In Latin America, three natural trumpets have been surveyed whose sound is not produced by blowing (exhalation of air), but by powerful inhalation (and the consequent vibration of the lips, essential for the instrument to be considered a “trumpet”). The least known of the three is that of the Aché…

02. The freedom of the margins [This is the second part of the series “Libraries on the Margins”, a set of personal notes made during the writing of a book on the topic that will be published by Routledge in early 2023: the first on the subject, and one of…

01. A kind of introduction [This is the first part of the series “Libraries on the Margins”, a set of personal notes made during the writing of a book on the topic that will be published by Routledge in early 2023: the first on the subject, and one of the…

Quenas are vertical notched flutes used throughout the Andes. Its name comes from the Quechua qina, a word that is currently used as a generic term to designate all the aerophones of its type (despite the fact that each one may receive its own name, in one or more indigenous…

Critical notes #14 Institutions devoted to the preservation of human memory are concerned with taking care of a handful of fragments of our species’ intangible heritage. Some of them have specialized in specific fragments: for example, in the threatened sounds (languages ​​and music) of certain indigenous societies. There are many…

The chronicles, the archaeological remains and the few survivors say that the indigenous peoples of the California area had a music, if not exceptional, yes curious. They were the creators of “silent music”: drums made with wicker baskets and dances in which they had to step carefully on the ground. …

The ñolkiñ (or ñorkiñ, among other graphic variants of the word) is a curious natural trumpet used in southern Chile, in some communities of the Mapuche people. Traditionally it was made from the dried stem of a plant called precisely ñolkiñ, and it was endowed with a pavilion made of…