell.[6] These names highlight phonetic and cultural divergences, with Aymara influences contributing to terms emphasizing size or material in highland communities. Alternative derivations, such as an onomatopoeic imitation of the instrument's strumming or a Spanish alteration of charanga (an unrelated term for a wind-based ensemble), have been proposed but lack strong empirical support from indigenous linguistic records.[7][8] The word charango must be distinguished from charanga, a Spanish term originating in the Caribbean for a small orchestra featuring wind instruments, derived from imitative sounds or references to informal military bands in the 19th century.[9] This terminological boundary underscores the charango's distinct Andean lute heritage versus the ensemble's Afro-Cuban and colonial Spanish roots, avoiding conflation in musical historiography.[10] Bolivian charanguista Ernesto Cavour has argued against direct links to charanga, favoring indigenous phonetic evolution as the primary source.Colonial Origins
The Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire, completed by 1533, facilitated the introduction of European plucked string instruments, including the vihuela de mano—a Renaissance guitar-like lute—to the Andean highlands, where no comparable stringed instruments existed among indigenous populations prior to European contact.[2] These imports reached mining centers like Potosí, founded in 1545 as a major silver hub, prompting local adaptations by Aymara and Quechua artisans who modified the vihuela's design into a compact ten-stringed lute suited to high-altitude environments and resource constraints.[2][5] By the early 18th century, the charango had emerged in Potosí, Bolivia, featuring a small body with paired strings in five courses and an armadillo (quirquincho) shell as a resonator—a practical substitution leveraging abundant local fauna for its taut skin and hollow cavity, amid limited access to imported woods in remote colonial outposts.[2][11] This hybrid construction reflected empirical ingenuity, blending Spanish fretboard and stringing techniques with indigenous materials to produce a bright, resonant tone conducive to communal and solitary play.[2] Archaeological evidence includes stone reliefs on the facade of Potosí's San Lorenzo Church (built 1728–1744), depicting mermaids wielding lutes identifiable as charangos or close vihuela variants, attesting to the instrument's integration into colonial Andean visual culture by the mid-18th century.[5] The earliest textual record dates to 1814, when a Tupiza cleric documented indigenous employment of the charango in musical practices, underscoring its established role among highland communities despite the speculative nature of precise invention timelines.[12] Colonial administrative controls on indigenous labor and resources in mining districts likely influenced such material substitutions, though direct causal links to secretive fabrication remain unverified in primary accounts.[11]Post-Colonial Evolution
Following the independence movements of the early 19th century, the charango spread from its Bolivian origins to adjacent Andean regions, including Peru, Ecuador, northern Chile, and Argentina, where it integrated into local folk music traditions associated with rural and mining communities.[13] This dissemination reflected broader patterns of cultural exchange in the post-colonial Andes, with the instrument adapting to diverse musical contexts while retaining its core role in accompanying songs and dances.[5] In the 20th century, production methods evolved significantly due to the declining availability of armadillo shells, driven by overhunting and habitat pressures, prompting luthiers to adopt wooden backs constructed from materials like cedar, walnut, or khaya.[14] This shift, which gained prominence after mid-century as armadillo populations became scarce, improved durability and accessibility while preserving the instrument's resonant qualities through careful wood selection and construction techniques.[15] The 1960s and 1970s folk revival in Bolivia and the broader Andes further propelled the charango's development, with figures like Ernesto Cavour establishing the Bolivian Society of the Charango and co-founding the influential ensemble Los Jairas around 1965, which standardized tuning, playing styles, and manufacturing to elevate its status in national music scenes.[16] These efforts, amid movements like Nueva Canción that incorporated Andean instruments for social commentary, fostered greater technical refinement and wider dissemination through recordings and performances.[17][18]Design and Construction
Body Structure and Resonator
The charango's body is a compact, lute-like structure optimized for generating bright, high-pitched tones through efficient vibration transmission. It consists of a soundboard affixed to a resonator that forms the instrument's acoustic chamber, typically measuring under 66 cm in total length. The scale length, from nut to bridge, is approximately 36 cm in standard models, enabling high string tension relative to the small body size, which contributes to the instrument's characteristic treble resonance.[19][20] The soundboard, positioned atop the resonator, features internal bracing to support the bridge and distribute string vibrations across its surface, enhancing projection without excessive mass. In traditional designs, the resonator utilizes the natural curvature of an armadillo carapace, creating a hemispherical cavity that amplifies higher frequencies by reflecting sound waves efficiently within a confined volume. This geometric configuration, with a narrow waist and shallow depth, minimizes low-frequency damping while privileging rapid vibration decay for clarity, aligning with acoustic principles where smaller resonators favor elevated resonant modes.[2] The neck integrates directly with the body at the soundboard's upper bout, typically straight rather than sharply angled, to facilitate unobstructed access for strumming and fretting. Equipped with 12 to 17 frets embedded in the fretboard, this design allows extension into higher registers while maintaining ergonomic playability, as the compact scale reduces the physical stretch required for intervals. Acoustically, the high tension imposed by the short scale length—governed by the fundamental frequency formula f = \frac{1}{2L} \sqrt{\frac{T}{\mu}}, where L is scale length, T is tension, and \mu is linear density—yields a brilliant tone, with the resonator's rigid shell further boosting overtones through efficient energy transfer from strings to air.[20]Materials and Manufacturing
The traditional resonator of the charango was fashioned from the carapace of the quirquincho armadillo (Tolypeutes matacus), harvested after the animal was hunted for food, yielding a lightweight, resonant curved back approximately 25-30 cm in diameter.[14] [11] This practice, documented in Andean luthiery from the colonial era onward, persisted into the mid-20th century but declined sharply due to overhunting pressures on armadillo populations, which contributed to the species' listing as vulnerable by conservation assessments.[14] [2] By the 1980s, regulatory protections and scarcity rendered armadillo-shell charangos rare, shifting production to wooden resonators carved or bent to replicate the shell's form, often from hardwoods like khaya or maple for durability and tonal warmth.[15] [14] Soundboards, critical for vibration transmission, are typically sourced from straight-grained softwoods such as pine (Pinus spp.) or cedar (Cedrela spp.), quarter-sawn to about 2-3 mm thickness to optimize sustain and projection without excessive weight.[21] Back and sides employ denser native species like naranjillo (Cordia spp.) or jacaranda (Dalbergia spp.), valued for resistance to warping in high-altitude humidity fluctuations common in the Andes.[22] [23] Manufacturing remains predominantly artisanal, with luthiers in Peruvian and Bolivian highland workshops—such as those in Ayacucho or Potosí—hand-shaping components using chisels, planes, and kerfing strips for the bent-back assembly, followed by hide glue adhesion and multi-layer varnishing for acoustic sealing.[3] [24] These family-based operations emphasize empirical tuning of wood selection through tap-testing for resonance, with mechanized techniques like CNC routing emerging only sporadically post-2000 in urban factories, preserving the instrument's手工 variability in tone.[3] Sustainable forestry certifications for tonewoods have gained traction since the 1990s, mitigating overexploitation risks while maintaining the charango's characteristic bright, percussive timbre.[14]Strings, Neck, and Fretboard
The charango features ten strings arranged in five paired courses, with each course consisting of two strings tuned in unison to produce a fuller sound.[3] Traditionally, these strings were made from gut, though modern constructions predominantly use nylon for durability and consistent tone, with metal strings employed less frequently for brighter articulation.[25][3] The paired setup contributes to mechanical stability under tension, distributing stress evenly across the neck while enabling precise intonation when properly calibrated.[26] The neck, typically carved from hardwoods like mahogany or cedar, extends from the headstock to the body, providing structural support for the strings and facilitating their vibration transfer.[3] Its compact design, with fret spacing calculated to maintain equal temperament across the scale, supports accurate pitch production essential for the instrument's rhythmic strumming patterns.[3] The fretboard, often constructed from ebony or rosewood for smooth playability, incorporates metal frets—thin strips embedded into the wood—to define discrete pitches and enhance durability against wear.[3][27] In humid Andean climates, environmental moisture can cause neck wood to swell, leading to string slippage, altered action, and intonation drift; luthiers address these through empirical methods such as applying protective finishes, using humidity-absorbing silica in storage cases, and periodic truss adjustments for sustained tuning stability.[27][28]Tuning and Technique
Standard Tunings
The standard tuning of the charango features five courses of paired strings, tuned from lowest to highest as G-C-E-A-E, producing an Am7 chord when strummed open.[29][26] This configuration uses unison pairs for the first, second, fourth, and fifth courses (both strings G3, both C4, both A4, both E5), while the third course employs an octave pair (E3 and E4).[30][26] The re-entrant design, where the third course dips below the second before ascending, spans approximately one octave overall, from E3 to E5, which supports dense harmonic clusters and facilitates the rapid arpeggios and chord voicings central to Andean folk techniques.[30][29] The interval progression—primarily perfect fourths interrupted by a major third between C and E—mirrors elements of guitar tuning but adapted to the instrument's compact scale, enhancing playability for melodic and rhythmic complexity without excessive string tension.[30] Regional variations occur, such as lower reference pitches in Bolivian or Argentine contexts, but the G-C-E-A-E scheme predominates across documented sources for the standard instrument.[29] Limited acoustic analyses indicate that this tuning maintains intonation stability due to balanced tension distribution across paired strings, though specific empirical comparisons of playability remain sparse in available luthier and performer documentation.[26]| Course (low to high) | Tuning Notes | Pairing Type |
|---|---|---|
| 5 (lowest) | G3/G3 | Unison |
| 4 | C4/C4 | Unison |
| 3 | E3/E4 | Octave |
| 2 | A4/A4 | Unison |
| 1 (highest) | E5/E5 | Unison |