![]() ![]() You can listen to beautiful sounds of charango and ronroco in the music of Argentine composer Gustavo Santaolalla, who composed the scores for the films The Motorcycle Diaries, Babel and 21 Grams. Many contemporary musicians also have also used charangos in a fusion of musical styles. Widely respected master charango players include Ernesto Cavour, Jaime Torres and Federico Tarazona. Some of the most internationally-renowned Andean bands, such as Los Kjarkas, Quillapayun, and Inti-Illimani, play charangos as a main instrument, together with flutes and panpipes. Andean MusicĬharango music is generally played in many traditional Andean musical styles. In fact, charangos are a family of different instruments, which vary in size, construction, number of strings, and tunings, depending on their region of origin.įor example, the ronroco is a recent variation that is larger in size and with a deeper sound- a sort of baritone or bass charango. It does take a bit practice to tune a charango! Some courses are tuned in unison, others in octaves. ![]() The basic charango has ten strings arranged in five pairs, or courses, both nylon and metal-wound. The long neck and bowl are commonly carved from a single piece of wood, often cedar or spruce. Today, most charangos are made of wood, which for many players has a better sound (this also conserves poor armadillos!). Traditionally, the charango’s bowl-shaped soundbox was made from the hard shells of armadillos. All this depends on the tune being played, the musical style and the type of charango. It is well suited to playing melancholy Andean ballads, but it can also produce a joyous, bouncy sound. The charango’s sound is powerful, high-pitched and sweet. The 4-stringed Hawaiian ukelele, so popular in the past few years, originated in the 19th century with Portuguese immigrants to the islands, and its sound is quite different. ![]() Some might call the charango an Andean ukelele, but that would not be accurate, although their size is similar. Regardless of its origins, it is a great instrument. Where it was developed is also in dispute- either in Bolivia, or in the central Peruvian Andes. Its exact origins are uncertain and several theories have been proposed- that it derived from the Spanish vihuela, or from the lute, or the mandolin, or the Canarian timple. What is a charango ? The traditional model is a small, 10-stringed instrument that originated in the Andes, probably in the 17th or 18th centuries, and which is still widely played today. Those characteristics are clearly reflected in one of the keystone instruments that characterizes the music of the Andes, the charango. Andean music, as we shared in a previous post, is rich in history and emotional expression. ![]()
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