Avilés Vázquez Tiple: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

This tiple was made by renowned Puerto Rican luthier and educator Rafael Avilés Vázquez. Tiples are the smallest members of the family of Puerto Rican stringed instruments, which also includes cuatros and bordonúas. This example is a five string tiple doliente, a style originating in the northern mountainous region around the town of Morovis. As the cuatro overshadowed the tiple’s popularity among Puerto Rican recording artists in the first half of the 20th century, much of the tiple’s regional variation in shape, number of strings, and tuning was lost. Three other tiples in the NMAH collection (1997.0097.1076, 1997.0097.1078, and 1997.0097.1081) showcase some of these styles. In response, cultural institutions, folklorists, and luthiers in the latter half of the century focused their efforts on making the tiple doliente the standard version of the instrument to facilitate its use and preservation.

Este tiple fue fabricado por el reconocido lutier y educador puertorriqueño Rafael Avilés Vázquez. Los tiples son los miembros más pequeños de la familia de instrumentos de cuerda puertorriqueños, la cual incluye también a los cuatros y las bordonúas. Este ejemplo es un tiple doliente, un estilo originario de la región montañosa norteña alrededor del pueblo de Morovis. A medida que el cuatro eclipsó al tiple en popularidad durante la primera mitad del siglo XX, se perdió gran parte de la variedad regional en forma, número de cuerdas, y afinación del tiple. Otros tres tiples en la colección del NMAH (1997.0097.1076, 1997.0097.1078 y 1997.0097.1081) muestran algunos de estos estilos regionales. Ante la situación, varias instituciones culturales, folkloristas, y lutieres en la segunda mitad del siglo se enfocaron en establecer al tiple doliente como la versión estándar del instrumento para facilitar su uso y preservación.

Materials, dates and provenance

• date made: 1999-2000
• associated date: 2000-09
• associated date: 2000-12-21
• maker: Aviles Vazquez, Rafael
• maker: Aviles Vazquez, Rafael
• Object Name: tiple
• Physical Description: metal (part: tuning machine heads material)
• Physical Description: wood (part: sides, back, neck material)
• Physical Description: yagrumo (part: top material)
• Physical Description: metal (part: strings material)
• Measurements: overall: 60 cm x 16.7 cm x 6.4 cm; 23 5/8 in x 6 9/16 in x 2 17/32 in
• Measurements: part: scale length: 36.6 cm; 14 13/32 in
• place made: Puerto Rico: Carolina
• made at: Puerto Rico: Carolina
• web subject: Music
• general subject association: Woodworking
• decorative motif: Animals
• used: Plastics
• Subject: Folk music
• decorative motif: Coquí
• Subject: Música jíbara
• Subject: Puerto Rican music
• ID Number: 2001.0014.03
• accession number: 2001.0014
• catalog number: 2001.0014.03
• Data Source: National Museum of American History

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of American History through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed.