The Siku of Peru

The siku (also sicu), is a variety of Peruvian panpipe used by indigenous peoples of the southern Colla (also Aymara) group in the region of Oruru.«FN1«LM8»«RM73» Robert Stevenson, Music in Aztec & Inca Territory (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976) 333.

» This region is part of the Collao Altiplano, also called Altiplano, which is an Andean plateau that extends over part of Peru, Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina. It takes in Lake Titicaca, the northern and western shores of which are situated in Peru.

Panpipe is the name given to a primitive wind instrument, typically a reed or cane instrument, that comprises "a series of hollow pipes of graduated length, the tones being produced by blowing across the upper ends."«FN1«LM8»«RM73» Random House Webster's College Dictionary (1992), s.v. "Panpipe."

. . .
he indigenous Mexican does not sing or dance to display his skill or his knowledge, nor does he seek to entertain or please the spectators. He sings and dances to honor and appease his ancestral gods. His music is the expression of his faith and hope and his fears of the gods, whether pagan or Christian. Indigenous music is not performed in the Western tradition of subjective exhibitionism and virtuosity, but rather with the impersonal fervor of religious music before the tenth century. We know that music and dance formed an essential part of the indigenous rites and ceremonies, magic as well as religious and civil.«FN1«LM8»«RM73» Marti, 6. » «RM73» The implication comes in the form of a question about what Peruvian society is--whether it sees its primary identity as the product of a variety of evolutionary forces or as the remnant of pre-Columbian social structures. The difficulty of this situation arises from the fact that the present-day indigenous population is economically and socially disadvantaged in a variety of ways. Turino uses the phrase "moving away from silence" to describe the culture shock that many members of remote Altiplano villages have felt when coming to urban centers such as Cuzco or Lima to seek employ
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Chacon«FN1«LM8»«RM73» Chacon, Peru Ethnomusicology, Music Dictionary, Angeles Times, Titicaca«FN1«LM8»«RM73» Stevenson, Chacon Pusamoreno, Peru Bolivia, Christian Indigenous, College Dictionary, , andean music, musical forms, bipolar siku, european music, los angeles times, los angeles, siku music, peru ethnomusicology, indigenous music, andean musical, angeles times, andean musical forms, random house webster's, college dictionary 1992, angeles times 18,
Approximate Word count = 3538
Approximate Pages = 14 (250 words per page)

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