ANTHONY LUIS SANCHEZ: Composer and Musicologist
  • Home
  • News
    • Archive
  • Works
    • Compositions
    • Musicology
    • Publications
  • Gallery
    • Photos
    • Videos
  • Blog
  • Contact

The Tiple Across Latin America and the Caribbean

7/21/2018

0 Comments

 
My first experience with the stringed instrument known as the tiple came in the form of my dissertation chamber piece, Estampas de La Isla del Encanto (2015-16). Even though this chamber work and accompanying documented research that I provided concentrated largely on the Puerto Rican cuatro stringed instrument and its connection to the theory of transculturation, I included the tiple with the cuatro and other instruments to try and use the instrumentation of the orquesta jibara (emseble of Puerto Rican folk stringed and percussion instruments) within a contemporary setting. Unlike the cuatro, which sounds one octave lower than written, the sounding pitch for the tiple is written a perfect-fifth lower.

Given this bit of information about the tiple, I must add that this instrument does not limit itself to Puerto Rico. Multiple versions of the tiple abound in other areas of Latin America and the Caribbean: from Argentina, to Colombia (where the tiple is regarded as the national instrument), Cuba, and Venezuela among others. This diversity clearly demonstrates the European Spanish musical impact on these countries.

Several other points also deserve mention, here. The overall shape of the tiple varies in construction depending of the given Latin American or Caribbean geographical region. The Colombian tiple retains the “figure-eight” shape of the guitar, while others like the Puerto Rican tiple have a more angular top. Additionally, not all tiples feature the same number of strings and courses (sets). Some can have at least five strings, to at most twelve. These strings can also be doubled or tripled depending on their construction, meaning that the same note can be performed on multiple strings.

For more information (in English and Spanish) on the Colombian tiple and other versions of the instrument, readers can check out the following links: 

www.liutaiomottola.com/instruments/Alberto.htm

pacoweb.net/Cuerdas/cuetiple.htm
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    ​DMA. Composer of acoustic and electronic music. Pianist. Experimental film.

    Archives

    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    June 2022
    November 2021
    October 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    July 2018
    March 2018
    June 2017

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.