The Cuatro is Puerto Rico's "national instrument." Smaller than a guitar and larger than a mandolin, the cuatro's distinctive, nasal twang has been loved by Puerto Ricans since the early days of our colonial past.

Its earliest form was quite different from what it is today. The "early" cuatro or cuatro antiguo once had a keyhole-shaped soundbox and was strung with four single gut strings--hence it's name cuatro-- or "four." The early form of the cuatro persisted in the Puerto Rican countryside up until the middle of the 20th century--and then disappeared.

At the end of the 19th century, however, another stringed instrument, also played with a pick and named cuatro, appeared on the Island's northern coastal towns--carrying five pairs of metal strings, tuned completely differently than the early cuatro; and later, in the early 20th century, it's keyhole shape evolved into a shape reminiscent of a violin. This is the cuatro that has endured to this day as the "national instrument of Puerto Rico."

From early colonial times Puerto Ricans also created other different--and equally beautiful--stringed instruments, but they have largely disappeared from public view. These instruments-- the various small tiples, a vihuela and the large bordonúa-- are just now beginning to enter the public sphere once again, as a result of the efforts of rescue groups such as ours and others on the island.

Traditionally, the cuatro is never heard alone in public as a solo instrument. Its musical role is to always to provide the melody voice in a traditional instrumental ensemble, sometimes called an "orquesta jíbara." Today, the cuatro is usually heard accompanied either by another cuatro (cuatros a dúo) and/or a guitar. While the cuatro playes the melody, the guitar usually plays chordal accompaniment. In the traditional ensemble, the rhythmic percussion is always carried out by a scratch gourd called variously güiro, guícharo or carracho. Today we often hear a set of bongos included in the percussion section, although that is a relatively recent addition, the bongo being Cuban in origin.

     The cuatro was originally made and played by the jíbaro, Puerto Rico´s iconic "mountain-dweller" and subsistence farmer: the original creator of Puerto Rican country music. From its early beginnings, the social function of Puerto Rican "mountain music" was mainly for the accompaniment of religious observances, such as promesas a la virgen [promises to the Virgin Mary], florones or baquinés [wakes for dead children], patron-saint festivals, and rosarios cantados [rosary songs]--as well as during secular events like end-of-harvest celebrations (acabes) and even political campaigns. Those old customs are rarely observed today and the only remaining, truly traditional usage of the cuatro and Puerto Rican mountain music is during year-end celebrations of the Nativity and January observances of the festival of Epiphany. But over time, the cuatro's usage spread into the world of secular mainstream, popular music.

     In the 19th century, the cuatro was heard both in the countryside and the city: in Puerto Rican coastal cities it played the counterpoint in formal salon orchestras during performances of light classical and European figure dance music for the city elites and middle class, while in the countryside it was heard in early "orquestas jíbaras" -- ensembles comprised by the cuatro playing the melody line, the tiny tiple playing the accompanying chords and the large bordonúa playing the deep bass line. These country "orchestras" played creolized versions of that long-hair music the jíbaros could hear emanating from within the fancy salons and theatres in the cities, when they went to the towns and cities to sell their produce at market.

     But the principal role of jibaro instrument string ensembles was to accompany a singer. Since the island's earliest days, the traditional singer or trovador sang lyrics that in reality were poetic verses following the ancient rules and patterns of the ancient décima and decimilla.

     The poetic form known as "décima" has been an ancient form of popular expression in Puerto Rico, recited and song by not only countryfolk of limited formal education, but also of high-literacy city dwellers. But the décima--its verses  adding up to 10 eight-syllable lines--hence its name-- is not native to Puerto Rico: it first became popular in 16th century Spain, and eventually it was adapted--and adopted--by many of the colonies of Hispanic America. In Puerto Rico, the décima was converted into a sung lyric form, usually accompanied by a solo guitar or a traditional cuatro grouping of cuatro and guiro; o cuatro, guitar and guiro. The singer sings his décima to the rhythm of an ancient musical melody and dance form called the seis, played by the traditional instrumental ensemble group. The seis has many variants, each usually named after the region where the variant originated or named after a distinctive characteristic that it may have.

     A form of the décima, but with verses of only 6 syllables, known as the decimilla (small décima) has also been popular across the Puerto Rican countryside through the centuries. When traditional singers strike up a song with its lyrics made up of a decimilla poem the accompanying musicians, instead of a seis, strike up another rhythmic form called aguinaldo , of which there are also many styles which vary with the region of origin. The aguinaldo, with its decimilla lyrics is popularly--but not exclusively--heard during the Nativity and Epiphany seasons.

     One of the ways that Puerto Ricans enjoy their sung décima poetry is during performances where the singer-poet, or trovador, improvises the verses on the spot after being just handed a slip of paper with the expected topic written on it. This requires great mental acuity, because as the trovador sings the improvised lyric, he must follow the strict and complex rules of the décima rhyme structure and syllabification. On top of that, the improvised poem must conclude with the given topic as its last line. This tenth line is called "pie forzado" (obligated ending, or "forced foot"). During the public performance of an improvised décima, the accompanying musicians play a slow seis, in a tempo that gives the improviser time to compose the lyric in his mind as he sings it.