In what
refers to the strings, they were initially made of animal´s tummy, after
that they were made of the threat used for fishing (that is still used) and
in the last years , manufactured and industrialized strings made of nylon
have imposed. The firset and the 4th strings are the highest tuned and they
have both the same diameter. The second and the 5th are lower and the also
share the same diameter. To end the third one is the lowest and thickest of
the 5 strings of the timple.
The timple has five strings, although there is a controversy around the use
of four or five strings in the oislands, because in some parts of Tenerife
it is played only with four strings. In my opinion this last one is a later
variant that folklorist from Tenerife used in order to play the instrument
easily; this habit became popular in the northern towns of this island, possibly
because of inmigrants influence, because pitching the timple this wayit remains
like a "cuatro", (not in what refers to the pitch of the notes but
in relation to the strings intervals) with which the positions of the chords
are the same as those used in a guitar without the sixth string. HOwever,
there has never existed a timple built with four strings. What they did (and
they still do in some places) was taking the fifth string off and changing
the instrument´s tunning, pitching the third string one semitone up,
so that the positions of the chords become similar to those of the guitar,
but I repeat, as a peculiar adaptation in some parts of Tenerife and not as
a different kind of timple.
In
relation to its origin, there have been very few studies that gave light in
a clear and demonstradted way to what its predecessors were. In any case,
it seems clear that it came from Europe, and its inescapable similarities
with other small guitars from different latitudes, like thge charango from
Bolivia, the cuatro from Venezuela, the Ukelele from Hawai and the Spañish
Guitarro or the portuguese cavaquinho demonstrate it.
Born in the european Barroc group of "lutes" , this type of instruments
took their shape from different places, all of them taken by europeans (portuguese
as well as spaniards) in their gones and returns to the Canaries and South
America. Manulas like the one by Andrés de SOto or different illustrations
as the well-known by Philippo Bonnani make clear reference to the clear relationship
between these small instruments from the 17th and 18th century European tradition,
though we found some references to the use of cordophones since the 15th century.
In what refers to the meaning of the word in the archipielag, it comes from
the word "Tiple", that refers to the highest tone in a group of
voices ad the "m" was added through a linguistic phenomenon called
epenthesis and it came into the canarian tradition around one and a half century
ago. We all coincide in asserting that the timple is the most representative
instrument of the canarian tradition.
