My Mexican Music Project

The transcription is a summary of a Mexican music project on the Aztecs. It provides a basic history of the Aztecs, their movement to central Mexico, and the significance of the eagle, snake, and cactus symbol in their settlement. The Aztecs were advanced in math, science, and the arts, particularly music and dance. Various instruments were used, such as drums, log instruments, wind instruments, conch shells, and whistles. The music played a role in rituals and daily activities, serving as a means to communicate with the gods and ask for blessings. The project includes modern renditions of Aztec music, providing an idea of its importance and complexity in Aztec culture. Hello, my name is Daniel Michelle and this is my Mexican music project on the Aztecs. I will be going over just some basic history of the Aztecs, the music that was being made and why such music was created and what they did with the music. First, I would like to start off by saying that the music that will be being heard here are just modern renditions of what we believe that music sounded like at that point in time. We don't have any records of the music that was being played at that point in time. Anyway, more on the music later, but the main reason why I chose the Aztecs specifically is because I have seen Aztec dancers at different festivals and I just wanted to see what that was more about. Now, for just a little overview of the Aztecs themselves, they are from a place called Azatlan, which is just somewhere within northern Mexico. The actual location is unknown to this day. From there, they moved down to central Mexico during the 13th century and they moved place to place since they were quite nomadic. They ended up getting a vision from one of the gods basically showing them a sign of what they should build and settle the roots. The sign being seeing an eagle eating a snake on top of a cactus. They eventually found some sign and decided to lay the roots there, which ended up becoming Tenochtitlan and as time went on they ended up creating a pretty big empire up until their fall when the Conquistadors came in, the 1500s. The Aztecs were quite advanced for their time, especially in math and science. They did also have a large interest in the arts, especially in music and dance. Music and dance was a huge component to their lives, especially since dance was primarily used for rituals and they did daily rituals. Some of the instruments that they used was the huehueto, which was basically just an upright drum. Another instrument that was used was the tipiznasli, which was just a hollowed out log with a slit creating tongues that was hit with mallets. There were also various wind instruments that were being used, such as conch shells and whistles. An example that we can hear is basically from a song called Michelangelo by Xavier Cuadras. Michelangelo was basically the Aztec god of the underworld. Here is the song now. That's just a little snippet of the song and as you can hear, there is quite a bit of different instruments being played there. The first screaming instrument that we hear is technically a whistle called the death whistle, which just imitates a person's scream. Then the percussion instruments come in, which is most likely the huehueto, the tipiznasli, and some shakers. Given the song's title being Manticucli, being the Aztec god of the underworld, this may have been how the song could have been heard for a ritual, for a sacrifice, or any other rituals that had to do with this specific god. Again, we don't know exactly how the music was like at that point in time, but this is the closest thing that we have to that. Here's another song by Xavier called Copla, Offering to the Four Directions. Here's a little snippet that I played, but you can clearly hear it's just in the beginning with some whistles, and then slowly the percussions come in. This also has a quite slower tempo than the first example that I played. This song is another example of just what an offering or a ritual for the four directions being north, south, east, and west. Each direction was also associated to a certain god, north being Tespalipoca, who was the lord of the night. The god who was associated to the east was Sepultec, being the god of agriculture and the lord of seasons. The god who was associated to the west was Coaxoatl, who was the feathered serpent, god of light, life, and wisdom. And the god who was associated to the south was Huitzilopochtli, who was the god of war and will. Given that there are gods associated to each cardinal direction, we can see that there was such an importance to the directions and the gods associated. The music itself lent a hand to their connection to their gods. It basically was a bridge for them to communicate to their gods and to ask for blessings for the day that's to come, for whatever is to happen in the hearts or just daily activities. Here's another song of what a ritual song could have sounded like for the time period. This one's for Sepultec. Here it is. But what we heard at the beginning was just mainly percussions, drums, and shakers and rattlers. Then a high pitch wind instrument comes into play. And since this song is called Sepultec, being the god for agriculture, we can just only imagine that this is what a ritual song for a praise to this god for good crops to a good harvest. And speaking of crops and good harvest, I have another song here, also by Xavier, called Dance of the Coin People. Here it is. Here it is. And so this song is kind of referring to them kind of being known as the coin people because corn is pretty much the major crop that they grew. This was a major staple because it also connects to the creation myth that they had where corn was basically what gave them life, that gave them breath. There's also a specific god for corn or maize called Santiago. The last example I have is just a song titled Off into Mother Earth. So in that little example, we can hear the sounds of insects being made, the sounds of birds calling, and just general noises that you would hear out in the wild, out in nature. And this is just to show that how the Aztecs were quite in tune with nature and loved nature. Not all songs were just made for rituals. They were made just for fun, just to listen to. Not everything was about the religion. It was about appeasing the gods. So yes, the song may be titled Off into Mother Earth. We can just see that there were always elements of the world around them. Just listening to these five examples, we can clearly see that music was a huge, huge part to the Aztecs, whether it be for religious purposes or just for personal enjoyment. And yes, these are just modern renditions of what music could have sounded like at that point in time. But even just hearing what it could have been like gives us an idea of how important, how complex they were. Everything had a meaning. Everything had some sort of representation within the music and just in their lives in general. And with all that being said, thank you for listening to my Mexican music project by Danny Michelle.