Encyclopedia of the Incas

The chronicler Pedro de Cieza de León wrote about the intergenerational oral
transmission of history through narrative ballads, which told of events that
occurred as many as 500 years before the Spanish invasion. The Inca ruler
ordered the creation of ballads, sung during large ceremonial gatherings of
nobles from around the empire, that extolled his feats. The select composers
would also create accounts that were sung at marriage festivities and joyful
celebrations. Ballads of praise were also sung around the deceased Inca’s statues,
which were placed in the Aucaypata, Cuzco’s main square, for ceremonies of
veneration, when food and drink were offered. The death of an Inca king was
commemorated by prolonged mourning and weeping, when elders sang ballads
of the king’s great deeds and accomplishments. According to Cieza de León, the
quipucamayocs recorded the sung praises on quipu, which could then be read
and performed at later festivities. In this way, the quipucamayocs kept accounts
of many events throughout the empire that could be relayed by select experts in
ballad-style. The harawi was another type of song used to express pain and
tribulation, either individually or collectively. This pre-Hispanic custom of sung
weeping and improvisational storytelling through song is still expressed today in
remote communities, such as among the Q’eros cultural group of the
southeastern Andes.
A song recorded by the chronicler Juan de Betanzos conveys the spirit of Inca
songs. This is said to have been sung by Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui on his
deathbed: “Since I bloomed like the flower of the garden, up to now I have given
order and justice in this life and world as long as my strength lasted. Now I have
turned to earth” (Betanzos 1996 [1553]). Songs lauding the chosen people who
gave up their lives to serve the gods were chanted just before human sacrifice at
key worship locations such as the Coricancha, Cuzco’s Sun temple, and the
sacred hill of Huanacauri. During the huarachicuy rite of passage from boyhood
to manhood, boys received loincloths (huara) and red tunics with white stripes,
and sang the huari taqui repeatedly during the celebration. It was believed that
this particular taqui was bestowed by the creator god when the first Inca, Manco
Capac, emerged from the cave of Tambo T’oco (see Myths, Origin). Because of
this auspicious origin, the huari taqui was sung at this ritual and no other.
Although some chroniclers carefully wrote detailed descriptions of taqui
celebrations, very little is known about what Inca music actually sounded like.
Specifics such as types of scale, for example, are only inferred from chroniclers’
descriptions of celebrations, postconquest ethnographic research, and modern
studies of pitches produced on extant Inca musical instruments. The theory that