It is a polyglobular ocarina, a sound statuette and an antara (siku) of peoples who inhabited our land between the 6th and 11th centuries.
04-25-2024
The Orchestra of Native Instruments and New Technologies together with the Innovation Laboratory of the Center for Innovation of Companies and Organizations CIDEM carried out the reproduction of a polyglobular ocarina and a sound statuette, both from the Aguada culture that developed in northwest Argentina between the 7th and 10th centuries, and from a lithic antara recently found by archaeologist Axel Nielsen in Los Amarillos. This pre-Hispanic site, located in the Quebrada de Humahuaca, belongs to the late agro-pottery period that developed between the 10th and 15th centuries approximately.
The project was promoted by the teacher, researcher and soloist of the Orchestra of Native Instruments and New Technologies of the University María Emilia Sosa Cacace. It has great value in the knowledge and rescue of the music of these pre-Columbian peoples because there are no previous works on these particular instruments. The research and survey carried out by Sosa Cacace had the support of the Research and Development Secretariat of the university and the National Fund for the Arts, as well as experts from the Archeology Division of the La Plata Museum, the Archaeological and Anthropological Museum Dr. Eduardo Casanova from Tilcara and the Center for Ethnomusicology and Creation in Traditional and Avant-garde Arts (IDECREA-UNTREF).
Using advanced technology, based on 3D scans and subsequent three-dimensional editing in the laboratory, the prototypes took into account, above all, the internal design of the instruments and their acoustic systems. The resin-printed prototypes turned out to be of dazzling quality. “The timing of the timbral exploration of the instrument is key, as well as the interpretation of its figures. For example, there are Mayan spring flutes or Peruvian whistling vessels characterized as a wolf that sound like that animal. It is interesting because the sound evokes the spirit of that being for the culture of that people,” he exemplifies.
Prototyping required very precise measurements, both of the dimensions of the instrument and the acoustic plane. “For this it was necessary,” explains Sosa Cacace, “to make high-quality recordings, study the spectra and frequencies of the sound and evaluate how its timbral is formed from a scientific point of view through photogrammetry, 3D scanning and measurement and detection systems. objects using lasers, among other techniques.”
Although simple ocarinas or quenas were replicated before, this is the first time that prototypes of original Argentine instruments have been printed with this level of sophistication. “The work we did in the laboratory was wonderful. We compared the acoustic results of original pieces with those we were replicating and achieved very faithful prototypes,” says Sosa Cacace.
The Laboratory’s equipment allows printing in resin, a noble material that has a structure similar to wood or clay and enables better results in morphological terms, allowing very good quality details, even inside the piece.
“Contributing to the rescue and knowledge of the ancestral music of our country through advanced 4.0 technologies has been an extraordinary experience. It has allowed us to realize that, with the equipment we have and the capabilities we develop, we are in a position to solve an enormous number of challenges in terms of design and prototyping that our research groups and the industries of the region present to us,” he points out. Thomas JellinekDirector of CIDEM.
Both research and prototyping do not only propose the rescue of original instruments but also their integration into the fabric of contemporary creation. UNTREF itself offers the conditions to make this possible through the Master’s Degree in Musical Creation, New Technologies and Traditional Arts and the Orchestra of Native Instruments and New Technologies, where ancestral music is put back on stage.
