The British Museum possesses a _huayra-puhura_ consisting of fourteen
reed pipes of a brownish colour, tied together in two rows by means of
thread, so as to form a double set of seven reeds. Both sets are
almost exactly of the same dimensions and are placed side by side. The
shortest of these reeds measure three inches, and the longest six and
a half. In one set they are open at the bottom, and in the other they
are closed. Consequently octaves are produced. The reader is probably
aware that the closing of a pipe at the end raises its pitch an
octave. Thus, in our organ, the so-called stopped diapason, a set of
closed pipes, requires tubes of only half the length of those which
constitute the open diapason, although both these stops produce tones
in the same pitch; the only difference between them being the quality
of sound, which in the former is less bright than in the latter.
The tones yielded by the _huayra-puhura_ in question are as follows:
[Music: Treble clef, ascending quarter note octaves: A C D E G A
C] The highest octave is indistinct, owing to some injury done to
the shortest tubes; but sufficient evidence remains to show that
the intervals were purposely arranged according to the pentatonic
scale. This interesting relic was brought to light from a tomb at
Arica.
Another _huayra-puhura_ (Fig. 19), likewise still yielding sounds, was
discovered placed over a corpse in a Peruvian tomb, and was procured
by the French general, Paroissien. This instrument is made of
soapstone, and contains eight pipes. It now belongs to the Rev. Canon
J. H. Rawdon.[4] In the Museum may be seen a good plaster cast taken
from this curious relic. The height is five and three-quarter inches,
and its width six and a quarter inches. Four of the tubes have small
lateral finger-holes, which, when closed, lower the pitch a semitone.
These holes are on the second, fourth, six, and seventh pipe, as shown
in the engraving. When the holes are open, the tones are: [Music:
Treble clef, quarter notes F# A C# F♮] and when they are closed:
[Music: Treble clef, quarter notes F♮ A♭ C♮ E] The other tubes have
unalterable tones. The following notation exhibits all the tones
producible on the instrument: [Music: Treble clef, quarter notes E F
F# G G# A C C# D E F A]
[Illustration: FIG. 19.――HUAYRA-PUHURA, discovered in a Peruvian
tomb.
The property of the Rev. Canon Rawdon.]
The musician is likely to speculate what could have induced the
Peruvians to adopt so strange a series of intervals: it seems rather
arbitrary than premeditated.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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