Tiple: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

The tiple is the one of the smallest Puerto Rican string instruments. Most of the rich regional variation in shape, number of strings, and tuning was nearly lost in the 20th century due to the popularity of the cuatro among Puerto Rican musicians and the standardization of the five-string tiple. This tiple was originally fitted with three strings and features a violin-inspired shape similar to the cuatro. More unusually, it also has a violin-style peghead with a scroll and bone tuning pegs. This instrument is part of the Teodoro Vidal Collection, which features two other tiples (1997.0097.1078 and 1997.0097.1081).

Los tiples son los instrumento de cuerda puertorriqueños más pequeños. Durante el siglo XX, la popularidad del cuatro entre músicos puertorriqueños y la estandarización del tiple de cinco cuerdas causó la pérdida de gran parte de la rica variedad regional de forma, número de cuerdas y afinación. Este tiple originalmente tenía tres cuerdas y muestra una forma de violín similar a la del cuatro. Más inusual es el clavijero con clavijas de hueso también tallado al estilo de un violín. Este instrumento es parte de la Colección Teodoro Vidal, la cual incluye dos otros tiples (1997.0097.1078 y 1997.0097.1081)

Materials, dates and provenance

• Object Name: tiple
• Physical Description: wood (overall material)
• Physical Description: shell (part: inlays material)
• Physical Description: bone (part: tuning pegs material)
• Physical Description: metal (part: frets material)
• Measurements: overall: 54 cm x 13 cm x 5.5 cm; 21 1/4 in x 5 1/8 in x 2 5/32 in
• Place Made: Puerto Rico: Puerto Rican
• Associated Place: Puerto Rico
• web subject: Music
• general subject association: Folk music
• general subject association: Puerto Rican music
• general subject association: Música jíbara
• ID Number: 1997.0097.1076
• Credit Line: Gift of Teodoro Vidal
• 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.