Where does Siku (panpipes played in pairs) come from?
The siku comes from the Andes and is most at home among the Aymara people around Lake Titicaca, in Peru and Bolivia. This panpipe is split into two halves, so it traditionally takes two players to play one tune.
Two halves, one melody
A siku is a set of bamboo or cane pipes of different lengths, tied together in rows like a raft, each pipe sounding a single note. The notes of the scale are shared between two rows: the ira, which has fewer pipes and leads, and the arka, which follows. The most common kind, the siku ch'alla, has 13 pipes, six in the ira and seven in the arka. Two musicians each take one half and alternate notes, a technique called hocket.
Big bands of the altiplano
Panpipes are among the oldest instruments of the Andes and date from long before the Spanish arrived. Around Lake Titicaca, Aymara communities play them at festivals in sikuri, a style for big groups of usually around twenty siku players, with drums pounding out a fast huayño rhythm. Sikus come in many sizes, and played together they give the thick sound Andean music favours. Beginners can join in too: the sound of the whole group covers small mistakes.
A conversation in music
The instrument has many names: siku in Aymara, antara in Quechua and zampoña in Spanish. The ira is described as the male half and the arka as the female one, and neither can complete a melody alone. Their back-and-forth reflects reciprocity, the give-and-take that runs through Andean village life. Today one musician often plays both rows at once, and modern sikus are tuned to fit Western music, but rural ensembles still keep the old way of playing in pairs.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org › Siku (instrument) ↗ · en.wikipedia.org › Sikuri ↗ · clas.osu.edu ↗
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