The takuapu (IPA: /takwa'pu /) is a musical

percussion instrument A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

used by the indigenous

Guaraní people Guarani are a group of culturally-related indigenous peoples of South America. They are distinguished from the related Tupi people, Tupi by their use of the Guarani language. The traditional range of the Guarani people is in present-day Paraguay b ...

of South America, made from a hollow

bamboo Bamboos are a diverse group of evergreen perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family. The origin of the word "bamboo" is uncertain, bu ...

tube. The player grasps the takuapu in the middle, holds it vertically, and drops it so that it strikes the ground, producing a deep sound. The name ''takuapu'' is a

compound Compound may refer to: Architecture and built environments * Compound (enclosure), a cluster of buildings having a shared purpose, usually inside a fence or wall ** Compound (fortification), a version of the above fortified with defensive struct ...

of the

Guaraní Guarani, Guaraní or Guarany may refer to Ethnography * Guaraní people, an indigenous people from South America's interior (Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Bolivia) * Guaraní language, or Paraguayan Guarani, an official language of Paraguay * ...

words ''takua'' (‘

’) and ''pu'' (‘sound’). A takuapu is up to two meters long and 20 to 30 centimeters in diameter. The varieties of bamboo used are ''takuára'' (

Guadua angustifolia ''Guadua angustifolia'' also known as the Colombian timber bamboo and Colombian giant thorny, is a species of clumping bamboo found from Central to South America. References External links

* * Guadua, angustifolia Taxa named by Carl S ...

) and ''takuarusu'' ( Guadua trinii). All of the inner partitions of the bamboo cane are removed except for the one closest to the ground, producing a hollow tube closed at the bottom. Holes are often drilled in the side of the tube to modify the sound it produces, and sometimes a handful of pebbles are put in the tube to add a rattling sound. When a takuapu is played outdoors or on a dirt floor, a board is often placed on the ground to make the sound louder. The takuapu was originally played only by women as part of ritual ceremonies of the Guaraní religion that include dances and songs. The singing in the rituals is accompanied by women playing takuaras and men playing mbarakas (

maracas A maraca (), sometimes called shaker or chac-chac, is a rattle which appears in many genres of Caribbean and Latin music. It is shaken by a handle and usually played as part of a pair. Maracas (from Guaraní ), also known as tamaracas, were r ...

). Similar instruments are found elsewhere in South America, usually without the restriction of being played only by women. In

Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad and Tobago (, ), officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is the southernmost island country in the Caribbean. Consisting of the main islands Trinidad and Tobago, and numerous much smaller islands, it is situated south of ...

, it is customarily men who play the

tamboo bamboo Tamboo bamboo is a Caribbean percussion instrument (idiophone) created in the Caribbean, and is a notable precursor to the creation of steelpan The steelpan (also known as a pan, steel drum, and sometimes, collectively with other musicians, as ...

while marching. The band Alba Llaleq from the

Formosa Province Formosa Province () is a Provinces of Argentina, province in northeastern Argentina, part of the Gran Chaco Region. Formosa's northeast end touches Asunción, Paraguay, and the province borders the provinces of Chaco Province, Chaco and Salta Pr ...

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

(part of the traditional Guaraní region) include the takuara in their performances. The takuara is a type of

idiophone An idiophone is any musical instrument that creates sound primarily by the vibration of the instrument itself, without the use of air flow (as with aerophones), strings (chordophones), membranes (membranophones) or electricity ( electrophones) ...

and can be classified in category 1.11.231 (individual percussion tubes) in the

Hornbostel–Sachs Hornbostel–Sachs or Sachs–Hornbostel is a system of musical instrument classification devised by Erich Moritz von Hornbostel and Curt Sachs, and first published in the in 1914. An English translation was published in the '' Galpin Society Jo ...

classification of musical instruments.

External links

* Alva Llaleq, playing with takuapus an old Guarani song; video 1'24": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yrEbCG0RqY * Species:Guadua * http://species.wikimedia.org/wiki/Guadua_angustifolia * :es:Guadua trinii * Short history of steel drums

* Ruben Perez Bugallo (in Castilian): The sacred takuaras mbyá women; Scripta Ethnológica, Buenos Aires, 2003; Rail Redalyc: https://www.redalyc.org/pdf/148/14802504.pdf * Raul Varela: OriginaryPeoples.Com (in Castilian): http://pueblosoriginarios.com/sur/chaco/kaiowa/maiz.html This item was made on the basis of the article :es:Takuapú, Takuapú in Spanish language at Wikipedia. {{Tube percussion idiophones Indigenous music of South America Tube percussion idiophones

See also

External links