The SAGE International Encyclopedia of Music

and Culture
Chile: History, Culture, and Geography of Music

Contributors: Renato Serrano

Edited by: Janet Sturman
Book Title: The SAGE International Encyclopedia of Music and Culture
Chapter Title: "Chile: History, Culture, and Geography of Music"
Pub. Date: 2019
Access Date: May 2, 2019
Publishing Company: SAGE Publications, Inc.
City: Thousand Oaks,
Print ISBN: 9781483317755
Online ISBN: 9781483317731
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781483317731.n154
Print pages: 505-508
© 2019 SAGE Publications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
This PDF has been generated from SAGE Knowledge. Please note that the pagination of the online
version will vary from the pagination of the print book.
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In this entry, an overview of several factors that have shaped Chilean musical idiosyncrasy is presented as a
starting point for further research. The analysis includes implications of historical and geographical facts for
the development of a wealth of diverse musical profiles based on social, cultural, and ethnic backgrounds.
These diverse elements are in constant communication with each other, thus creating an evolution through
interaction, fusion, and/or acculturation.

Chile is located in the southwest of South America. Its territory borders Perú on the north, Bolivia on the north-
east, and Argentina on the east. The country is geographically shaped by two parallel chains of mountains
(the Andes on the east and the Coastal or Nahuelbuta Range on the west), an intermediate depression in
between the mountain ranges, and a coastal plain (in between the Coastal Range and the Pacific Ocean).
This continental territory is organized into 15 regions divided for administrative purposes. In addition, the
Chilean insular territory spreads through the Pacific Ocean and includes the archipelagos Juan Fernández
and Desventuradas Islands and the Polynesian islands Salas y Gómez (Motu Motiro Hiva) and Easter Island
(Rapa Nui). Finally, the Chilean Antarctic territory was claimed by the Chilean Government in 1940 as the
land between the 53rd and 90th meridians west of Greenwich on the Antarctic ice cap.

At the beginning of the 16th century, the contact of the aboriginal people with the European, mainly Andalu-
sian Spaniards, initiated a process of ethnic and cultural mixture that drastically impacted the social panora-
ma. The emergence of new social groups during the colonization, such as criollos (Chilean-born individuals
with both Spanish parents), mestizos (mixture of Spanish father and aboriginal mother), and mulatos (mixture
of Spanish father and African slave), among other ethnic mixtures, resulted in a new social order based on
ethnic organization. This scheme favored the Spanish and the criollos in the highest position. The diverse
ethnic mixtures were placed in the middle, and the indigenous people at the lowest social rank. The evolution
of these trends as well as the revolutionary atmosphere of the late-17th and early-18th centuries in South
America, which sought independence from the Spanish kingdom, eventually crystallized as a politically orga-
nized army. Through the War of Independence (1810–1823), the country was eventually emancipated from
the Spanish crown, thus creating the Republic of Chile.

These historical and social events took place in the central part of the country, and the demographic growth in
19th-century Chile thus emerged from the central region. Two events marked the demographic expansion to
farther territories: (1) the Republican occupation of Patagonia, which started in 1843 during the administration
of President Manuel Bulnes and (2) the War of the Pacific (Ocean), from 1879 to 1883, which resulted in the
cession of the northern territories of Antofagasta from Bolivia, and of Arica and Tarapacá from Perú.

According to the 2012 Census, the population of Chile is around 16,635,000 people. Most Chileans are of the
ethnic mixture started during colonization. However, nine ethnic groups are identified representing 11.11% of
the population. The most significant are the Mapuche in the central and southern zones (with 86.11% of this
11.11%) and the Aymara in the northern zone (with 6.25%). Other ethnic groups include the Quechua, Likan
Antai, Kolla, and Diaguita in the north, the Rapa Nui on Easter Island, and the Kawésqar and Yámana in
Patagonia. Although the official language of Chile is Spanish, Legislation 19.253, issued in 1993, protects the
use of aboriginal languages, especially in zones with a high density of indigenous population. This diversity
has generated the coexistence of a number of sources of music within the country, which are organized into
ethnic and folkloric categories as described in the following sections.

Ethnic Music
The social oppression sustained during the 16th century dramatically affected the demography of the indige-
nous people. Many were killed by brutality, abusive situations, and foreign diseases, which led to the even-
tual extinction of a number of ethnic groups—the Changos, the Caucahué, the Picunche, the Cuncos, the
Chonos, the Aónikenk, and the Selk’nam. Also, acculturation had a profound impact on indigenous material
and immaterial patrimony. Before the legal protection issued in 1993, important aboriginal cultural features
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were frequently denied in social spaces. However, the prevailing groups have kept ancient musical practices
that are commonly related to religious and social events.

On the Andean plateau, the domination of the Inca civilization favored communication among diverse ethnic
settlements around the Quechua-speaking territory. Therefore, common elements in musical practices are
found throughout the region, thus creating an identifiable Andean musical aesthetic. Andean sonorities pre-
sent rhythms in simple duple meter, favoring minor pentatonic scales, with musical phrases usually rising to
the fifth degree of the scale, and resolving in descending motion to the tonic. The Andean organological pro-
file includes instruments such as the charango (small, guitar-like chordophone), sikus (panflute), quena and
pincullo (vertical flutes), quepa (seashell or horn trumpet), bombo (drum), and saccapa (rattle). In the Chilean
Andean plateau, ritual musical practices are correlated with the agricultural calendar. For the Aymara, the
seasons of rain, sowing, and harvest are events based on reciprocity with the Pachamama—the pan-Andean
divinity of life and fertility. Therefore, rhythms and dances such as Huayño and Sicuri serve as an offering that
balances relations with the divinities.

For the Likan Antai, settled in the Atacama Desert, water is a crucial element for the prevalence of the group.
According to their cosmology, water has magical implications representing the connection with a superior
realm. During water-related rituals such as the talatur, music uses only the three notes of a major chord, with-
out the occidental implications of this triad, though. The cantal (shaman) sings in Cunza, the language of the
ancient Cunza culture. The usage of this language is held only in ritual situations, and it would be otherwise
lost.

The Mapuche are the most important ethnic group in Chile due to their population and influential culture. Even
though they are spread through the central and southern territories of Chile and Argentina, the less accultur-
ated settlements in Chile are located in the southern territories of La Araucanía region. Their cosmology has
strong telluric implications, thus generating moral and aesthetic conceptions based on dualism. This dichoto-
my is a permanent feature in Mapuche elements represented in oppositions such as male/female, good/bad,
old/young, and so on. Therefore, Mapuche art often presents this dual idea in aspects of form and in perfor-
mance practices.

In ritual music, the leading figure is the Machi—the shaman (usually female) who has the magical attributions
of healing diseases, connecting with superior realms, foreseeing events, and keeping the musical and poetic
traditions alive. She performs the kultrun, a portable kettledrum made of the wood of a sacred tree. This in-
strument has profound correlations with Mapuche cosmology, symbolizing critical factors of the latter in its
design, ornaments, and performance. Through iterations of rhythmic motives, the percussive patterns in du-
ple meter resemble the cyclic idea inherent in this dualistic cosmology.

In the Mapuche language, Mapuzungun, two types of music are defined: music with chant (ülkantun) and in-
strumental music for dances (purrun). Usually, melodic inflections in chants are in descending motion, either
stepwise or by leaps (frequently using intervals of major and minor thirds). The singing is syllabic, restraining
melismata for stylistic glissandos. Instrumental music is used in dances, often in zoomorphic representations,
such as the choike-purrun (ostrich dance).

In Patagonia, the Yaganes and Kawesqar ethnic groups represent a quiet cultural presence, mainly because
of their reduced number and high level of acculturation. Their musical manifestations were primitive in ele-
ments, using a restricted melodic range in chants without melodic instrumental accompaniment.

Folkloric Music
Chilean folklore is a concept that has evolved through the history of the country. During the second half of the
19th century, the concept developed due to the necessity of a unified national identity. As the population was
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concentrated in the central region, this imaginary Chilean profile emerged with cultural characteristics of this
part of the country. Thus, aesthetic and social practices of the central valleys were the icons that supported
early definitions of Chilean folklore.

To support this unifying purpose, two archetypes were used, playing symbolic roles intended to be socially
representative: the huaso and the roto. The former describes the countrymen who work in agriculture and
stockbreeding. As the huaso is not associated with a specific social class, the concept is a transversal preser-
vation of values and traditions from rural areas. However, when the countryman is depicted as a sophisticated
landlord, the huaso personifies the connection between rural and urban areas, thus symbolizing a timeless
blend of tradition and progress. The latter personified a lower class citizen who has succeeded in life thanks
to his bravery, cleverness, and slyness. The roto was the bearer of popular traditions, especially in urban ar-
eas, and was responsible for appropriate performances of the heritage associated with the lower class. Even
though these two archetypes were sometimes used with pejorative, classist connotations, they emerged as
the quintessential performers of the iconic musical genres of central Chile: cueca and tonada.

Cueca is a comprehensive artistic genre that includes poetry, music, and dance. It represents an important
symbol of Chilean music, especially because it started to be considered as the national dance of Chile, since
the decade of the 1930s. Its origins are Arabic Andalusian, constituting a cultural legacy from the Andalusian
Spaniards who arrived in Chile in the 16th century. During the Independence period, cueca performances
were held in underground places, called chinganas, where people gathered for musical and social practices.
Its presence is spread through Latin America from Chile to Mexico with different names, such as Marinera
or Chilena, although the purest version of cueca has been kept in Chile. The genre has had a strong revival
after the dictatorship of Pinochet, fostered by a new generational engagement, especially in urban areas.

Traditional cueca is structured into three main parts: copla, siguiriya, and remate. The first has four octosyl-
labic verses. The second is divided into two halves of four verses each, alternating verses of seven and five
syllables. Finally, the remate has two verses of seven and five syllables, respectively. According to this reinter-
pretation of the Arabic Andalusian poetic structure, through the repetition of verses and the addition of extra
words (muletillas), the total syllables of a cueca should be 192. The singing is nasal and loud, resembling an
old Arabic aesthetic. Traditionally, there are four singers in each cueca. The first sings the whole copla. The
second sings the first half of the siguiriya, and the third singer, the second half of the siguiriya. Finally, the
fourth closes the cueca by singing the remate. Each part sung by a different singer is considered a pié (foot);
therefore, every traditional cueca has four piés. The choreography follows the piés subdivision—the dancers
get closer progressively as the piés go on. The dance is based on the male wooing of the female, who flirts
back gracefully. Both dancers use handkerchiefs to support their movements.

The tonada is the most representative sung genre of central Chile. Even though there are a number of
tonadas without refrain, the genre usually uses strophes in minor mode, with a contrasting refrain in major
mode and faster tempo. As well as cueca, tonada’s time signature is 6/8, and it shares the Arabic Andalu-
sian poetic structure. Its names may vary, depending on the social context for which it is used: parabién (for
a wedding), villancico (for Christmas), glosa (for praising the Virgin Mary), esquinazo (for a serenade), and
romance (for a narrative song). According to its incorporation from rural to urban areas, the tonada developed
a more sophisticated musical language, thus including richer harmonies and refined vocal resources. At the
beginning of the 20th century, it was performed mainly by women using guitar and harp, although, as its ur-
banization developed, the genre was included as an important element of the repertoire of successful male
groups, such as Los Cuatro Huasos and Los Quincheros. The tonada also influenced the work of classical
composers, such as Pedro Humberto Allende, who published his 12 Tonadas for piano in 1920.

Nevertheless, tonadas and cuecas were not the exclusive genres within Chilean Folklore. During the 1940s,
intense research and educational work on folkloric music and dances were done by a selected group of faculty
members of the Universidad de Chile. The outcome of this work fostered the production of shows and record-
ings of traditional and rediscovered folkloric genres. Following this initiative, the creation of groups of music

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and dance (e.g., Cuncumén) made possible the representation of forgotten dances and rhythms practiced
in southern (e.g., sirilla, pericona, and rin), central (e.g., refalosa and sajuriana), and northern Chile (e.g.,
cachimbo and trote).

Religion is often a catalyzer of Chilean folklore. Thus, two important folkloric manifestations exemplify this
idea: Canto a lo Poeta and Bailes Chinos. The former arrived with the Jesuits during the 16th century. It is
divided according to its topics into Canto a lo Divino (religious) and Canto a lo Humano (secular). The chant
features a prosodic intonation of the text (entonación), using the décima, an old Spanish poetic form based
on 10 octosyllabic verses. The accompaniment is performed with a unique guitar developed in Chile, the
guitarrón chileno, whose strumming patterns are called toquíos. Another instrument used to support melod-
ic phrases is the rabel, a Chilean type of violin inherited as well from the Spanish tradition. The performers
are called payadores, and they often improvise the poetry and challenge other payadores to ingenious duels
called contrapuntos.

The latter are religious festivities with a high degree of mixture between European and aboriginal elements.
Bailes Chinos happen in the northern and central zones of Chile and consist of a gathering of several groups
of chinos (bailes) in a village. The purpose of these reunions is honoring a religious figure, taking the image
out of the place where it is kept and walking it through the town while playing music and dancing. The music
used in these processions is highly cacophonic, mainly consisting of two lines of flutists playing flauta de chi-
nos, a type of nontempered flute, thus creating a sonic stain in alternation—one line plays and the other one
answers, while a rhythmic background is performed by tambores (rattle drums) and bombos. This primitive
aesthetic is not part of any occidental legacy; therefore, it is an icon of the cultural mixture permanently pre-
sent in the Chilean profile, bounding ancient aboriginal elements with occidental beliefs.

See also Americas; America, South; Chile: Modern and Contemporary Performance Practice; Ethnomusicol-
ogy, History.

Renato Serrano
http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781483317731.n154
10.4135/9781483317731.n154

Further Readings

González, J. P., Ohlsen, O., & Rolle, C. (2009). Historia social de la música popular en Chile, 1950-1970 [So-
cial history of popular music in Chile, 1950-1970]. Santiago, Chile: Ediciones Universidad Católica de Chile.
González, J. P., & Rolle, C. (2005). Historia social de la música popular en chile, 1890-1950 [Social history of
popular music in Chile, 1890-1950]. Santiago, Chile: Ediciones Universidad Católica de Chile.
Grebe, M. E. (1974). Presencia del Dualismo en la cultura y música mapuche [The presence of dualism in
Mapuche culture and music]. Revista Música Chilena, 28(126-1), 47–79.
Mamani, M. (2002). El Rito Agrícola de pachallampi y la música en pachama, precordillera de parinacota
[The agricultural rite of pachallampi and music in pachama, lower mountains of parinacota]. Revista Música
Chilena, 56(198), 45–62.
Valdés, S. C., Fuenzalida, C. P., & Quevedo Cifuentes, M. I. (1994). Chilena o cueca tradicional [Chilena or
traditional cueca]. Santiago, Chile: Ediciones Universidad Católica de Chile.

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