Evening star., 1921-05-15
Jazz in Prehistoric Peru

THAT the Indians Of prehis. oric
Peru knew the art. or science
Of jazz" is apparent from the
decorations. representing or
chestras and dancers. found on the
ancient pottery and metal objects
of the region. Further evidence Is
furnished by accounts of early writer's
and, most convincing. by numbers of
the musical instruments which have
been recovered from graves and ruins
by archeologists. These instru-
nents include drums, bells, cymbals,
rattles. pipes, flutes. whistles. trum-
pets and an unmistakable ancestor Of
the oboe. II the activities of an
energetic Indian orchestra equipped
with some or all of these instruments
did not produce something akin to
present-day jazz. the writer Is guilty
of an error in judgment
Undoubtedly. early man sang and
danced before he produced instru-
mental music. AS the most important
element of the song and dance 3
rhythm. and as in singing and dane
ing a desire for some sound to clearly
indicate the rhythm seems to be uni
versal, primitive vocalists and terp-
sichoreans everywhere have found
assistance in the swapping of fingers,
clapping Of hands, beating of hips
and stamping of feet. Then. prob
ably, the drum was devised--the first
musical instrument. The allied in
struments of percussion, as cymbals,
rattles and bells. soon followed. Later
came the wind instruments, such as
musical shells and varieties of pipes
and horns. And finally, the more
complex stringed instrument was de.
veloped. The greatest single step for
ward in the history Of instrumental
of a musical scale. This came with
the pipes. In Peru, evidence is found
of the first two types-instruments
of percussion and wind instruments
but SO far nothing has been found
to indicate that the prehistoric In
make music from the vibrations Of
strings.
In the American Museum of Natural
History. New York, there is a large
collection Of prehistoric musical in
struments Of Peru. They have been
carefully studied by Charles w.
Mead. assistant curator of the de-
partment of anthropology. whose
findings have been published in a
short paper According to Mr.. Mead.
no drums have been found in ancient
Peruvian graves. This may be for
the reason, he believes, either that
the drums Of the time. being made of
perishable material, have all disin-
tegrated. or that because of some
superstition it was not customary to
bury drums with the dead. Drums,
however. were pictured by the native
artists of the time and described by
early writers, the evidence showing
that they were identical in kind with
the drums used today in several parts
of Peru. They were made OF skin
stretched over a hoop of wood. or
over one end of a short section OF a
tree trunk. followed out to a thin
cylinder. Small drums seem to have
been the rule. The drumheads were
usually made Of the skins of deer
and other animals common to the
country. But sometimes. as among
the Huancas, the skins of captured
enemies were used. in the belief that
the sound Of such drums would strike
terror into the hearts Of living enc
mics.
The bells Of the Peruvian Jazz or
chestra were OF copper, with pebbles
for clappers. There we're rattles,
made of small shells, nuts. seeds. etc,
which were worn attached to the
wrists. ankles and other parts of the
body in dancing. Gourds nlled with
pebbles were used as hand rattles.