The cuatro is the national instrument of Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...

. It belongs to the lute

Lute

Lute can refer generally to any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back, or more specifically to an instrument from the family of European lutes....

 family of string instruments.
The cuatro of Puerto Rico has ten strings in five courses, tuned from low to high B-e-a-d'-g', 54321, with B and E in octave

Octave

In music, an octave is the interval between one musical pitch and another with half or double its frequency. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been referred to as the "basic miracle of music", the use of which is "common in most musical systems"...

s and A, D and G in unison

Unison

In music, the word unison can be applied in more than one way. In general terms, it may refer to two notes sounding the same pitch, often but not always at the same time; or to the same musical voice being sounded by several voices or instruments together, either at the same pitch or at a distance...

s.
A cuatro player is called a cuatrista.

History

Very little is known about the exact origin of the Cuatro. However, most experts believe that the Cuatro has existed on the island in one form or another for about 400 years. The Spanish instrument that it is most closely related to is the vihuela

Vihuela

Vihuela is a name given to two different guitar-like string instruments: one from 15th and 16th century Spain, usually with 12 paired strings, and the other, the Mexican vihuela, from 19th century Mexico with five strings and typically played in Mariachi bands.-History:The vihuela, as it was known...

 poblana (also known as the Medieval/Renaissance guitar), which had 4 courses, 2 strings each for 8 strings in total as well as the Spanish Medieval/Renaissance 4 course and the Spanish Laúd

Laúd

The word laúd is the Spanish word for lute. It is most commonly used to refer to a plectrum-plucked chordophone from Spain. It belongs to the cittern family of instruments. It has six double courses , similarly to the bandurria, but its neck is longer...

, particularly in the Canary Islands

Canary Islands

The Canary Islands , also known as the Canaries , is a Spanish archipelago located just off the northwest coast of mainland Africa, 100 km west of the border between Morocco and the Western Sahara. The Canaries are a Spanish autonomous community and an outermost region of the European Union...

.

There was a 'cuatro antiguo', which had 4 single strings, then 8 strings in 4 doubled courses, and then the modern cuatro with 5 double courses. Despite the name, however, the origins are not clear.

Types of Puerto Rican cuatros

There are three main types of cuatro: cuatro antiguo of 4 orders and 4 strings, the "Southern" cuatro of 4 orders and 8 strings, and the cuatro "moderno" of 5 orders and 10 strings.

• The 4-string "cuatro antiguo": This is the original Puerto Rican Cuatro. It was made from a single block of wood and used 4 gut strings. This instrument may have evolved from the Vihuela Poblana. It was used to mostly play Jibaro
  Jíbaro
  Jíbaro is a term from the Taíno words "jiba" and "ro", that means forest people, commonly used in Puerto Rico to refer to mountain-dwelling peasants, but in modern times it has gained a broader cultural meaning.-History:...
  
   music.

• The 8-string "Southern" cuatro: This Cuatro evolved from the old 4 string cuatro. It was made like a guitar and had 4 pairs of steel strings. It was used to play salon genres like the mazurka, danza, waltz, polka, etc.

• The 10-string cuatro "moderno": This cuatro evolved from the baroque era 10-string Bandurria
  Bandurria
  The bandurria is a plectrum chordophone from Spain, similar to the cittern and the mandolin, primarily used in Spanish folk music.Prior to the 18th century, the bandurria had with a round back, similar or related to the mandore. It had become a flat-backed instrument by the 18th century, with five...
  
   and Laud
  Laud
  Laud may refer to:People with the surname Laud:* William Laud , Archbishop of Canterbury* Derek Laud , British political lobbyistPeople with the given name Laud:* Laud of Coutances , bishop of Coutances...
  
   from Spain
  Spain
  Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
  
  . It is made from a single block of wood and it has 5 pairs of steel strings. It is the most common used today and is used to play jibaro music, salon genres, salsa, pop, rock, classical, jazz, and even American bluegrass and many more styles.

Cuatros shapes and sizes.

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. 4 string, 8 string and 10 string Cuatros were made using this design. This was the very 1st design and the oldest and it might be 400 years old, sometimes some 10 string Cuatros are still made with this design.
• The aviolinado design: This box resembles a violin. It is the most common shape used today and most cuatros made today use this design. 8 string and 10 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 US during the 20th century. However it was first used in the 19th century in Yauco
  Yauco, Puerto Rico
  Yauco is a city and municipality in southwestern Puerto Rico located in the southern coast of the island by the Caribbean, south of Maricao, Lares and Adjuntas; east of Sabana Grande and Guánica; and west of Guayanilla. Yauco is spread over 20 wards and Yauco Pueblo...
  
  , Puerto Rico. 8 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. 8 string and 10 string Cuatros were made using this design during the 1900s near Yauco and Ponce
  Ponce, Puerto Rico
  Ponce is both a city and a municipality in the southern part of Puerto Rico. The city is the seat of the municipal government.The city of Ponce, the fourth most populated in Puerto Rico, and the most populated outside of the San Juan metropolitan area, is named for Juan Ponce de León y Loayza, the...
  
  .
• 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. 4 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 10 metal strings and often have designs carved onto their backs.
• Besides these, many other lesser known and one of a kind designs also exist.

Cuatro orchestras of Puerto Rico

The original cuatro orchestra from the 1960s consisted of the following:

• Primero Cuatro Concertino
• Segundo Cuatro Concertino
• Cuatro Bajo
• Cuatro Rítmico
• Cuatro Tradicional

The modern cuatro orchestra consist of the following:

• Cuatro Soprano
• Cuatro Tenor
• Cuatro Alto
• Cuatro Bajo

Examples of these orchestras are:

• La Orquesta Jíbara Francisco Lopez Cruz
• La Orquesta de Cuerdas de Puerto Rico

"The Puerto Rican Cuatro Project"

William Cumpiano and Juan Sotomayor founded the Puerto Rican Cuatro Project, a non-profit organization dedicated to fostering the traditions that surround the national instrument of Puerto Rico, by means of gathering, promoting and preserving its cultural memories of Puerto Rican musical traditions, folkloric stringed instruments and musicians. The Cuatro Project is also dedicated to the promoting and preserving the Puerto Rican décima

Decima

Decima can refer to:*Decima , a goddess in Roman mythology and one of the Parcae *Décima, a type of poetic form with roots in Spanish literature*Decima Research, a Canadian polling company*Decima gallery, a London-based arts organisation...

 verse form and the traditional song as created by its greatest troubadours, living and past.

Cumpiano, together with Sotomayor and Echevarria, wrote, directed and produced twoDVD

DVD

A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

documentaries for The Cuatro Project. They are:OUR CUATRO Vol.1, the first feature-length documentary about the cuatro and its music and OUR CUATRO Vol. 2: A Historic Concert. Cumpiano and cultural researcher David Morales produced another DVD documentary THE DÉCIMA BORINQUEÑA: An ancient poetic singing tradition, directed by Myriam Fuentes. The proceeds of these recordings were to be used for the research and documentation activities of the Puerto Rican Cuatro Project.

• "Nuestro Cuatro: Volumen 1", The Puerto Ricans and their stringed instruments. An unprecedented documentary that reveals the emotional story of the development and the history of the music and stringed instruments traditions of Puerto Rico.

• "Nuestro Cuatro: Volumen 2", Un Concierto Historico/ A Historical Concert. The conclusion of video documentary Nuestro Cuatro, a cultural and musical history of the Puerto Rican cuatro and Puerto Rico's stringed instruments.

External links

• The Puerto Rican Cuatro Project
• The Puerto Rican Cuatro - A Site Dedicated to the Cuatro of Puerto Rico