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by Mildred Boyd
The
Mexican love of music and dance is a heritage from the distant past. Graves
from the pre-formative (1800-900 BC) have yielded primitive musical instruments
such as bone rasps and simple whistles. By Aztec times the orchestra had
expanded to include pipes, rattles, several types of drum, slit gongs,
bells, flutes, ocarinas and trumpets as well as the human voice. Materials
varied; gourds, wood, bones, terracotta, conch shells, metal, turtle carapaces
and deer antlers all played their part. There were no stringed instruments
before the Conquest and the marimba, now so closely identified with Latin
American music, was introduced much later by African slaves.
There was no form of musical notation,
so we have no clue to how such music sounded except that it was obviously
heavy on percussion and rhythm. The Spanish found Aztec ritual performances
"doleful and tuneless" which, since they were mostly aimed at
propitiating the numerous and merciless gods, seems quite fitting. Learning
and performing the "Songs for the Gods" was an important part
of the curriculum of students in the calmecac, or State schools.
But surely, then as now, the people
often raised their voices, played their instruments and danced to their
own music for the simple joy of it.