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Modern Puerto Rican bordonua, Tiple and bordonua making, 2007
Easthampton, Massachusetts
Photography by William R. Cumpiano
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William Cumpiano is a luthier whose work has become inseparable from an all-consuming quest to recover the social history, music, and traditional construction of the cuatro, a ten-stringed instrument that is the national cultural icon for Puerto Ricans all over the world. Recently he has been involved in reviving the traditional crafting and playing of two native string instruments of Puerto Rico: The tiple and bordunua. Once ubiquitous in the Puerto Rican countryside during the 19th century, they both disappeared during the first half of the 20th century.
During 2010-2011, William will be working with apprentice Isidro Acosta, a carpenter who is also a skilled barber, with a passion for making stringed instruments. During the apprenticeship, they will concentrate on making three types of tiple and one bordonua. Although there are several cuatro makers in Puerto Rico making tiples and bordonuas, they are making derivative, modernized forms that are not true to the original forms as they were made and played throughout the Puerto Rican countryside in past centuries. William will teach Isidro techniques that were more common during the 19th century, including enterizo building, which involves carving the entire instrument from a solid block of wood and the vanished technique of empichao, which involves using small pins to secure parts together that are under stress.
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