Cuatro puertorriqueño, 2003
Luis Angel Colón
Wood, metal, wire
Technical Glossary
Luis Angel Colón
Wood, metal, wire
L. 35 1/8 in. (89.2 cm)
Gift of Luis Angel Colón, 2003 (2003.216.1)
Puerto Rico's most popular melodic instrument, used in both secular and religious music, this pear-shaped guitar has five double courses (the fifth was added at the end of the nineteenth century). The strings are tuned B1-E-A-d-g, the same as sixteenth-century vihuelas and lutes. The word cuatro is found throughout South America and the West Indies, and refers to various guitarlike instruments.
