Melancholy Music of the Andes

By “Awake!” correspondent in Ecuador

ALONG a footpath, high on the slopes of the Andes, an Indian family returns home from market. Father, in the lead, raises his simple flute to his lips and a sweet, sad melody begins to rise on the mountain air. A hundred miles away, in the crowded streets of Quito, a lowly cargador shuffles under his burden, and from somewhere beneath the folds of his poncho a tiny transistor radio pours forth a similar melancholy serenade.

This is the typical music of the Ecuadorian sierra. Fondly called música nacional, its characteristic strains can be heard throughout the Ecuadorian highland, in countless corner cafés, in local plazas on fiesta days, in fields at harvesttime, in buses, in workshops and in homes. Although these mournful and somewhat repetitious tunes are not what one might think of as typical “gay Latin music,” they do have a unique appeal. They also reveal to the listener many things about the land and people.

The native music of this region of South America appears to have changed very little over the centuries. According to one early Ecuadorian historian, Juan de Velasco, when the Spaniards arrived they found the Indians playing panpipes and pingullos, which were different kinds of flutes. To this day the music of the Andean tribes shows only slight effects of four centuries of Spanish influence. The Indian still plays his rondador, or panpipe, and his pingullo. His unwritten melodies are still heard.

Of the instruments typical of this region, the rondador especially has been the object of interest. The Ecuadorian rondador is made by lashing together in a row from eight to thirty or more varied lengths of hollow reeds about one-half inch in diameter. The maker of the rondador arranges the reeds “by ear” into tonal pairs. In musical terminology the relationship or interval between the tones in each pair would be expressed as a minor third. Only in the very small rondadores are the reeds arranged to form a consecutive scale. The delightful rondador melodies are produced by blowing across the tops of the reeds while shifting the instrument back and forth as when playing a harmonica.

The rondador has aroused interest largely because of the fact that identical instruments have been found in the ruins of ancient Chinese and Burmese civilizations and throughout the islands of the Pacific. This striking similarity in musical instruments has been interpreted by some as evidence of early contact between Far Eastern and South American cultures.

Many, upon hearing the music of the sierra for the first time, comment that it reminds them of Oriental music. Others say it calls to mind some ancient Scottish ballad. Their ears have not failed them. The music of the Andes is based on the pentatonic scale, just as was the ancient music of China, Scotland and other countries.

The pentatonic scale is a musical scale of five notes, without semitones. The scale is based on a tonic or grave note such as F, above which are four perfect fifths: C, G, D, and A (the fifth note above F being C, the fifth above C being G, and so forth). The five notes are then rearranged to form the ascending major scale: F-G-A-C-D. In Ecuadorian folk music, the use of the minor pentatonic scale, in this case D-F-G-A-C, contributes greatly to the sad, monotonous quality.

Environmental Factors

Whatever may have been the origin of the Ecuadorian Indian and his culture, when he settled in the Andean valleys his music must have begun to echo the mood of his new homeland. The awesome beauty of the snow-covered volcanoes, the thin air, the cold winds and, above all, the solitude of the mountains​—all of these environmental factors seem to have left their mark on his personality and his music.

The obvious differences between the popular music of the sierra and that of Ecuador’s other main geographical region, the tropical coast, would tend to support this idea. Lighthearted and independent, the people of the coastal area generally show a decided preference for lively, rhythmic music. As a rule they shun the doleful melodies that their taciturn serrano countrymen so dearly love. Significant, too, is the fact that the popular music on the coast is likely to be in the major keys, while the Indian of the sierra has chosen the sorrowful minor mode for more than 90 percent of his musical expression.

In view of the oppression suffered by the Indians throughout the last few centuries, some have concluded that the apparent sadness of their music reflects the sadness of their lot in life. Others, however, feel that the melancholy quality is due more to environmental factors and to the limitations of the instruments and musical structure than to a conscious effort to express social grievances.

Indeed, the Indian himself does not consider his music to be particularly sad. He merely plays it as he does because that is the way it suits him and because that is the way it has long been played.