page_title: Puerto Rican cuatro
section_title: Cuatro shapes, sizes and variants.
hierarchical_section_title: Puerto Rican cuatro / Cuatro shapes, sizes and variants.
caption_attribution_description: English: Plan of the body shape of 3 types of Puerto Rican cuatro.
context_page_description: The Puerto Rican cuatro is the national instrument of Puerto Rico. It belongs to the lute family of string instruments, and is guitar-like in function, but with a shape closer to that of the violin. The word cuatro means "four", which was the total number of strings of the earliest Puerto Rican instrument known by the cuatro name.
  The current cuatro has ten strings in five courses, tuned, in fourths, from low to high B3 B2♦E4 E3♦A3 A3♦D4 D4♦G4 G4, and a scale length of 500-520 millimetres.
  The cuatro is the most familiar of the three instruments which make up the Puerto Rican jíbaro orchestra.
  A cuatro player is called a cuatrista. This instrument has had its prominent performers like Andrés Jiménez, Edwin Colón Zayas, Yomo Toro, Iluminado Davila Medina and the maestro Maso Rivera.
context_section_description: Sound Box designs:
  The antiguo design: This box resembles a medieval keyhole, also known as cuatro cuadrao, or cuatro araña. This shape has been found on some old dotars and citolas. Four string, eight string and ten string cuatros were made using this design. This was the very first design and it might be 400 years old. Sometimes some ten string cuatros are still made with this design.
  The aviolinado design: This box resembles a violin. It is the most common shape used today. Eight string and ten string cuatros were made using this design starting in the 19th century.
  The dos puntos design: This box looked like some old mandolinas made by Martin in the United States during the 20th century. However, it was first used in the 19th century in Yauco, Puerto Rico. Eight string cuatros were made using this design.
  The tulipán design: This box looked like the antiguo design but with no straight lines and all curves and thus resembled a tulip. Eight string and ten string cuatros were made using this design during the 1900s near Yauco and Ponce.
  The higuera design: This is the rarest design. This box was shaped like an organic oval. This was because the soundboxes were made from domed gourds instead of wood. Four string cuatros were made using this design in the 19th century in Puerto Rico by enslaved Africans on the island. Now they are made with ten metal strings and often have designs carved onto their backs.
  Besides these, many other lesser known and one-of-a-kind designs also exist.
  Variants
  In the 1950s, there was an effort to produce a "classical" ensemble of cuatros, with various-sized instruments taking on the role of the violins, violas, cellos, and double bases in a classical orchestra.  To meet these roles cuatros of the aviolinado style were produced in four different sizes and tunings:  Cuatro Soprano, Cuatro Alto, Cuatro Tradicional (the standard instrument, also called Cuatro Tenor), and Cuatro Bajo (Bass Cuatro): all have ten strings and are tuned in fourths.  The project met with only limited success and today most of these variants are rare, with the cuatro tradicional surviving as the standard instrument.
  There is also a Cuatro Lírico ("lyrical cuatro"), which is about the size of the Tenor, but has a deep jelly-bean shaped body; a Cuatro Sonero, which has fifteen strings in five courses of three strings each; and a Seis, which is a Cuatro Tradicional with an added two string course (usually a lower course), giving it a total of twelve strings in six courses.
caption: A plan of three cuatro body designs. From left to right, the traditional cuatro antiguo design, the "Southern" soft waisted cuatro antiguo, and the modern "aviolinado" cuatro.
exif: {}