The tarkada music of the Aymara communities

Abstract

This work is an approximation to the knowledge of the tarkada as music and musical practice. It is based on field observations carried out between 2005 and 2010 in Aymara communities in Peru, from which it has been possible to confirm and also question data circulating in the local bibliography. However, in recent decades, in-depth academic studies have emerged on the social aspect of the practice, as well as on the acoustic-morphological qualities of the instrument, the musical aspect itself is still little attended to.
From this observation, the present work emphasizes aesthetic and expressive aspects of the tarkada, proposing its understanding in coherence with the human context, and above all, the community. After commenting on these characteristics, it mentions what is related to its current location in terms of places and spaces of practice, briefly reviewing the cultural and historical roots that mark its process towards contemporaneity. Later, in order to begin an approach to the sound-musical aspects, a necessary analysis of the expressive particularities of the tarka instrument is presented and two recurring musical forms in the practice are analyzed. To conclude, it is presented as a conclusion how the musical practice of the tarkada, beyond having a peripheral condition and less presence in the media, constitutes a concrete way of giving meaning and support to the musical and social interaction of its participants.