Inca Music Video: El Condor Pasa by "Los Incas", 1963
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El Condor Pasa is a
typical Inca dance, based on authentic Incan folk melodies. Around 1916,
Peruvian composer Daniel Alomia Robles notated this popular traditional
melody and used it as the basis for an instrumental suite. The English
Lyrics, 'If I could, I surely would' words, are by Paul Simon
(Simon & Garfunkel)!
Jorge Milchberg y Los Incas achieved worldwide fame when the title track of their 1963 album El Condor Pasa became an international hit.
Los Incas (Urubamba) was a music group consisting of musicians from various South-American countries,
founded in 1956 by Jorge Milchberg. Urubamba introduced Paul Simon to Andean music in the early seventies, and then toured and recorded with Simon (El Condor Pasa). Urubamba, who featured the Argentine Jorge Cumbo on the quena flute, was also known as "Los Incas". Milchberg's style stayed close to the folklore of the altiplanos (highlands) of Peru, Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador and Chile.
The antara is a panpipe of only one
tier of pipes of cane of different lengths, which expresses each one a
height.
The charango is a small South
American stringed instrument of the lute family, about 66 cm long,
traditionally made with the shell of the back of an armadillo. It
typically has 10 strings in five courses of 2 strings each, although
other variations exist.
The siku (Quechua) or zampoña
(Spanish), is a traditional Andean panpipe.
The quena is the traditional flute of
the Andes. Usually made of bamboo, it has 6 finger holes and one thumb
hole and is open on both ends.
The rondador is a set of chorded
bamboo panpipes that produces two tones simultaneously.
A bombo is a kind of bass drum used
in traditional music in Spain, Portugal and South America.
A cajón is a kind of box drum played
by slapping the front face (generally thin plywood) with the hands. The
cajón is the most widely used Afro-Peruvian musical instrument in the
20th century.