Tocando la historía: the role of instruments as (hi)storytellers in Chilean musical culture.

As he plays, the flutist is bringing into existence a sonic space that is defined by the limit of audibility of his flute in each direction, upward toward the skies as well as outward on the earth around him, into which his ideas of relationships are valid. And because how we relate is who we are, he is in effect saying, to himself and to anyone who may be listening, Here I am, and this is who I am. Who that “I” is, is complex and even multiple, endlessly developing and unfolding, as are the sonic relationships that the lone herdsman, with no one but himself to hear, is creating the night. (Small, 1998, p. 206)

In this quote Christopher Small highlights the power of a musician to “create” not only his music, but the world in which it exists. The “audibility of his flute” allows the flutist to define the boundaries of the space around him, whilst also asserting his place within this space. This act is symbiotic; he takes inspiration from the night, whilst creating it himself. But what if the sound of the flute itself created the night, if the flute itself recalled its darkness or the light of the stars?

When you imagine a storyteller, it is unlikely you will picture the fret board of a guitar, the rattle of maracas or the fine notes of a tin-whistle. More likely the title will recall a person; a famed raconteur, a loved-one who would delight you with their tales, or a wizened face beckoning you in to sit beside the fire. This paper aims to explore the way in which instruments can be seen as (hi)storytellers in Chilean musical culture, through both (re)creation and resonance. In Chile, the question of history is bound closely with musical culture. From the popular public performance of the traditional dance cueca to the numerous buskers playing guitar or kena (Andean woodwind) on the micros[1] of Santiago, musical culture resonates with influences from the past and tradition. Furthermore, it is not only a question of resonance, but of (re)creation. After sustaining one of the longest military dictatorships in Latin America under the rule of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990), the necessity for “(re)creating” their story and consolidating their past, present and future came to the fore.

This paper will follow the course of Chilean history and music from the early 50s to the present day in its search for new and old roots for Chilean music. The paper will examine the major (re)introduction of traditional Chilean and Latin American instruments by Violeta Parra into the historical Chilean musical imaginary and their use by later groups from the  musical movement La Nueva Canción Chilena. In examining this process, I will argue that the instruments played an essential part in not only the (hi)storytelling of the times in which they were played, but also in the (re)construction of the spirit of past cultures in order to form a particular vision of the future. Following this the essay will consider the legacy of the artists of chapters one and two in contemporary Chilean popular music and in the work of Chilean instrumentalists and musicians today. Although the genre used in expressing this desire for (hi)storytelling shifted towards rock and other hybrid genres in more recent decades, the instruments nonetheless continued to hold a significant role, their sonoric attributes linking them to the sentiment of the previous generations, even if the rhythm to which they play is different.

Just as the flute of the lone flutist conjured by Small creates the night as he draws inspiration from it, the Chilean musicians this paper will consider (re)create their past, whilst taking inspiration from it, summoning it into existence with the (hi)stories their instruments tell.

What is a (hi)storyteller?

As it has been alluded to in the introduction, when you hear the denomination “storyteller”, a musical instrument is unlikely to be the first entity which would spring to mind. However, this paper will contend that instruments can, and do, indeed tell a story - in fact, they can arguably tell many. The addition of (hi) as suffix to storyteller centres the telling not only on stories, but on histories, a central concern of the current paper.  In many languages the word for “history” and “story” is identical. In Spanish for example - the second language of this paper - both “history” and “story” in their most common usages are encapsulated in the same word, historía. As the introduction hinted, this study is concerned with the (re)creation of past musical cultures. The addition of the bracketed suffix links back to this central concern of history and the past, whilst still allowing for the flexibility that this “history” or that “history” is another man’s “story”.  As we have suggested previously, both histories and stories are subjective and not necessarily incontestable fact. Before delving into the (hi)stories and instruments in question,  outline what can be understood when we conceive of instruments as (hi)storytellers.

The Oxford English Dictionary (defines a “storyteller” in the following manner:

1.                          “One who is accustomed to tell stories or anecdotes in conversation.”;

2.                          “Euphemistically: A liar. colloq.”;

3.                          “One whose business it is to recite legendary or romantic stories.”;

4.                          “Applied to a writer of stories.”;

5.                          “the teller of a particular story[LG1] .”

Considering the first definition, can an instrument be accustomed to telling stories? Perhaps not in so many words, but the human-actors could be charged with hearing stories from the instruments. Can instruments lie?  A story is often contestable and highly subjective. In the case of (hi)stories and instruments this definition may be better construed as telling one side of a story. Appearing at once as truth, lie or in an uneasy middle-ground between the two. In regards to the third definition; Is it the “business” of instruments to recite legendary or romantic stories? This is arguably the most easily attributable definition to instruments; they are an integral part of legends and romance in many musical cultures past and present throughout the globe. Where would the troubadour, see fig. 1, be without his lute? Indeed, commenting on the poetry of Chile, a base for much folk music in the country poet Nicanor Parra comments “what is the origen of all this. It’s the poetry of the minstrels and troubadours of the twelfth century. (Parra and Morales, 2003, p. 86). The instruments represent much more than an aesthetic accompaniment to the musician’s voice. Instruments are, as the fourth definition suggests, also “writers” of stories. This creative element, not of solely recounting a tale is also central when we conceive of instruments as story-tellers. Not only can instruments arguably take on their own agency within a tale, apart from that of the human actor playing it, but they can develop the story in new and innovative ways, surprising perhaps even the musician who plucks at its strings. As I will explore in this study, they are at times chroniclers, spanning non-“fictive” histories, quite a apart from the (hi)story which they played wishes to tell. The final definition of “storyteller” is “the teller of a particular story”. In this paper the instruments concerned tell a particular Chilean (hi)stories. This is not to say that the (hi)stories exist in a vacuum bound by borders, nor does it deny that the instruments involved have the propensity to tell other stories, rather it is to say that the beating heart  of the of this paper lies somewhere between Arica and Punta Arenas.

Chapter 1: Sewing the seeds: Violeta Parra and the “rebirth” of the story of folk music in Chile

Stories and epic would be, for decades, the linked pillars between art and politics, and the foundation of the most important Chilean artistic movement in those years. (Alvarado, 2004, p. 53.)

La Guitarra Indocíl , the “in-docile” or disobedient guitar was published in 1975 by the Chilean musician and writer Patricio Manns whilst in exile in France. The guitar in question is that of Violeta Parra (1917-1963)  pictured in fig. 1. The title of Manns’ work hints at something common to descriptions of instruments and their players, namely a conflation of the two. Christopher Small observed this in an the entrance of an orchestra to a stage, “carrying them [the instruments], in the way musicians do the world over, as if they were extensions of themselves and their bodies.” (1998, p.64). In the title the guitar becomes Violeta and Violeta, the guitar in an anthropomorphic exchange. The guitar is not only an extension of her body but it is her. In this close association between artist and instrument, instruments and their part as (hi)torytellers is also traceable to the artists which play them. Violeta Parra has come to claim a place at the forefront of the historical-musical imaginary in Chile, taking stage with other “authors” of what are viewed as universal yet distinctly Chilean stories such as Gabriela Mistral and Pablo Neruda. To many Violeta and her song represented and continues to represent both the “emblem and motor” of the instalment of a “new imaginary in popular cultural tradition.” (Torres Alvarado, 2004, p.53). She is fated with the responsibility of the replacement of the notion of popular tradition as “nowhere” with somewhere, establishing the roots (Torres Alvarado, 2004).

This chapter will focus on two periods in which instruments can be seen to come to the fore as story-tellers in the lifetime of Violeta Parra. The first period focuses on the time in which Parra worked to (re)discover and document Chilean folk music whilst also recording her own original material. The second can be characterised by a period of international interaction, and the integration of instruments from other Latin American countries. However different the instruments of these periods are, they all encapsulate a running narrative which they co-construct with Violeta herself. Before considering these two specific periods, however, it is necessary to introduce Violeta and the context in which she bloomed.

Violeta, la campesina urbana[2].

Violeta Parra was born in San Carlos, a small town in the southern region of Bio-Bio. She was born during a time when the structure of the rural society in which she lived was in a process of intense change. The pervasive hacienda[3] system, a remnant of Chile’s colonial past, was losing its influence as an industrial-urban economy began to grow, feeding through the regions from its centre in the capital Santiago (Torres Alvarado, 2004, p.55). In the same period a focalization on the folk music of the campesinos or "country people" was appropriated by the state as a national form, the cueca being a particular case in point[4]. This was transformed into an agronacionalista movement or “agronationalism” in which the everyday practices of “agraria-campesinas” – “agrarian-countrymen/women” were paraded as emblems of national symbol and pride (Torres Alvarado, 2004, p.55). This popularisation arguably lead to a reduced, symbolic and "essentialist" representation of the world of the campesino and their song. In 1927, growing poverty resulted in the translation of Parra and her family to Chillán, the region’s urban nucleus. As economic migrants, Parra and her siblings were part of a sizeable population of rural-born citizens who were now basing themselves in the region’s capital in order to find work. The children of the family supplemented the income of their parents by singing and playing the standard guitar in the streets. Later, her brother urged her to move to Santiago, where she could receive a better education. Following the move to Santiago, she and her siblings began to perform variations of the aforementioned stylised folk music which was en vogue at this time, playing accompaniemento tipico which usually referred to the use of the standard guitar, accordion and percussion. These performances later became their main income, and the Hermanas Parra “The Parra sisters”, travelled through Chile performing their own renditions of popular song. These tours lead to great success and eventually to recordings with RCA records, through the national radio of Chile.

Desenterando raíces en la buscada del folclore, digging up roots in the search for folk : the guitarrón and Violeta

            In the early 1950s a sea-change would happen in the work of Violeta Parra, and the role of instruments in this change would be essential. Acting on the encouragement of her brother Nicanor, Violeta began to travel throughout Chile with the aim to investigate and catalogue Chilean folk music (Fundación Violeta Parra, 2008). The central aim of these journeys is hailed as an act of preservation, but also of research and (re)discovery. Parra wanted to get under the skin of an “authentic” Chilean story of folk music, in opposition to the idealised and essentialised variations of folk which she had previously performed. Her aim was, according to her brother Nicanor, to furnish the “rediscovery of folklore” (Morales and Parra, 2003, p. 82). Until this point the chapter has been laying the ground for the entrance of the instruments on which the paper focuses. The first instrument to enter can be seen in fig.1, it is the guitarrón chileno.  In 1953, Parra met don Isaís Angulo, a poeta popular or “popular poet” and noted guitarronero (Fundación Violeta Parra, 2008) [5]. Don Isaís Angulo would come to be known as El Profeta “the profet” for the profound impact he had on Violeta as an artist, and on Chilean music as an inspiration (Ponce, 2012). In this meeting, he gave an antique guitarrón to Violeta, the first of many she would own. The (hi)story which the guitarrón chileno tells in Violeta’s time would be a reaction to her changing society, and tied to this the search for “authentic” Chilean folk music. The chapter will now consider the ways in which it can be seen to tell this (hi)story.

The guitarrón chileno, or “large” Chilean guitar is a guitar composed of between 24 or 25 strings, see also fig. 2. As we examined in the previous section, Parra grew up listening to popular folk music and performing well-known verse, in both rural and urban contexts, however the guitarrón chileno came as a surprise to her. At the time when Parra was given her first guitar by don Angulo, the guitarrón was purportedly under threat of “extinction” in Chile (Subercaseux et. al, 1985; Chaparro, 2010). Having passed from its status as a salon instrument in the colonial era to the popular sphere of the lower classes, by Violeta’s age it was little known outside the close quarters of the popular poets of the time, the majority of whom lived in poverty outside of the centre of influence in the capital (Subercaseaux et. al., 1985, p. 64).

I

Fig. 2. Guitarrón Chileno.

It is widely attested that the origins of the guitarrón chileno are found in the instruments introduced to Chile by the Spanish during their colonization of the area in the 16^th century, primarily the lute and baroque guitar (Marisol, 2011; Chaparro, 2010). In a study of imagination and meztizo culture – a term used to denote the “mixing” of colonial and pre-colonial cultures - in Chile, Facuse Marisol states that “The guitarrón chileno is … testimony to the many musical and cultural legacies that resonate in this particular sound imagination.” (Marisol, 2011). Indeed, in this respect  it can be said that the guitarrón manifests an amalgamation of historical sonoric and instrumental influences. The instrument represented a criollo or meztizo culture based largely in rural areas, from which Chile took its foundations historically. This marked the guitarrón both in sound, form and history from the standard guitar more commonly played in the popular mass produced folklore of the time, its roots firmly in Spanish heritage (Uribe Valladares, 2004). The guitarrón chileno told the story of the rural communities which were purportedly as under threat from “extinction” as the instrument itself, due to the mass migration from the countryside to the urban metropolis of Santiago. Furthermore, the close association of the instrument with popular poets lent it an air of added authenticity not so readily ascribed to the standard guitar, with its mass appeal and use.

It is widely attested that Violeta Parra’s search for authenticity and the roots of a Chilean (hi)story for folk music was not only a reaction to the market for an essentialised folk music in Chile, but also the proliferation of foreign musical influences (particularly North American) which were growing through the spread of new media such as vinyl and radio (Memoria Chilena, 2013). Although the use of the guitarrón extended from the north to the south of the country, the exact origin of the instrument in Chile is unclear (Marisol, 2011; Chaparro, 2010). The pan-national quality of the instrument, something rare in a country in which the regions were more isolated by distance than today, lends it to be typified as a particularly Chilean instrument. In reaction to the influences of foreign mass culture, the use of the guitarrón could then be seen to assert a particularly Chilean (hi)story, not only of folklore but also of a wider cultural pride.

Following her trip, Violeta abandoned her previous repertoire, basing her work thence forth on the inspiration she garnered from the artists and work she had compiled during her voyage through Chile (Fundación Violeta Parra, 2008). Her  diffusion of the material became fervent as she played the music of the popular poets and campesinos in numerous appearances on Agricultura Radio and National Radio, amongst others(Fundación Violeta Parra, 2008). The guitarrón Chileno followed her in all of these performances, reinforcing and giving new fervour to the rebirth of the (hi)story of Chilean folk music.

Chilean (hi)stories with a foreign voice.

“Tito, what do think of this little instrument? It’s so beautiful. Of course, it’s not an instrument that belongs to Chilean Folklore” It was a Venezuelan instrument. The Venezuelan cuarto. … She began to play and I said to her: “Go ahead”. Of course, folkmusic is not something from a museum it’s a living thing. (Morales and Parra, 2003, p. 81)

Instruments as (hi)storytellers would emerge in Violeta Parra’s lifetime again while she lived as an artist in Paris. Having found acclaim in higher quartiles of the Chilean cultural spheres, she was invited as an “ambassador” of Chilean music to tour internationally in 1962 in Finland, Germany, Italy, France and the Soviet Union. The conversation detailed above was between Violeta Parra, and her brother Nicanor, consulting him on the introduction of the Venezeualan cuarto to her musical repertoire. This was just one of many traditional Latin American instrument which would be incorporated into her work following her interaction with the musicians of the Latin diaspora in Paris. The introduction of these instruments marked a point of innovation in the (re)creation of the (hi)story of Chilean folk music. The use of the charango, cuarto and other instruments which held their origins outsideo of Chile, appealed to wider traditions and (hi)stories in Latin America and the growing sense of pan-americanism which was developing in South America at this time. However, though this pan-American sentiment was strong, the instruments would eventually become foreign “voices” telling particularly Chilean (hi)stories, as this section will now explore.

Following the green-light from her brother, Violeta adopted the Venezualan cuarto into her work, preferring to name it the guitarilla or “little guitar”. As Nicanor commented, “She returned to Chile with the guitarilla. And then onwards she began to play music that wasn’t only campesina chilena (inspired by the Chilean countryside), if not on a hispanoamerican level.” (Morales and Parra, 2003, p. 81). However, Violeta had begun to sew the seeds of a particularly Chilean tradition, which despite having precedents in other countries such as Argentina and Cuba , had its own national identity. She continued the tradition told by the guitarrón of cultural mixing and integration. In her song Gracias a la Vida “Thanks to life”, now considered one of her seminal and most distinctive works, the instrumental notation and lyrics are based on a genre common to popular poerts of the far south of Chile, the décima or “tenth”. However, what marks Gracias a la Vida as innovative is that it is played on the Charango, an instrument which originates in Potosí region of Bolivia, and which is in itself a hybridization of the Spanish guitar and indigenous materials and craftsmanship (Gonzalez, 2014b; Soto, 1999). The Charango soon became closely identified with Violeta Parra, appearing as frequently as the guitar and guitarrón in her press releases, as pictured in fig. 3.

Fig. 3. Violeta Parra being filmed by Channel nine, University of Chile, 1966.

Chapter conclusion

Violeta sought to find new and old roots for Chilean music and in searching for these roots, avertedly sewed the seeds for the future of their history. In the story told by her instruments, history and “the past” are (re)created and (re)constructed for a very particular Chilean present Her work founding a National Museum of Chilean Folkmusic and Art in 1958, and frequent trips through Chile documenting a “dying” folk culture mark her as a musician-researcher, an archiver. She also innovated through tradition in the incorporation of Latin American instruments. However, despite her efforts to bring these instruments and their (hi)stories to the masses, her legacy was not to be immediately visible or surface in the dominant ventricles of Chilean musical culture until later, her work itself disappearing underground as she herself se fue a los cielos[6]. 

Chapter 2: (re)constructing the past for the future: La nueva canción Chilena

A true troubadour of the twentieth century, on his horse of stars that bathes us with the melancholy philosophy of the South. (González, 2014a)

The extract above is from Victor Jara’s song Manifiesto (1973)[8]. The song highlights a number of the key issues which this chapter will consider, namely, the “new” sense of urgency and representation which instruments would take in their (hi)storytelling in the 60s and 70s and the presence of Violeta Parra, a figure who will permeate the period with her influence. In the previous chapter, I introduced Violetta Parra as the “in-docile” guitar, a title given to her by Patricio Manns. The quote above from Jorge Gonzalez introduces Manns, as a troubadour of the twentieth century.

As we will explore in this chapter, the art of crafting a song would become not only a movement but also a discipline. Furthermore to the artists of the Nueva Canción Chilena the “song” was more than this, it was nuestro canto, “our song”, the history of their song and their future, as Chileans. The instruments which they used were crucial to this song, their song. This chapter will examine the ways in which instruments tell a particular story in the music of artists associated from the Nueva Canción.

Although I have briefly mentioned the work of a two notable and foundational integrants of the movement, Victor Jara and Patricio Manns, the majority of analysis will be focused on the work of nueva canción groups, as it is perhaps here that we can best see the appearance of groups of instruments becoming (hi)storytellers. The story of the instruments in the period inhabited by the nueva canción can be characterised by inspiration from past Chilean musical cultures, recent and ancient; censorship under the authoritarian regime and subsequent adaptation.

Inspiration and integration

As mentioned briefly in the introduction to this chapter, the work of nueva canción artists would take great inspiration from the work of Violetta Parra. This inspiration can be seen manifest in not only the themes around which they play their music, based in socially aware lyrics, but also the manner in which they compose their work, which involved a degree of research and compilation of past musical cultures. The role of instruments in this (hi)storytelling is essential, as we will now discuss.

            The section will focus specifically on three highly influential groups from the nueva canción movement, Quilapayún (1965 - present), Inti-Illimani (1967 - present) and Illapú (1971 - present). Each band holds careers spanning a tumultuous period of Chilean history in which the socialist government of Salvador Allende was elected in 1970, only to be overthrown in 1973 by a military junta led by Augusto Pinochet which would last until 1990. Inti-Illimani and Quilipayún, were described in a recent press release as “two true pillars of Chilean popular culture” (Recital.cl, 2014), while together with Illapu they are three of the most “emblematic” groups in Chilean popular song (El ciudadano.cl, 2011). This word, “emblematic” is important for these groups, they represent an image, or ideal. Despite not being the chart-toppers in their own time, they have nonetheless retained an important place in the national and international imaginary in regards to Chile (Party, 2011).

Illapu described their main tenents of their work thus: “The first [aspect] is recopilado, as it is in our song ‘Flower of the desert’, in which the principle harmony has been retaken from the people of Caspana, in the province of Antofagasta, and in which they have maintained the aunthenticity of the song, which we have only enriched with the charango and a guitar.” (R es Joven, c.1973). Recopilado is difficult to translate directly from Spanish, but it corresponds to “collected”, that being collected material, which is not necessarily archived. Similarly, Inti-Illimani began by reproducing traditional Latin American songs, largely from a repertoire gathered from collected works. Quilapayun also covered many international songs, alongside original material.  Each of the groups also professed admiration for Chilean autors such as Violeta Parra, Patricio Manns, and Victor Jara, as evidenced in the repeated reproduction of their songs, and references to them in their lyrics. What bound the groups together was this “borrowing” from traditional, historical musical cultures, both international and national.

Furthermore, in the names they chose for their groups Quilapayun, Inti-Illimani and Illapu immediately situated themselves closely with Chile’s historical roots, taken from the indigenous languages of Mapudungun and Quechua which are spoken in the south and far north of Chile respectively. Integral to this imaginary is the (re)construction of past musical cultures, and the instruments which they play have a key part in this. The instruments which they played were part of this link to an indigenous past, composing many of their arrangements around the Andean woodwind instruments the quena and zampoña (pan-pipes), the Bolivian charango, which we met in the previous chapter. Like the folklore of Violeta’s time, the bands believed it was necessary to preserve and save it, “We are convinced that this history is our history, because we are from there and we think we have to fight to conserve this culture.” (R es Joven,c.1973, p. 14). However unlike Violeta Parra, integrants such as those of Illapu stated that, “we don't consider ourselves folklorists... but representatives of relegated cultures on the margins of human existence” (R es Joven, p. 14). For Illapu, behind the andean sound there was something more than music: there existed a whole culture peopled by different traditions to theirs, but with many positive values that their society had forgotten. Solidarity, for example “live in community, all depend on all, do the impossible the egoism between those people that know it like we do” (R. es Joven, c.1973, p. 14). The instruments which accompanied their music, the tarkas, quenas, charango, bombol, with their indigenous and mestizo roots told these (hi)stories, with a story of the future in mind.

Like the guiterrón chileno and other Latin American instruments of Violeta Parra before them, their instruments told a story of resistance against what they viewed as cultural imperialisem. Illapu commented, “This is why we play, so the people are conscious of the existence and how to form an resistant opposition to the cultural invasion.” (R. es Joven, c.1973, p. 14). Whilst in regard to a tour they would hold in Latin America, under the title “In search of lost folklore”, members of Inti Illimani stated, “From an artistic point of view it is going to be fundamental in what we’re doing: cultivate Latin American music to defend ourselves against cultural imperialism, in all developing countries that suffer oppression, directly or indirectly.” (Ramona, 1972, p. 39) .

This arguable idealisation of indigenous, oppressed cultures, bound in solidarity and cultural imperialism hints at the strong socio-political undertones which characterized La Nueva Canción as a movement. Like Violeta Parra before them, the instruments with their associated humble, mestizo and indigenous roots tied them, along with the lyrics of their songs to the political ideals of the left. The particular images which the bands manifested generated strong support among leftist political groups within Chile of which the majority of bands were part. In the late 1960s Salvador Allende led a campaign for presidency, heading the Popular Unity Party of Chile, which he won in 1970. As he accepted his role in from of the crowds outside of the presidential palace, a banner hung above the stage reading “You can’t have a Revolution Without Songs.” (Smithsonian Folkways, 2014). In the photos of Quilapayun, pictured in fig. 4, it is clear that the instruments are also part of this revolution, they are held to the chest of their owners like battle arms, and the musicans stand proud with them, with serious faces, facing towards the new future they see. The instruments tell this (hi)story, without them, they would be seven men standing on the hilltop, proud and serious, but their intent would be unclear. Inti-Illimani pose in a similarly statuesque manner, as if anticipating the historicising of their arrangement in stone. The instruments are held as if they will be played, each musician looking pensatively away from the camera. Following the ascension of the Allende government, la nueva canción in which they would receive support and promotion from the government. The promotion of the (hi)stories told by these instruments bound them with the (hi)story of this period, adding further to the narrative which these instruments would encompass in Chilean historical-musical imaginary.

Fig.4 Quilapayun posing with their instruments for a press release.

Fig. 5 Inti-Illimani

Censorship & Adaptation

The early seventies marked a high point in the early careers of the Nueva Canción artists, with both government and academia backing their musical production along with the growth of many instrumental groups following their lead. However, on September the 11^th 1973, this would change irrevocably when Augusto Pinochet, headed a junta of military, naval and airforce commanders, staging a coup d’etat in which Salvador Allende was displaced, the presidential palace bombed by fighter jets and the streets of Santiago policed by army tanks. After seizing power, Pinochet and his forces began a sweep of the opposition, namely supporters of Allende’s government and those associated with the left or who were known to have socialist leanings. Hundreds of people were interned without trial during the weeks following the coup d’etat, one of those was Victor Jara, who within the first days of the regime was captured, symbolically having his hands broken before execution. Significant for this paper, the regime ordered that all instruments relating to Popular Unity be banned, those instruments in question are those whose (hi)stories we have followed thus far in the paper. The same instruments whose (hi)stories worked in the favour of Allende’s government now told (hi)stories which were not welcome. Bands such as Inti-Illimani who were touring in Europe at the time of the coup were told they could not return, others took voluntary exile, in fear for their lives (Rivera, 1980). The impact of this ban on

In 1974, the group Barroco Andino was formed by conservatory trained musician Jaime Soto Léon and a group of other young muscians previously involved with the Nueva Canción movement. They drew their repertoire from the works of canonical composers Vivaldi, Bach and Handel. However, the instrumentation was unique, they replaced the traditionally used instruments such as the classical guitar and mandolin for the instruments typically used in La Nueva Canción such as the charango, the tarka and the quena (Andean flute).. There appears to be a contradiction in terms when one considers the use of “inauthentic” instruments in classical revival pieces. Barroco Andino drew from the classical canon in order to “mask” their intentions – those being, to preserve the use of Andean instruments despite their prohibition. Indeed, as Nancy Morris has stated, through it’s use of banned instruments, “Barroco Andino opened the way for the reappearance of Andean music in Chile that spearheaded Nueva Canción’s successor, canto uevo”. (Morris, 2000, p. 152). Barroco Andino effectively preserved the (hi)story of the instruments through the use of a different genre. This can be illustrated in a quote from a former member of Barroco Andino, Fernando Carrasco:

 In our case it was different, we didn’t do it to show that the instruments could do anything, if not because it was the only thing we could do, the lyrics couldn’t be used because of the political conditions, you couldn’t talk about revoltion, or death, or anything. The instruments could remember things and actually in the dictatorship, a ban was announced which prohibited the use of instruments considered subversive. El Barroco has a great value because it went back to use these sounds. (Vilches, 2013)

Carrasco highlights something important in his reflection on Barroco Andino, that the instruments “remember”. That is, they remember the (hi)story which has been silenced through the prohibition of the instruments, and freedom of speech at large.

Chapter conclusion

In the mid-sixties to eighties the (hi)stories told by the instruments went through numerous forms, changing, adapting and integrating. The Nueva Canción artists followed Violeta Parra’s lead, adopting Latin American instruments, while conducting some research of their own. Although some did not identify explicitly as “folklorists”, they nonetheless drew heavily on folk culture and tradition in the (re)creation of past cultures. In the Nueva Canción political issues concerning societal ills, indigenous population and cultural imperialism became linked to the (hi)story which the instruments would tell. This association led to the censorship of the instruments when authoritarian rule took hold of Chile in 1973. The next chapter will see how these (hi)stories continue to influence the (re)creation of past musical cultures in contemporary Chilean society.

Chapter 3: The past in evolution, historical musical cultures in contemporary Chilean society.

The history of Chilean music is very rich and every day it is evolving further, in the way they mix the classic with Andean highland instruments and also to mix them ... for listeners all around the world. Listening to these instruments makes me think of many things, but in general [I think of] the evolution thathas happened these past years. (Taita, 2014)

In an interview concerning the Nueva Canción Chilena, Chilean music was referred to

as a “fruit-salad”, that statement is perhaps more true today than ever, with the transfer and exchange of musical genres, audiences, and of course, instruments, taking place at speeds and frequency not seen in previous decades (R es Joven, c.1973). Chile has the highest number of users of social media in South America and was one of the first to install high-speed broadband (Comscore, 2011). It was the first country outside of the USA to host the festival Lollapalooza, and is now host to many other large scale commercial music festivals (This is Chile.cl, 2010). Despite these apparent globalizing elements which have taken a strong root in Chilean society – or perhaps in spite of them – the appearance of the instruments we have been considering in the paper, along with the (hi)stories which accompany them persist in the socio-historico imaginary of the nation. In 2003, the music and cultural centre Galpón Vicor Jara was inaugurated on the edge of Plaza Brazil in the heart of one of the most historic neighbourhoods of Santiago Centre (Thisischile.cl, 2010). It has since become the venue for acts spanning different genres, from klezmer to cumbia, reggaeton and hip-hop. In this section I will examine how musicians who play or utilise the latin American, folk and andean instruments previously mentioned ties their performance and inspiration to a collective history, bound with societal events, politics and musical inspiration from previous eras.

It was not only about the platform we were on {Hip hop] but also the one which we come from ... to explore our history and music... to turn to our history and our musical identity.” (Cricket Wireless, 2014)

This quote is taken from an interview with Chilean rapper Ana Tijoux ( ). Tijoux gained attention worldwide with the release of her 2010 album 1977, an album lacedwith references to Chilean history, but which for the majority of its course remained within the strictures of the sonoric canon of the genre of hip-hop. In her latest album Vengo “I come”, Tijoux announced a new direction, as detailed in the quote, making an explicit link to the bounded concepts of history and music, which would accompany her typically socially-situated lyrical writing style.

I should make a song about bringing these ideals back again, almost in a manifesto of the planet being born again, and under standing the history of countries with new eyes, decolonizing everything you’ve learned. Reclaiming our identities and relearning  everything in our lives. (Tijoux quoted in Rolling Stone, 2014)

Like the artists of the Nueva Canción Chilena Tijoux seeks to reinstate “our” identity, that can be interpreted as that of all people, that of Latin Americans or Chileans through the excavation of past selves. The prounoun “our” denotes connected experience, she is situating herself as someone who speaks from her mind only, but as

a mouth piece for greater numbers. As lyrics from the titular song of the album, Vengo

, suggest she is in search of the traces of past cultures tied to her own, her “ancestors”

I come, anxious to tell the untold story of our ancestors/With the

wind they leave behind/the grandparents live in every thought ...

I come to find the answers/I’m looking for the huella [footprint, trace]/That

keeps in its memory. (Tijoux, 2014b)

Part of how these ancestors are expressed in the song Vengo is through traditional instruments, which take centre stage in the recording. A journalist writing about the

song in a recent feature proclaimed “When was the last time you heard a pan-flute

solo played on a rap song?” and indeed, along with the “trace” and “wind” of ancestors alive in the lyrics, Andean wind instruments resonate with these words through the song (Escobedo, 2014). In the album Vengo Tijoux’s band use the Charango, the Colombian Gaita (bagpipe) in addition to the Andean wood-wind instruments to accompany her work. The socially conscious lyrics hark back not only to the propensity to criticise society of hip-hop, but also the tendencies of the previous generations of musicians in Chile. The instruments are (hi)storytellers in her songs, as they mirror and The songs on the album which use these particular instruments promote unity, understanding and an overthrow of the current system, the use of the instruments immediately aligns the rhetoric in the lyrics with the sonic rhetoric of the (hi)stories which the instruments tell as standing for not only a pan-american ideal of cultural freedom, but in a long-line of Chilean musicians linking her back through the 80s, 70s and 60s to a time of “ancestors” beyond their reach.

Interviews with Chilean musicians revealed similar attitudes towards the expression of indigenous cultures by the use of the instruments. Multi-instrumentalist Fernando Bugueño Inotroza (2014) , responded to the question, “Is there any group or

artist from the past from whom you take inspiration”, with the following answer:

In the music of the andean highlands, the difficulty of the conditions of its inhabitants, who must endure the altitude, the intense cold, abandonment by successive governments, and base poverty, all of this inspires me, because despite all of this adversity, they too enjoy what occasionally passes in Carnaval. (Bugueño Inotroza, 2014)

Indeed others expressed similar connections to the Chilean altiplane, musical duo Taita, on half of the duo Taita Churi, a band based in Antofogasta in the north of chile professed to “to feel like I’m in the landscape of the Altiplano and that I can contribute to bring this native America to the world”, whilst their partner Churi attested , “I feel the landscape of the altiplano” (Taita Churi, 2014).

These instruments do not only tell a (hi)story which ties the musician to a distant past, but also to a tangible, experienced past. Charango player Taita, speaking of his motivation to start playing the Charango and other traditional instruments stated:

I began to play because at that time the instrument s were banned by the dictatorship, so it was a reply from the youth of this time that we weren’t few in number, we would get together and play the music of Illapu, Quila [Quilapayún], Inti [Inti-Illimani]. It was a beautiful time but dangerous. (Taita Churi, 2014)

Here, the foundations of identity laid by the Nueva Canción groups persist, as do the (hi)stories of this period, as told by the instruments popularised at that time which remain in use today. For many of the interviewees the sound of the instruments represented a linke with their own childhoods and Chile’s historical past, whether to that of the “ancestors” as Ana Tijoux called them, or to specific historical moments (Bugueño Inotroza, 2014; Taita Churi, 2014, Lopez, 2014)

Conclusion

            I have contended that instruments have the ability to act as (hi)storytellers in the (re)creation of past musical cultures. . In searching for their roots, each of the artists I have considered avertedly and inadvertedly sewn the seeds for the future of their history, that is why this is not a conclusion but a reflection. The (hi)story-telling capabilities of the instruments which I have examined lend a particular weight to the (re)creation of past musical cultures by the human actors which play them, depending on the circumstances and context in which they appear. With the associations they generate, they have the power to silence or amplify the message of a song. This conclusion is not intended as an “end” to the (hi)story which the instruments tell as it will continue to evolve and produce new and innovative manifestations of past musical cultures, something which is worthy of further study.

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