BAILES CHINOS LONCURA CHILE / July 1, 2012

This is a festivity in honour of Saint Peter that is celebrated each year in the coastal locality of Loncura, in Central Chile. The video shows the "bailes chinos", a particular musical manifestation of precolumbian origin ("chino" means "servant" in Chilean traditional society). Musically speaking, these groups are formed by two rows of flutes, one or two frame drums, and one big drum. The members of the group wear colourful garments and hats, and dance in acrobatic manner. Many of them are fishermen from different localities of Central Chile. The Chilean ethnomusicologist José Pérez de Arce has described the sonority of the flutes as "sonido rajado" (torn sound). This is a descriptive term to designate the extremely strong, intense, complex and energetic dissonant sound that is characteristic of these flutes. This is a "sacred sound" which is observed in many other wind instruments of the Andean cultures. This sound is produced by a complex tube inside the flute constituted by an upper broader section and a lower narrow one, both having approximately the same lengths. These flutes are usually made of wood, cane or "cifuta", a local reed. For more information about the sacred sound of these flutes you can read two articles written in English by José Pérez de Arce. They were published in "The Galpin Society Journal" No. 51 and 53.