Limitations : As the first part of this paper on the music of the ayawaska ceremony, we needed a definition of the research area. Since this is a comparative work, the area is large, which means, in geographical sense, a triangle in East Peru between the cities of Iquitos, Tarapoto and Pucallpa, and in the ethnographical sense, the ethnic groups of Mestisos urban population and rural population of Shipibo-Konibo, all of which are familiar with urban life.
A brief insight was given into the history of both the Mestisos and the indigenous population, from the perspective of the current historiography.
In terms of musicology, we had to limit ourselves to the chants of the medicos, briefly the context of music of the rainforest-Indians was illuminated. The music of the Mestisos population East Peru is too complex in its variety of forms to be treated here as part of a distinction from it.
Introduction to medical techniques
As a second part, we dealt with fundamental principles of the phenomenon “shamanism”, which occurs globally in the sense of this term, and its relations with music at different levels. The most important categories of music in the etiology of ABZ are:
1. Music and its application, which leads to physical reactions,
2. Music that leads to ABZ in connection with mediation and attraction,
3. Music implicitly in ritual context is used to call knowledge instances through which practitioners achieve ABZ independently of physical reactions.
The most important categories of music in the course of ABZ are:
1. Recognitability of the music forming an anchor point,
2. Music that exerts a suggestive effect on the psychological structure,
3. Music that, in interaction with knowing instances, causes certain actions of those.
The songs of ayahuasqueros are each part of the third point.
The special features of ritual medical techniques of the region were presented, with a terminology of relevant terms, as well as basic columns of practice which are:
1. plants,
2. diet,
3. Songs.
This was followed by an introduction to the phenomenology of the aywaska ceremony with a brief presentation of the substance, the practices of teaching and methods in context, insofar as interindividual constants can be grasped.
Documentary part : In the second part of the work, first a terminology of musical terms was sought, and then a brief overview of the recordings used, with some explanations about the following documentations.
The work was then presented by four médicos, each in the following scheme:
1. Presentation of the médico,
2. CV of médico, with one
3. Description of its working techniques and areas of work,
4. Commented ceremony.
The ceremonies are recorded on DAT band and are exhibited here in the form of a protocol, provided with transscriptions of songs, commentaries on the songs and their contents, as well as notes on experiencing in the context of the ceremony from a personal perspective.
Comparison of style and method : Following the documentary part, individual songs, which have a key role in the method of the médico, were considered isolated and analytically compared to different recordings of the same songs. What was noticed is the high accuracy of the mestices in terms of repeatability or redundancy of their chants, compared to the high flexibility among the Shipibo.
In any case, in the method of song composition, in the context of ceremonial interpretation, a unique individuality can be observed, since it is also possible to distinguish clearly how method of work and style of chants vary among themselves even among the mestisos or the shipibo, respectively, have a unique logic in the individual.
Nevertheless, the characteristics of the mestical and indigenous working techniques differ in principle, and these are:
1. Relation to Christianity,
2. Construction of the space of action,
3. The language,
4. Musical instruments,
5. Building the songs,
6. Texts.
Measures of the chants : Recently, some comments on the effect and function of music were put into the room, starting with the influence of the sound life of a listener by the singer in three categories:
1. Intended (primary) manipulation,
2. Unintended (secondary) manipulation,
3. Indirectly intended (tertiary) manipulation.
Both these categories were illustrated by short experiences, from the author's wealth of experience, as well as the following comments on long-term effects and enchantments whose research is still pending and which can only stand in speculative approaches.
It remains to be seen that in the field of investigation of ikaro, at least as much as is still available in research, both in terms of the perception and effect of music in the exceptional state of consciousness and in the global sense of their healing effect on sick people.