The Puerto Rican Cuatro Project
CULTURAL ARCHIVES
FOLKLORIC RESEARCH
EDUCATIONAL PRODUCTS
Eusebio González Ocasio, "el Indio de Sábana Grande" (c. 1898) holds his ten-string transitional cuatro.
LANGUAGE
IDIOMA
Modern ten-string cuatro built by Epifanio Valentin circa 1960
the history and music of the cuatro, in brief
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The heritage of the centuries
is deposited in a common memory
that is activated and manifested through music.
All our human behavior;
all our social behavior;
all our style of creating and doing,
somehow it is reflected in the music.
Music tells us what we are, where we came from.
Your emotions are our emotions,
their story is our story, and our culture.
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Featured content
View an archive of retired Featured Content here
The Puerto Rican cuatro now belongs to the world...
Every day we hear of new artists or instrumentalist saround the world who have discovered our cuatro, and who have fused the distinctive sound nuance of the Puerto Rican national instrument into their own music—be it popular music, rock music or jazz, or even within of their own folk music.
This is very natural with bass players, because the bass and cuatro share the same string tuning (albeit in different octaves) and bass players can immediately play what they already know, without having to readjust to an unfamiliar fretboard. Indeed, many famous Puerto Rican cuatro players such as Sarrail Archilla and Pedrito Guzmán were also bassists. Numerous mandolin players have also traded, with a little more difficulty, their mandolin for a cuatro, discovering its wider versatility and musical range.
The cuatro, once only a musical tool for isolated jíbaro peasants, now belongs to the world.
To highlight all the ways in which the cuatro is adapting to world music, and also the musicians from abroad who lead in this trend, we launch a new page on this site called the Cuatro now belongs to the world.
The notable North American mandolinist Paul Kaplan is an expert in Irish and Scottish folk music, frequently appearing before his audiences playing his Puerto Rican cuatro. (photo by Juan Sotomayor)
A video presentation created by the Cuatro Project
Una corta visita a nuestra Décima puertorriqueña—disfruten!
An important contribution to Puerto Rican musical history
THE BOOK
OF THE PUERTO RICAN FOUR PROJECT
A new history of the native string instruments of Puerto Rico: cuatro, tiple, vihuela, and bordenúa.
The culmination of 22 years of research in the field of artisanal-instrumental musical folklore revealing findings that support a new theory of the origins of iconic Puerto Rican stringed instruments IN SPANISH ONLY
"This book is the most complete encyclopedia of our native stringed instruments" : Nestor Murray Irizarry, director of the Center for Folkloric Research of Puerto Rico, Casa Paoli, Ponce PR.
FOR MORE INFORMATION Click here .
Get to know CANDELARIO VÁZQUEZ, Bordonuist
Candelario Vázquez Morales (b. 1899) was the bordenuísta (performer of the bordonúa) most admired in Puerto Rico, a native of the Juncos region. Our Project postulates that what is currently called Bordonúa is actually a descendant of the 19th century Vihuela Jíbara and not the disappeared Bordonúa of the same century.
We include a lengthy interview with the featured performer here. In it, Don Candó tells us of his longing for the old days:
"... music is everywhere now, but it was once a rarity. Well, by nature, all instruments sounded good. I think that the acoustics of the environment... there wasn't noise everywhere or anything like that. Instrument sounded beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. And loud! I can tell you that at that time, for example, a speaker would come to speak at the public house. He could speak without a microphone or anything, and I think it was clearly heard, all the way to the balcony it could be heard clearly. But today, if the power goes out and the microphone stops working, and even if the speaker's screams and his tongue sticks out, you can't hear him. you hear. Too many sounds have filled the atmosphere. Tthe waves no longer arrive. Those acoustics are over."
Oigan a Candelario Vázquez tocando una danza, tocando su vihuela-bordonúa, acompañado de una guitarra. Digitalizado por el Proyecto del Cuatro de un cassette casero encontrado en la casa de la familia Vázquez en Juncos, PR.
How did Puerto Rican music sound in 1909?
No, you don't need a time machine to hear Puerto Rican singers and instrumentalists playing and singing early in the 20th century. That's because their actual sounds were captured and recorded on wax cylinders-—the oldest form of recording—which remain largely hidden from the public in private collections.
Do you like to hear what an old cuatro sounded like, or a current trombone, or a tiple--just as they sounded 100 years ago? Puerto Rican recorded music expert David Morales is an esteemed member of the Cuatro Project. He has recently provided us with a number of very old wax recordings of singing and performing musicians, which we offer here.
Engraving based on a photo taken in Cayey in 1909
an illustrated comic book for children about our music and culture
A few years ago, the Cuatro Project published a children's comic book, which highlighted the instruments and origins of country craft traditions, as well as the children who excelled in expressing our native music. The magazine is sold out, but you can enjoy a copy here .
