Inca Music, Dance and Festivals

Music, dance, and religious festivals were central to the public life of the Inca state. The chroniclers Garcilaso de la Vega, Bernabé Cobo, and Pedro Cieza de León all remark that almost no activity of Andean life — agricultural, military, ritual, or recreational — proceeded without music, and that the calendar was punctuated by a dense succession of state festivals, each with its own prescribed dances, songs, and instruments. The instruments most closely associated with the Inca were the quena and zampoña — the quena a vertical end-blown flute traditionally made of bone or cane, and the zampoña a pan-pipe of two parallel rows of reeds tuned in the characteristic Andean intervals. Dances of two main classes — the taqui purucu (men’s dances), performed with weapons and at a quick military tempo, and the taqui warmicu (women’s dances), at a slower and more measured tempo — re-enacted the mythical origins of the Andean people, the conquests of the Inca emperors, and the agricultural cycle. The most important of the state festivals was Inti Raymi, the “feast of the sun” celebrated at the winter solstice in late June. The persistence of these traditions in the syncretic festivals of the colonial and modern Andes, and the nativist movement of Taki Onqoy in 1560–1565, demonstrate the persistence of the Andean musical and ritual tradition into the present.

The musical instruments of the Andes

The most characteristic instruments of Inca music were wind instruments, particularly the quena and the zampoña (also called siku or siku). The quena was a vertical end-blown flute, typically 30 to 50 centimeters long, with six finger holes and a thumb hole; it was made of bone, cane, clay, or, in the highest-quality examples, the femur of a deer or a vicuña. The instrument produced a soft, breathy tone that was thought to be particularly suited to the expression of melancholy and longing, and it was the principal solo instrument of the Andean tradition. The chronicler Garcilaso de la Vega, who grew up in Cusco in the mid-16th century, recorded that the quena was the preferred instrument of the amautas and the quipucamayocs, and that a skilled player could move his audience to tears.

The zampoña was a pan-pipe consisting of two parallel rows of canes of graduated length, bound together with cotton or llama-wool cord. The two rows were tuned in such a way that the melody was split between them, with the player alternating between the two rows to produce the full scale; this hanan-hurin (high-low) construction, the musicologist Thomas Turino has argued, was a material embodiment of the Andean principle of complementary opposition. The zampoña came in several sizes: the ch’ili sikus were small, high-pitched instruments used for fast dances, while the taika sikus were large, low-pitched instruments used for slow, solemn music. Related instruments included the pinkillu — a long, single-reed trumpet — and the antara — a pan-pipe of a single row of canes, used in the highlands of Ecuador and southern Colombia. The detailed treatment of these instruments is given in The quena, zampoña, and other instruments of Inca music.

Percussion instruments included the wankar (a single-headed drum, typically made of llama or alpaca skin stretched over a wooden or ceramic shell), the cajón (a box struck with a stick), and the churu (a conch-shell trumpet used in state ritual). Stringed instruments were rare in the Inca period, although the charango and the guitar are commonly played in modern Andean music. Bells of copper, bronze, and silver were used in state ritual, and the largest surviving examples of Inca bells, recovered from the Coricancha in the 1930s, are now in the collection of the Museo Inka in Cusco.

Dances: taqui purucu and taqui warmicu

The Incas distinguished two main classes of dance, distinguished by the chroniclers on the basis of the sex of the participants, the tempo, and the associated ritual. The taqui purucu (literally “men’s dance”) was performed by men, often with weapons, at a quick and military tempo; the dance was associated with the conquests of the Inca emperors, with the military training of young men, and with the public display of valor. The most famous of the taqui purucu was the Quinua Raymi, performed at the festival of the same name, in which young men of the nobility reenacted the conquest of a neighboring people and celebrated the sowing of maize. Another important taqui purucu was the Huarucicu, performed at the harvest festival in late May, in which the men of the ayllu reenacted the defeat of the Chanka by Pachacuti in 1438 and the consolidation of the Inca state.

The taqui warmicu (literally “women’s dance”) was performed by women, often in long lines or circles, at a slower and more measured tempo; the dance was associated with agricultural fertility, with the cult of the ancestors, and with the mourning of the dead. The principal taqui warmicu was the Qori Huayra (literally “golden wind”), performed at the solstice festival of Inti Raymi in late June. The Qori Huayra was performed in a long line of women holding hands, with a single musician leading the dance and a chorus singing the q’onopa (a wailing song) that the chronicler Cobo described as “a kind of slow, sad song, very pleasing to the ear.” Related dances included the Chacchacuna, performed at the solstice, and the Haylli, performed as a victory dance by women of the aclla class.

In addition to the formal taqui dances, the chroniclers record a number of more informal dances and songs, often associated with the mit’a labor obligation and with the ayni reciprocal labor exchange. The Haylli, in particular, was a victory song performed by young men returning from military service or from the mit’a of the mines; the Haylli was sung in the fields during sowing and harvest, and it was the principal form of musical expression in the rural ayllus. The survival of these traditions in the modern Andean carnaval and fiesta patronal cycle is one of the most striking examples of cultural continuity in the Americas.

The ritual calendar of the Incas

The Inca ritual calendar consisted of twelve months of approximately thirty days each, with adjustment by intercalation to keep the solstices fixed. The year began with the December solstice, and the major ritual cycle described by Garcilaso and Betanzos divided the year into the period of Quilla (lunar reckoning) and Inti (solar reckoning). Within each month, feast days were determined by the moon’s phase; the eighth (Qhapaq Inti), the ninth (Huaraca), and the full moon were the most important. The most elaborate festivals of the year are described below.

Inti Raymi

Inti Raymi, the “feast of the sun,” was the most elaborate of the state festivals. Celebrated at the winter solstice in late June — the period of the Andean year when the Pleiades reappeared in the pre-dawn sky and the agricultural cycle began anew — Inti Raymi was the principal ritual by which the Sapa Inca renewed the bond between the imperial order and the cosmos. The festival is treated in detail in Inti Raymi: the feast of the sun in Cusco; the principal elements were a procession of the mallkis (mummified ancestors) of the dead sovereigns from the Coricancha to the great square of Cusco, the sacrifice of llamas (typically a single black llama for the Sapa Inca, a white llama for the queen, and a brown llama for the sun), the pouring of chicha to renew the bond with Inti, and the burning of large quantities of cumbi cloth as offerings to the sun. The festival ended with a public feast in which the Sapa Inca distributed food, chicha, and textiles to the population of Cusco and to visiting curacas from across the empire.

Capac Raymi

Capac Raymi, celebrated in late December, marked the initiation of noble youth into adulthood. Young men of the nobility, typically aged 14 to 18, were subjected to a series of ritual tests: a fast, a series of trials of strength and endurance, and a final rite of passage in which the initiate was symbolically reborn as a member of the panaca of his father. The festival was marked by the pouring of chicha, by the performance of the taqui purucu dances, and by the distribution of cumbi tunics to the initiates. The Capac Raymi was particularly important in the late prehispanic period, when the population of the empire was expanding rapidly and the system of noble initiation was the principal mechanism by which the ruling class was reproduced.

Qhapaq Raymi

Qhapaq Raymi, celebrated in the months before the solstice, was a state ritual of purification of the Sapa Inca and his court. The Sapa Inca and the principal officials of the empire underwent a five-day fast, in which they consumed only maize and chicha and abstained from sexual relations; they were then ritually purified in a public ceremony at the Coricancha, in which the Tucuy Ricuy (literally “he who sees all”) pronounced a formal absolution of sins. The festival was a moment of public accountability, in which the Sapa Inca was judged by his court and by the amautas and where, in some accounts, a mascapaicha (royal headdress) was publicly broken and replaced.

Pachamama Raymi, Situa Raymi, and other state festivals

The other major state festivals of the year included Pachamama Raymi in August, in honor of the earth mother; Hatun Cosqui in September, the great rainmaking ceremony; and Situa Raymi in late September, when the sicknesses of the past year were driven out of Cusco in a ritual procession of the four suyus. The Qoya Raymi, celebrated in the ninth month, marked the capacmi (purification) of the queens and the Qoya Sumaq, the principal wife of the Sapa Inca. The Yapa Raymi in the tenth month was a harvest festival of thanksgiving, and the Huaracicu in the eleventh month marked the completion of the year’s agricultural work. The detailed analysis of the Andean ritual calendar, and its relationship to the ceque system of Cusco documented by Tom Zuidema in The Ceque System of Cuzco (1964), remains one of the foundational works of Inca ethnohistory.

The ceque system and the ritual geography of Cusco

The ceque system of Cusco was a network of 41 or 42 imaginary lines (ceqques) radiating from the Coricancha to the principal huacas (sacred sites) of the surrounding valley. Along each ceque, a series of huacas was venerated; each huaca was associated with a particular ayllu, a particular calendar date, and a particular set of ritual offerings. The ceque system, as reconstructed by the ethnohistorian Tom Zuidema from the testimony of the chroniclers and from the visitas of 1558–1570, organized the ritual life of the empire: the major festivals of the year were performed at the appropriate huaca on the appropriate ceque, and the procession of the mallkis through the ceque system was a physical embodiment of the imperial order. The principal surviving ceque of the late Inca period, the Qhapaq Raymi ceque, ran from the Coricancha to the fortress of Sacsayhuamán above the city.

The Taki Onqoy and the persistence of the ritual tradition

The Spanish conquest of 1532 and the subsequent suppression of the Inca religion did not erase the Andean musical and ritual tradition. The chroniclers record that the indigenous population of the highlands continued to perform the taqui dances in secret throughout the 16th century, and that the Quinua Raymi and Huarucicu dances survived in the rural ayllus of the Chinchaysuyu and the Collasuyu at least into the 1580s. The survival of these traditions, in modified form, in the colonial carnaval and fiesta patronal cycle is one of the most remarkable examples of cultural continuity in the New World.

The most dramatic expression of the persistence of the Andean ritual tradition was the Taki Onqoy movement of 1560–1565. The Taki Onqoy was an explicitly nativist religious revival that called for the rejection of Spanish rule and of Christian cult, and for the restoration of the huacas. The movement was led by a series of messianic figures, most famously the pacaricuc (ritual specialist) Juan Chocne and the taqui oncoy (literally “songs of sickness”) dancers who traveled from ayllu to ayllu performing the taqui dances of the Inca period. The movement drew substantial support from the highland ayllus, particularly in the southern provinces of the empire, and at its peak in 1564 the Spanish authorities estimated that perhaps 80,000 people had joined the cult. The detailed treatment of the movement, its causes, and its suppression is given in Taki Onqoy and the nativist movement of 1560–1565; the principal chronicler is the Mercedarian friar Martín de Murúa, who recorded the testimony of the movement’s leaders before they were executed in 1567.

The suppression of the Taki Onqoy did not, in the long term, eliminate the Andean ritual tradition. The carnaval celebrations of the modern Andes incorporate many of the elements of the Inca Situa Raymi and Hatun Cosqui festivals, and the danza de las tijeras (scissors dance) of the southern highlands has been traced by the ethnographer José María Arguedas to the Inca Huarucicu dance. The persistence of the t’oqapu motifs of the Inca period in the textile patterns of the modern comunidades campesinas, and the survival of the quena and zampoña in the popular music of Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador, demonstrate that the Andean musical and ritual tradition is one of the most enduring cultural inheritances of the pre-Columbian world.