Dance and Music in the Peruvian Andes Society
Since the arriving of the Spaniards in South America, Peruvian Andean culture changed a lot. Not only Spaniards imposed their religion, Catholicism, but also they introduced their artistic culture in music and dances. Francisco Pizarro not only came with his army to conquer Peru, but also he came with various artists such as musicians, architects, painters, and dancer. It is because of the Spaniards that the Peruvian traditional folk music is how it is nowadays. The introduction of new instruments and more modern instruments such as the violin, harp, and wind instruments gave the mestizos more possibilities to their music. Music and dance have always been part of important events in the Peruvian culture, i.e. wars during the Inca Kingdom, celebrations, and funerals. This never changed with the arriving of the Spaniards, however, music and dance starting being part of more social events than it was during the Inca Kingdom. In this Blog I will present to you the role of the dances in the Peruvian Andes, for this purpose, I will focus on two of what I consider the most important dances if the Peruvian Andean traditional culture, Huayno and the Scissors Dance.
Huayno
This dance has its roots from the pre-hispanic era in Peru. This was danced in the Inka's celebration in the Peruvian Andes. Huayno comes from the word in Quechua "huayñunakunay" which means dancing holding hands. This dance is all about flirtation during the celebrations in the Inka Kingdom. At the beginning of the dance there are not couples, instead everybody dances in circles with everyoday; however, at the end of the dance, the fugue, everybody chooses a partner to finish the dance.
Since Huaynos are from the Inka era, the music is in a pentatonic mode because that was the only possibility of melody for the kena and pan flutes. The most most important characteristic of this music is the rhythm. The metric for this dance is 1/4, the charango plays very fast rhythms, and one always can feel to sixteenths in the upbeat, but, these two sixteenths are not the exact same, usually the second sixteenth is shorter than the first one.
The costumes that dancers use are traditional from the area of Cusco, capital of the Inca kingdom, very colorful, and many layer for women's skirts.
Fiestas Patronales
In most countries with hispanic culture, they celebrate Fiestas Patronales in different cities. Fiestas Patronales are religious celebrations that could last from one day to one week . In these events people do a tribute to the saint of the town or community. Usually, one family organizes the whole event, and they change organizers every year. This event has 7 parts:
Pishtapacuy (Ritual Slaughter)
This at the beginning of the event when they sacrifice the animals that they are going to eat during the celebration. They usually sacrifice two to three cows so they can feed everyone who is part of the party. Usually, there is no music during this part of the event. However, in some places, for instance Ancash, there is a person playing the Kena and the bass drum during the slaughter. The melody that he plays, for the nature of the instruments, is pentatonic, and this person beats bars of 1/4 with the bass drum throughout.
Allauca (Reception of the Band)
This the second part of this event. This is when the musicians arrive in town. People welcome them, they start playing and everybody dances while walking on the streets of the town. The repertoire that it is usually played is Huayno. The huayno played here in the Fiestas Patronales is a little different from the original Huayno from the Inka era. Since there are more modern instruments, suchs trumpets, trombons, clarinets, saxophones, the music is not entirely pentatonic. When musicians saw that they had more possibilities in the newer instruments, they started to write more huaynos in a more modern style, but usually keeping the traditions. Also, since Fiestas Patronales are always outdoors, they needen louder instruments like trumpets, trombones, and saxophones.
Comun Micury (Communal lunch)
This the third part of the event which everybody eats and take a break from the celebration.
Running of the Balls and Bullfight
Because of the strong influence of Spain in Peru, bullfighting and bull running is now a tradition in the Peruvian Andes. These are included in the Fiestas Patronales in the Andes. During this part of the event, the brass bands play a more eclectic repertoire such as Spanish tunes, marches, marineras and huaynos.
Jaca Tsari (Satire of the Spanish running of the bulls)
This is after the Running of the Bulls in the night. Here it is when people offer animals as gifts to the family hosting the event as a way of saying thank you for this big celebration.
Procession of the Saint of the Town
Since Catholicism was imposed by the Spaniards in the XVI century, every town, specially in the Andes, has a Patrón or Patrona (the saint of the town). During the Fiestas Patronales people carry the image of the saint on the streets of the town. This is always accompanied by the brass bands playing Marchas regulares. These are slow marches with a melancholic feeling. Not only the brass bands play in the processions, but also there singers, usually women, singing catholic verses made specially for this specific Saint. Also, there are dancers dancing traditional dances from the area. All this happens after the Mass in the church of the town/city.
Cabildo (The Central Dance)
This the last event of the Fiesta Patronal. Here is when the dancers and the musicians join on the stage to dance the typical music of the region. Dancers wear special costumes typical from the area. Many of these dances are danced by many couples on stage at the same time, but some other are these couples join each other to form a bigger groups for a bigger choreography. These dances, specially the Huaynos, have this characteristic that the the dancers shout during the dance.
These Fiestas Patronales happen in every town and city of the Peruvian Andes and in some towns of the coast. However, the most important celebration of this kind in Peru is La Fiesta de la Candelaria in Puno, border with Bolivia. In La Fiesta de la Candelaria in Puno, they do a tribute the Virgin of the Candelaria. For this event hundreds of dancers and musicians from many towns close to Puno, Quechua, Aymara and the Andean plateau culture, come to participate in this event. In this event one can find many dances from everywhere in the Andes; nonetheless, the most important dances are Caporales, Diabladas, Morenadas, and dances from the region of Puno. This event is considered as one of the most important events in South America next to the Carnaval de Rio in Brazil.
Dance of the Scissors
The Dance of the Scissors are descendants from the "tusuq laykas" who were pre-Hispanic priests, soothsayers, sorcerers and healers. When Spaniards came and settled in Peru, they chased the "tusuq laykas" because they were considered "supaypa wawan" (sons of the evil). The "tusuq laykas" used to hide in the highlands so that they could be safe. After some time, the Spaniards accepted them into the society, but, with the condition that they danced for the catholic saints and God. This is how this danced was included in the Fiestas Patronales in Ayacucho, Huancavelica, Junin, and Apurimac. Nowadays, this is a ritual and magical-religious dance that represents the spirit of the Pachamama (God of Earth), Yacumama (God of water), Hanacpachap (The Virgin), Ukupacha (God of the underworld) amongst others.
The dancers are named the "Danzaqs." According to myths, Danzaqs were evil beings because they recited "taytachay juanikillo" (Devil my God). Dancers hold scissors on their hands since the times when the Spaniards exploited them in the mines of Ayacucho. According to legends in Ayacucho, the scissors were made by Auquis, who were sons of the Inkas, and the sound of the scissors came from the River Yauruviri. In fact, dancers, in order to have a good sound from the scissors, they put the scissor under water in springs and rivers. The teaching of the Danzaq passes from generation to generation, and usually people start learning this dance when they are children in order to keep the tradition.
This dance is usually practiced in agricultural and religious celebrations. These celebrations last 5 days. First day (Anticipo) , at midnight, they do offerings to the saints and Gods. Second day (Vispera), they do a parade and dance on the streets from 6 am to 8 pm. Third day (Dia Central), the competence starts, dancers do acrobatics and magic; they go to the towers of the church to do demonstrations of balance. Fourth day (Cabildo), they dance again on the streets until 8 pm. Fifth day, everybody goes back home.
The main characteristic of this dance is that dancers challenge each other. They always have an opponent to whom they show their most difficult dancing steps and acrobatics. This dance could last up to 30 min until one of the opponents give up, or the public choose a winner. All this happen after the presentation of the dancers when they greet the saints and the public, they dance on their toes, and they make scissors sound. The costumes that they use is strongly influenced by the Spanish culture, with very bright colours on it.
The music for this dance is played by a violin and a harp. The harp is played upside down, and the intonation of the violin is not very accurate is it is in classical academic music, they go sharper as they go higher, and flatter as they go lower. The characteristic of the melodies in this dance is that the violin uses many glissandos and ornamentations throughout.
Sources:
Soy Andina, Mitchell Teplitsky. DVD 2007 http://soyandina.com/
http://kuyayky.com/nuv/
