The Cuatro of Puerto Rico

The National Instrument of Puerto Rico, the Cuatro

The first oldest of the cuatros was called the "Four String Cuatro Antiguo" and was the earliest form of the instrument dating back to the 17th century. Although it is rarely played now and is for the most part gone, it was tuned in intervals of 4-3-4. It was made from a single block of wood and used 4 gut strings.

http://www.cuatro-pr.org/Home/Audio/Indexaudio/I
nstrmusaudio/Instruments/Cuatros/Cuatro%20Antiguo.mp3

The 8 stringed "Southern Cuatro" began appearing in Southern cities in Puerto Rico in the twenties and forties. It was made like a guitar and had s4 pairs of steel strings. Although they were tuned like the four stringed cuatros were they were played with a pairs of metal strings. Because it was difficult to play only the most skilled musicians performed using the "Southern Cuatro" and they were used to perform Puerto Rican Classic music. It played mazurkas, polkas, waltzes, danzas, and other music. Because they were so difficult to play and required very cumbersome tuning they drifted completely out of play by the early fifties.





http://www.cuatro-pr.org/Home/Audio/Indexaudio
/Instrmusaudio/Instruments/Cuatros/NorbertoCalesocho.mp3


A cross between the modern cuatro and the ten stringed cuatro seen before, this early rural 10 stringed cuatro was brought over from remote villages into cities during the 19th century. With modern tuning and stringing, they were the early version of the modern cuatro but still held the pyramidal semi-circular shape in its form.




The modern cuatro is widely used by puerto ricans today is the 10 (5 pairs) stringed instrument with 20 inch strings and a violin like outline. It is also sometimes called the "cuatro aviolinado" or the violin shaped cuatro or the "Cuatro Espanol" the Spanish Cuatro because of the similar tunings to Spanish brought instruments such as the citaras and laudes. It gained much popularity in the thirties after being played on the radio show Industrias Nativas for years by Ladislao Martinez.


Cuatro making poster:

http://www.cuatro-pr.org/Home/Images/Index/
Instmusimages/Artisans/HaciendoCuatroPoster.pdf

Impromptu Modern Cuatro:



Live Performance:



Latin Jazz:






http://www.cuatro-pr.org/Home/Eng/Instrmus/Instrmnts/Cuatros/cuatros.htm