Contextual Associations

The gaita is an edge aerophone (flute) found from Caribbean coastal Colombia through the northern extension of the Andes, with a primary diaspora in the cities of Cartagena, Barranquilla, and Bogota. Before the 1940s, gaita were almost always pair matched as part of an ensemble, conjuntos de gaita (first audio clip), used to accompany the cumbia folk dance during rondas, a nightlong feast. The ensemble was traditionally composed of four male musicians: two gaita players and two drummers. These ensembles were often formed on an as needed basis usually to disperse after their function had been served. According to Ochoa, the gaita was also employed in funereal performance, lending it, at times, a somber association. Rondas no longer occur in community life and the flute's primary musical context now occurs at folk-music festivals, theatres, and discotheques. For Ochoa, “The sound of the gaita ensemble has become a widespread and iconic sonority of costeño music.” Due to its iconic sound association with the Andes, the gaita lends an otherness to music adopted by ensembles on the streets of New York City, in film scores, and contemporary and ‘World Music’ albums.

Description

The gaita hembra and gaita macho are a pair of internal duct-flutes, usually player made. They are almost identical morphologically, the exception being the number of fingerholes. For both, the flute body is made from a hollowed out length of cardón, a cactus (Selenicereus grandiflorus), and the head from a composite of vegetal carbon (in the form of charcoal) and beeswax. A bird-feather quill extends a little past the end of the head and acts as mouthpiece and duct. On the macho, two circular fingerholes are burnt into the instrument close to its distal end; for the hembra, there are five equidistantly placed fingerholes. Both gaitas are left unadorned.

Player - Instrument Interface and Sound Production

There is no standardized tuning for gaitas, which are instead tuned to only their particular complement. A player produces a note by sealing his lips around the quill mouthpiece and blowing through it. This directs the airstream against an edge inside the wax-composite head (see detail image, which focuses on the instrument’s head section; through the slit in the head the sharp edge of the tube rim is visible). Manually opening and closing tone holes with middle (hembra only) and index fingerpads (hembra and macho) of each hand serves to lengthen and shorten the standing wave produced by the airstream. The wide spacing of the holes makes covering them difficult and a moveable beeswax plug (missing from this specimen) is used to seal the uppermost or lowermost hole on the hembra. Literature and recordings suggest that the fundamental is never played and that the instrument’s ‘normal’ pitch range starts at the secon harmonic partial. The more pitch limited gaita macho plays secondary melodic material, while the hembra plays primary melodic material (second audio ex.). A hembra player often holds the flute in his left hand while simultaneously playing a supporting rhythm with a maraca in his right, adjusting fingering as needed.

Origins/History/Evolution

According to List, this Columbian instrument is “without question indigenous” to South America and he found no firm evidence of its existence in Europe or Africa. The gaita most likely evolved from shorter duct-flutes of highland Amerindian groups such as the Kogi (Cágaba), Ika, and Cuna. The flutes, however, represent the amalgamation of tri-cultural sensibilities. The ensemble in which it is played is a confluence of Spanish, Afro-Colombian, and Amerindian musical traditions. As differing musical identities began to merge, separate elements were taken from each fusing Spanish vocals, African style drums, and a native aerophonic instrument and performance practice into what is now an iconic folk sound. In response, the gaita was made longer and louder in order to be heard in its evolving ensemble setting.

Bibliographic Citations

Hernandez, Juan Daniel. n.d. "Instrumental Acoustic Study about the Gaita Hembra." www.javeriana.edu.co/Facultades/Artes/musica/profes.../GAITA.PDF

List, George. 1983. Music and Poetry in a Colombian Village: A Tri-cultural Heritage. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

________. 1991. "Two Flutes and a Rattle: The Evolution of an Ensemble." The Musical Quarterly 75/1: 50.

Ochoa, Ana Maria. 2006. “Introduction.” Un Fuego de Sangre Pura. CD and liner notes, Smithsonian Folkways SFW CD 40531.

Poche, Christian & John M. Schechter. 1984. "Gaita," NGDMI v. 2: 6.