In the high reaches of the Andes Mountains between the volcanoes and the salt desserts lies a very peculiar canyon named Salcaryuni. Deep, narrow and riddled with caves along the walls, sound echoes in strange ways here. In 2017 a group of experimental composition student from Universities in Bolivia and Argentina turned Salcaryuni into the largest 'harp' ever made. “El Cañonarpa” was constructed by finding some of the most resonous parts of the rocky walls and attaching cables and wires of various thicknesses across to the other side. These giant harp strings also had vibrating circles of metals positioned at particular places along them that helped with the tuning and added a certain texture to the sound. Seven of these Cañonarpa strings were put in place, it was a massive project that took a team of over twenty people 3 weeks to complete. Part of the construction involved the positioning of long tubes that rise to the top of the canyon, this allowed the strings were played by dropping fist sized rock down them to strike the strings. The rehearsals for the first performance, this Étude for El Cañonarpa took another 5 days, the timing of the dropping of the rocks to stay in rhythm was particularly tricky with a team of 3 people at the top of each tube and flashing beacon light on the other side of the canyon setting the tempo. We are lucky to have a recording of this first performance of El Cañonarpa, that had an audience of about 50 at the bottom of canyon. More pieces have been written for El Cañonarpa, including a concerto with an orchestra, however due to the difficult location of El Cañonarpa securing funding for the performance and recording of more pieces is a slow process. Enjoy this rare recording of Étude for El Cañonarpa.
More on this 385th weekly Disquiet Junto project — Audubonus Instrumentum at:
https://disquiet.com/0385/
More on the Disquiet Junto at:
https://disquiet.com/junto/
Thanks for the image:
By Smcmurtrey - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=14760282
