The origin of South American clarinets

Note 003

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When reviewing reference works on organology, it is very common to find heated debates about "origin stories." Where did such and such instrument come from? Who was the inventor, the initial creator? How did it get elsewhere? What connections exist between it and other instruments?

(Such discussions can have different motivations, including purely chauvinistic ones: claiming national ownership of a particular sound artifact.)

One such "story," apparently still under construction, is that of the South American clarinets.

The single reed instruments, popularly known —thanks to the current organological classification of European origin— as "clarinets," are well known among South American indigenous societies, especially those of the Amazonia and the Orinoquia. Among them they receive different names— as many as languages spoken by their builders and interpreters. However, again thanks to European intervention (and its ethnographic literature), one of the best known designations, sometimes used as a generic name, is toré.

There are idioglottal (the reed is cut from the mouthpiece of the instrument) and heteroglottal (the reed is external to the mouthpiece and is attached to it by means of a loop). And there are those with the mouthpiece uncovered (which is put inside the performer's mouth to put it to vibrate through air pressure) or with air chambers inside which the mouthpiece is located. Among the latter are the already-mentioned toré: originally a clarinet of the Wayampi people of Guyana, whose name came to serve as generic for any type of aerophone with similar morphological features.

One of the most common questions among anthropologists, ethnologists, and musicologists since the end of the 19th century was the origin of these instruments. Since they have not been found in South American archaeological record nor are they mentioned in early literature —they appear there from the 18th century onwards— many authors, among them the Swedish musicologist Karl Gustav Izikowitz, have hypothesized that they are post-Columbian.

Such authors have not considered that the area of diffusion of these clarinets (the current area, at least) does not have important archaeological sites, and that the very nature of the materials with which the clarinets are built —cane, wood, gourd and vegetable fibers, perishable elements in the hot and humid climates of the Amazon and Orinoco basins— means that the remains, if existed, would not have been preserved. Likewise, the chroniclers who described in detail the features of the indigenous societies that inhabited those territories did not reach them until well into the 18th century, which is why there would be no earlier texts.

There is yet another issue. If the clarinets were in fact post-Columbian, would they be of European influence? If so, the gigantic toré, with its air chamber, or the elaborate isimói of the Warrao people, with several pieces joined with wax and a heteroglottal reed that exceeds in length that of the main body of the instrument itself... on which European instrument would be based?

There is the possibility, of course, of an African influence, although neither the toré nor the isimói (to continue with the two already-used examples of the amazing diversity of native South American single reed aerophones) can be connected with African examples.

That being said, some specimens show a decisive influence of the European peasant clarinets and of some of the most traditional aerophones of West Africa. The instruments of the Wayuu people of the Guajira peninsula (sawawa, ontorroyoy) and of the Yukpa people of the Serranía del Perijá (timi, taparukcha) show influences that can be both Iberian and African, while the famous caña 'e millo or pito atravesao of Colombian folklore has, with all certainty, an African origin.

Thus, there would be a clear presence of three instrumental traditions regarding South American clarinets. And, in all probability, many dialogues among them. With all that it means in terms of structures, designs, use of materials, construction and interpretation techniques, and repertoires...

An example of such interaction is the erque or erquencho of the Andes: the only instrument of this type currently present in the highlands of South America. Morphologically, it shows direct connections with instruments from northern Spain, such as the Cantabrian berrona or the Asturian chifle, but its playing technique (touching the reed with teeth or tongue to alter the pitch of the sound) and the melodies it emits are absolutely local.

In the end, the fact is that there is not always a unique and clear "origin story"... no matter how hard certain scholars have insisted on constructing them, eliminating in the process an incredible amount of amazing and rich diversity.

This post belongs to a compilation that has been published by El Zorro de Abajo Editora. That publication can be accessed thorugh the section "Articles" at Instrumentarium.

About the post

Text: Edgardo Civallero.

Publication date: 28.09.2023.

Picture: Clarinets of the Ayurini people in Brasil. In Flickr.