The Cuatros of Puerto Rico
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Puerto Rico have two national stringed instruments? It is commonly believed that Puerto Rico's "national instrument", the cuatro, developed from a rustic four-string instrument into a more complex and sophisticated ten-string one. Our research, however, leads us to recently conclude that there actually evolved in Puerto Rico two unique instruments, each one distinctly different in shape, size, tuning, stringing, usage, regional extension and socio- cultural preference -- but both of which the Puerto Ricans have chosen to give a single name: cuatro. 1- the Cuatro "Antiguo": The four-string "cuatro", strung with gut or stripped leather strings, dates back to early colonial times. For centuries, it was used for both religious and secular events within the agrarian regions of the island, all the time essentially unchanged in form and tuning; and it then faded from use until it disappeared at the end of the first half of the twentieth century. For a short period in modern times, in a limited region of the island, there appeared a modernization of the four-string cuatro: An eight-string variant, strung with metal strings, appeared in the Southern region of the Island. It retained the early cuatro's size, scale and tuning but with acquired a more fashionable stringing (doubled to eight), form (loses it's sharp semicircular/ pyramidal shape) and structure (built in "piezas"--from parts-- rather than "enterizo"--carved from a single plank). However, this short-lived scheme faded from public view at about the same time as it's four-string forebear. 2- the Cuatro "Moderno": Late in the 19th century, a new melody instrument appears on the Island. This new instrument persisted well into the first quarter of the XX century in different regions from those of the four and eight string cuatros. It was about this time, we believe, when it acquired its modern violin-like shape. Its popularity subsequently became Island-wide after it appeared on the radio during the 30s played by the great Vega Baja cuatro player Ladislao Martínez. The violin- shaped, ten string instrument adopted the name "cuatro" although it shared virtually no similarities in shape, tuning or stringing with the original four-string cuatro. But the few similarities are significant: the both were always played with a pick; they both always played the melody part of Puerto Rican music; and finally, they both originated in Puerto Rico, according to the taste and sensibilities of the Puerto Ricans. Perhaps this is why these two such different instruments were both named "cuatro" by the Puerto Rican people even though the two were so radically different. |
Cuatro "Antiguo" or "Early" cuatro
The Four-string "Cuatro
Antiguo" Now largely gone and rarely played, the earliest known form of the instrument dates back to the 17th century and was tuned similarly to the medieval Spanish plucked instruments, in intervals of 4-3-4. According to Ramito's cuatrista, Tuto Feliciano it was still being played by himself and others as late as the 1950s.
The 8-String "Southern" Cuatro A crop of beautiful, highly refined eight-string cuatros appeared in several Southern cities and towns of Puerto Rico between the twenties and the forties. They were tuned like the four-string cuatro antiguo but strung with mandolin-like pairs of metal strings. They were played by skilled musicians like Heriberto Torres and Norberto Cales, and used for performances of Puerto Rican "classic music": mazurcas, danzas, valses and other refined salon genres. Difficult to play and limited due to their cumbersome tuning, they faded away completely along with their four string predecessors by the early fifties.
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The Cuatro "Moderno" or Modern Cuatro
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The Early Rural 10-string cuatros After jíbaros came from their remote villages and into the cities during the nineteenth century, they transformed some of their cuatros to the tuning intervals of the cítaras and laúdes (which the colonists had brought from Spain). The result was the ten metal-string cuatros like the modern recreation seen immediately above. These were the earliest cuatros with the modern tuning and stringing, yet they still retained the ancient pyramidal- semicircular shape.
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Today's "Cuatro Moderno" also known as the "Cuatro Aviolinado" [violin-shaped cuatro] "Cuatro Español" [Spanish cuatro] We believe that the modern form of the cuatro which is widely used by most Puerto Ricans today, a ten-string instrument with 20-inch metal strings and a violin-like outline, appeared early in the twentieth century in the northern-center coastal towns of the island. It gained universal acceptance as the ascendant form during the mid-thirties largely as a result of the skill and popularity of its greatest exponent, Ladislao Martínez--after he played it for years on Puerto Rico's first radio music show, Industrias Nativas. |
Other interesting variants of the cuatro
| The Gourd Cuatros Gourd string instruments proliferated in Central West Africa, and it is reasonable to surmise that the tradition of using the dried shell of the gourd plant for string instrument soundboxes in Puerto Rico is derived from the cultural memories of the early enslaved Africans to come to the island. This form is quite rare today and when displayed or played is considered quite a novelty. Yet some of our most accomplished musicians, among them Maso Rivara, recorded on the instrument. Among the few builders today making them is Graciela Quiñones-Rodriguez |
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| The Cuatros of the Cuatro "Families" |
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