DRUMS, DRUMMING and DRUM MAKING
DRUMS
The tlapan huehuetl is traditionally carved from asingle dead tree trunk which has been cured through time, with 3 legs carved in the shape of thunderbolts, with a drum head made from either cow, deer, elk, or goat and can be seen in codices and murals of the MAYA MEXICA MIXTEC and ZAPOTEC The drum is traditionally carved from a single tree trunk and the tree has to be dead, and not cut down before its time. A good drum maker can get as many as 3 drums from a good trunk. Drums from ancient times had heads made of jaguar and can be seen in several codices. The drum itself is carved from a solid tree trunk, and different woods continue to be used by modern day carvers e.g., ahuehuete - which is what the original wood the drums were carved from oak, pine, and walnut The drums in each of these codices are played with hands and without sticks The only exception to this are 3 images showing deities playing the drum with one hand while the other holds either a bone, a stick, or a rattle. HISTORY The earliest images of these instruments that have been found, (as of today) come from the BONAMPAK MURALS from 790 A.D., which are Mayan Bonampak is 827 kilometers from Mexico City and the murals were painged 400 years BEFORE The Valley of Mexico was first settled by migrating tribes 1100 CE - 1200 CE e.g., (Chichimecs, Tepanecs, Mexica and Acolhua) i.e., the drumming traditions and vernacular are MAYAN in origin the MAYA drum is called zacatan and the MEXICA version of the drum drum is called tlapan huehuetel, Unfortunately, we only have 4 MAYAN codices that have been found, as the majority of MAYA codices were destroyed in 7/12/1562, some 40 years after the destruction of Tenochtitlan. But we do have stelae and lintels in stone documenting Maya history, as the MAYA were not an empire. Two of the drums that survived from the 16th century are Mexica and elaborately carved and currently reside in museums in Mexico. TODAY Some modern-day drum makers have been cutting trees too early and carving them and/or kiln drying the wood and then carving them. Once the drum starts to "cure" and dry out,the drums either buckle and/or crack as the wood was not ready and the drum and trunk are now worthless because they were cut down before it's time. Over the years tlapan huehuetls are made shorter and shorter so they can be played with sticks Instead of with hands. CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION indigenousinstrumentsofmexicomesoamerica.weebly.com/huehuetl.html l DRUMMING
You can see a modern-day Mexica/Azteca drummer and tell who they studied with by the stickings they use. Modern day practitioners tend to use sticks of various sizes but there are no images of people playing the MesoAmerican drum known as Zacatan (MAYA) or Tlapan Huehuetl (MEXICA) in codices, murals or pottery. Some modern-day drummers play the rhythms on the rim of the drum with sticks which put dents into the rim of the actual shell, which means that the skin no longer lays flat against the surface and the drums no longer sing, The SOUND is muted as a tremendous amount of pressure is needed to pull the head as flat against the edge of the drum as possible. There are drumming traditions that are currently used in Mexica (Aztec) dance traditions which were kept alive through the conchero traditions and eventually brought and taught in the United States. This continues to be well documented by danzantes and non danzantes in dissertations which include interviews with modern-day elders originally from Mexico who currently reside in the United States Some of these danza rhythms and traditions are based on "traditional" danza and performed in truncated performance versions and not ceremonial versions which is an entirely different intention, The dances and performance practices used since the 1970s throughout Los Angeles and the Left Coast of the United States have been well documented by the danzantes themselves in interviews i.e., where do they come from? how they were taught? how they were learned? who taught them etc., ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Received an invitation to drum for a MEXICA Danza group alongside their regular drummer We played a rhythm and the MAESTRO came over and instructed us to play a particular rhythm not with the stick on the head of the drum but on the side of the drum against the wood with the stick making it much more percussive and pronounced I play tlapan huehuetl with hands and not a stick and sometimes a large mallet, but being a guest, I did what was requested of me out of respect to the MAESTRO SIDENOTE There are no MEXICA codices showing a drummer playing a tlapan huehuetl with anything other than his hands, but there are 3 codices showing a deity playing a drum with one hand and either an ayacaxtli(rattle) or deer antler in the other, but never an image of human being doing so….as of yet After that particular rhythm was danced for 30 minutes or so a dancer, unaware that their MAESTRO had instructed me play the rhythm that way, a dancer came up and asked “Why are you playing that rhythm on the side of the drum, instead of on the head, Is that traditional?” “No, it’s not traditional. But neither is playing the drum with sticks, Nor are any of the feathers you’re wearing traditional, as some dancers use feathers not of the Americas. Nor is the velcro you’re wearing in your regalia, nor is the styrofoam that your head piece is made from or the buckles you use in your chachayotes” (The anklets danzantes wear when they dance) There are no MEXICA codices showing dancers wearing chachayotes But they do appear in THE DRESDEN CODEX , which is Mayan and in THE BOOK OF GODS AND RITES by Diego Duran The dancer walked away ............. TRADITION is always in a state of flux, things change and/or are improved upon or changed and become a new tradition and sometimes the original tradition is lost luckily we have codices and murals which show one example of how those drums were played in ancient times DRUM MAKING
Modern day drum makers continue to make the drum from a single tree trunk from a dead tree. A good drum maker can make at least 3 drums from a single tree trunk the drums getting thinner as the trunk grows taller. They continue to make the drums with three legs in the shape of thunderbolts, but the one thing that has changed more than anything is the way the head is mounted on the drum and what the head is made out of Some put posts around the rim of the drum and rope thru the head in order to tension the drum but you will not find this in ancient images as the head was affixed to the shell with glue, The 2 elaborately carved drums which still exist with no heads on them show no holes around the top of the shell for pegs or ropes,. Some modern-day makers are starting to bevel the edge of the drum so that there is skin against the edge of the drum which allows the drum “to sing”. There is 1 song in the Cantares Mexicanos calling for 10 tlapan huehuetl drummers and one singer. Singers took their pitch from the "tone" of the drum which was a low pitch e.g., a baritone singer and not a tenor, meaning that the drums were not always meant to be played with full force and at full volume i.e., How could a singer be heard over 10 drummers playing at the same time accompanying them? (imagine if you will that we only had images of a guitar painted on a wall and never heard a guitar played) would we think that the music played by Paco de Lucia Woody Guthrie John McLaughlin Andres Segovia would be possible on the same instrument with the same tuning? |