The Puerto Rican cuatro (Spanish: cuatro puertorriqueño) is the national instrument of Puerto Rico. It is a type of string instrument related to the lute and works like a guitar, but has a shape similar to a violin. The word "cuatro" means "four," which was the number of strings on the earliest instrument known as the cuatro.

Today, the cuatro has ten strings grouped into five pairs. These strings are tuned in intervals called fourths, from low to high: B3, B2, E4, E3, A3, A3, D4, D4, G4, G4. The bottom two pairs are in octaves, and the top three pairs are in unison. The scale length of the instrument is between 500 and 520 millimeters.

The cuatro is the most well-known of the three instruments that make up the Puerto Rican jíbaro orchestra, which also includes the tiple and the bordonúa.

A person who plays the cuatro is called a cuatrista. Notable performers of the instrument include Ladislao Martínez Otero (a.k.a. "El Maestro Ladí"), Nieves Quintero, Maso Rivera, Iluminado Dávila Medina, Yomo Toro, Edwin Colón Zayas, and Christian Nieves.

History

The exact origin of the cuatro is not clearly known. However, most experts think the instrument has been on the island for about 400 years in some form. The cuatro is most closely related to a Spanish instrument called the vihuela poblana, also known as the Medieval or Renaissance guitar. This instrument had four courses, with two strings in each course, making a total of eight strings. It is also connected to the Spanish Medieval/Renaissance four-course guitar and the Spanish laúd, especially in the Canary Islands.

There was an older version of the cuatro called the "cuatro antiguo," which had four single strings. Later, it had eight strings arranged in four doubled courses. Today, the modern cuatro has five double courses. Despite its name, the true origins of the instrument remain unclear.

Types of Puerto Rican cuatros

There are three main types of cuatro: the cuatro antiguo with four orders and four strings, the "Southern" cuatro with four orders and eight strings, and the cuatro "moderno" with five orders and ten strings.

• The four-string cuatro antiguo: This is the original Puerto Rican cuatro. It was made from a single block of wood and used four gut strings. It may have developed from the vihuela poblana. It was mainly used to play jíbaro music.
• The eight-string "Southern" cuatro: This instrument developed from the old four-string cuatro. It was made like a guitar and had four pairs of steel strings. It was used to play salon genres such as the mazurka, danza, waltz, and polka.
• The ten-string cuatro "moderno": This instrument developed from the Baroque-era ten-string bandurria and laúd from Spain. It is made from a single block of wood and has five pairs of steel strings. It is the most commonly used today and is played for jíbaro music, salon genres, salsa, pop, rock, classical, jazz, and American bluegrass, among other styles.

Cuatro shapes, sizes and variants

• The antiguo design: This box looks like a medieval keyhole, also called cuatro cuadrao or cuatro araña. This shape has been found on some old dotars and citolas. Four-string, eight-string, and ten-string cuatros were made using this design. This was the first design and may be 400 years old. Sometimes, ten-string cuatros are still made with this design today.
• The aviolinado design: This box resembles a violin. It is the most common shape used today. Eight-string and ten-string cuatros were made with this design starting in the 19th century.
• The dos puntos design: This box looked like some old mandolinas made by Martin in the United States during the 20th century. However, it was first used in the 19th century in Yauco, Puerto Rico. Eight-string cuatros were made with this design.
• The tulipán design: This box looked like the antiguo design but had no straight lines and only curves, resembling a tulip. Eight-string and ten-string cuatros were made with this design during the 1900s near Yauco and Ponce.
• The higuera design: This is the rarest design. This box was shaped like an organic oval. This was because the soundboxes were made from domed gourds instead of wood. Four-string cuatros were made with this design in the 19th century in Puerto Rico by enslaved Africans on the island. Now, they are made with ten metal strings and often have designs carved onto their backs.
• Besides these, many other lesser-known and one-of-a-kind designs also exist.

In the 1950s, there was an effort to create a "classical" ensemble of cuatros, with various-sized instruments taking the roles of violins, violas, cellos, and double basses in a classical orchestra. To meet these roles, aviolinado-style cuatros were made in four different sizes and tunings: Cuatro Soprano, Cuatro Alto, Cuatro Tradicional (the standard instrument, also called Cuatro Tenor), and Cuatro Bajo (Bass Cuatro). All have ten strings and are tuned in fourths. The project had limited success, and today most of these variants are rare, with the Cuatro Tradicional remaining the standard instrument.

There is also a Cuatro Lírico ("lyrical cuatro"), which is about the size of the Tenor but has a deep jelly-bean shaped body; a Cuatro Sonero, which has fifteen strings in five courses of three strings each; and a Seis, which is a Cuatro Tradicional with an added two-string course (usually a lower course), giving it a total of twelve strings in six courses so it can be used as a 12-string parlor guitar for traveling.

Cuatro orchestras of Puerto Rico

The original cuatro orchestra was called the orquesta jíbara. It had many different string instruments, including:

• Puerto Rican Tiple
• Cuatro Tradicional
• Bordonúa

In the 1950s and 1960s, two types of classical cuatro orchestra were created. These included:

• Primero Cuatro Concertino
• Segundo Cuatro Concertino
• Cuatro Bajo
• Cuatro Rítmico
• Cuatro Tradicional

Another type included:

• Cuatro Soprano
• Cuatro Tenor
• Cuatro Alto
• Cuatro Bajo

Most of these instruments and groupings are now rare. However, today, there are efforts to bring back the orquesta jíbara.

"The Puerto Rican Cuatro Project"

William Cumpiano and Christina Sotomayor created the Puerto Rican Cuatro Project, a non-profit group that works to keep alive the traditions connected to Puerto Rico’s national instrument, the cuatro. The project collects, shares, and protects the cultural history of Puerto Rican music, traditional stringed instruments, and musicians. It also focuses on preserving the décima verse form and traditional songs written by famous Puerto Rican musicians, both past and present.

Cumpiano, along with Sotomayor and Wilfredo Echevarría, made two DVD documentaries for the Cuatro Project. These are: OUR CUATRO Vol. 1, the first long documentary about the cuatro and its music, and OUR CUATRO Vol. 2: A Historic Concert. Cumpiano and researcher David Morales also created another documentary, THE DÉCIMA BORINQUEÑA: An ancient poetic singing tradition, directed by Myriam Fuentes. Money from these DVDs supports the research and documentation efforts of the Puerto Rican Cuatro Project.

• "Nuestro Cuatro: Volumen 1", The Puerto Ricans and their stringed instruments. A special documentary that shows the story behind the development and history of Puerto Rico’s music and stringed instrument traditions.
• "Nuestro Cuatro: Volumen 2", Un Concierto Histórico/A Historical Concert. The ending part of the documentary Nuestro Cuatro, which tells the cultural and musical history of the Puerto Rican cuatro and stringed instruments.

Use in popular music

Jon Anderson played a cuatro on the Yes album Tormato, though the album notes incorrectly describe the instrument as an Álvarez ten-string guitar. Puerto Rican singer-songwriter Christian Nieves played a cuatro on the 2017 hit single "Despacito" by Luis Fonsi featuring Daddy Yankee. The instrument, which is strung for left-handed playing, appears at 3:32 in the song's official music video. This video became the most-viewed video on YouTube on August 4, 2017. During the Super Bowl LX halftime show, band member José Eduardo Santana played the cuatro during Ricky Martin's cover of "Lo Que Le Pasó a Hawaii."