The Calhoun chronicle. [volume] (Grantsville, W. Va.) 1883-1984, 1899-01-10
PORTO RlcAn MUSIC.
The National Instrument Is n Queer Ono
Eut Popular.


Like all other .Spanish-speaking
peoples, the Porto Ricans are fond of
music. Every cafe has its orchestra,
for cafe would hardly do business
without one. Every main street dur
ing the latter part of the day has its
little itinerant baud of guitar and vio-
lin players aud the warm nights are
made pleasant to tho strollers along
the streets by tho sound of stringed
instruments which floats from behind
the latticed, vine-clad screen of pri-
vate residences.
Nearly oil of the airs are pitched in
minor key, which, when intended
to be joyous, contains q plant to the
Anglo-Saxon fond of Sousa's robust
music. To one who has Travelled in
Spanish lands the music at Porto
Rico at first seems very familiar, but
tue ear is not long in discovering
something novel in the accompani-
ment to the melody.
1t sounds at first like the rbythmical
shuttle OF feet upon the sanded floor.
and one might suppose some expert
clog dancer was nimbly stepping to
the music made by the violins and
guitars. The motion is almost too
quick, too complicated. for this, how
ever, and it is the dizziness of fingers
and not of feet which produces it.
1t come from the only IN usical in
strument native to the West Indies,
the "guira," which word is pro-
nounced "huir-r-r-a," with n soft roll
and twist to the tongue only possible
to the native. The ''guira" is gourd
varying in size in different instru-
ments. On the inverse curve of the
gourd are cut holes like those in the
back of violin. On the other side
OF tue gourd opposite the holes is a
series of deep scratches. The player
balances the gourd in his left hand,
holding it lightly, that none of the re-
sonance may be lost.
With his right hand he rapidly rubs
this roughened side of the gourd with
two-tined steel fork. In the hands
OF novice this produces nothing but
harsh, disagreeable noise. In the
hands of native "guira" player
wonderful rhythmic sound comes from
this dried vegetable shell, sound
which in its place in the orchestra
becomes music, and most certainly
gives splendid time aud considerable
volume to the performance.
The players hand moves with light
ming rapidity. The steel fork at times
makes long sweeps the whole length of
the gourd and then again vibrates
with Incredible swiftness over but an
inch or two of its surface. There
seems to be perfect method in its
playing, though no musical record is
before the player, and it seems to be
matter merely of his fancy and his
ear as to how his part shall harmonize
with the melody of the stringed in.
struments.
The guira is found in all the West
Indies, but seems specially popular
in Porto Rico. The players generally
make their own instruments, and ap-
parently become attached to them. for
as poor as they are, they will hard
~ part with them for their real
value. They are distinctly Porto
Rican curio, and strange as it may
seem, Porto Rico is probably more
destitute of tourists '1ootp than any
foreign country known to the travel
ing American. The tourist who can
secure a guira may congratulate him
self, for it will be hard to get and is
the very thing which can be carried
away from the island as souvenir
which is distinctly native and pecu-
liar.