PLAYLISTS AND LINKS
INDIGENA INSTRUMENTS DEMONSTRATION PLAYLIST https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDEuyQwh9kgkkbxsZv50fz5ahqGFntRy3 ORIGINAL COMPOSITIONS FOR INDIGENA CHAMBER MUSIC https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDEuyQwh9kgksLBUSwfG6grC6zTZQ2LVZ FLOWER SONGS MUSIC PLAZA DE LA RAZA PLAYLIST https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDEuyQwh9kgn3UJ-33VxOAMTvaAqyVHLr FLOWER SONGS MUSIC TRIO GETTY PLAYLIST https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDEuyQwh9kgkMSP7HTtzDumIqo3m1HxOV FLOWER SONGS MUSIC DUO HERB ALPERT CONCERT HALL https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDEuyQwh9kgn5DWU3NQgLfxjI8e0o6o9j FLOWER SONGS RESONANCIA WILD BEAST PERFORMANCES CAL ARTS https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-37DLokjXU&list=PLDEuyQwh9kgncXD7PGI0KTAFZjaOo9ZjJ NON MUSICAL LINKS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ FLOWER SONGS MUSIC @ MUSEO de HISTORIA de ENSENADA invited by the SOCIETY FOR CALIFORNIA ARCHAEOLOGY https://scahome.org/event-5330973 in conjunction with (INAH) INSTITUTO NACIONAL de ANTROPOLOGIA e HISTORIA Centro INAH Baja California. 10/21/23 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ INAUGURACIÓN SALA DE ARQUEOLOGÍA IZCUINAPAN EN EL MUSEO CASA DE ALLENDE EN SAN MIGUEL DE ALLENDE with INAH DIRECTOR 10/27/22 Diego Prieto Hernandez https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMMs8buV4vk&ab_channel=AntonietaInformaHR ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ NAHUA VOICES ON THE CONQUEST OF MEXICO 8/13/21 (English version) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4pxnDRKCHI&ab_channel=GettyResearchInstitute ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ FLOWER SONGS M GETTY PRESENTATION 8/13/2021 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4pxnDRKCHI&ab_channel=GettyResearchInstitute ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ FLOWER SONGS MUSIC PLAYLIST HERB ALPERT CONCERT HALL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9dqL67QSGA&list=PLDEuyQwh9kgn5DWU3NQgLfxjI8e0o6o9j&index=2&ab_channel=ChristopherGarciaMusicProjects. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ MEXICO ATEMPORAL MUSIC @ SANTA MONICA PERFORMING ARTS CENTER https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L249uMtWYi8 MESOAMERICAN CULTURE, HISTORY, MUSIC INFORMANCES https://christophergarciamusic.weebly.com/percussion-of-meso-america.html INDIGENOUS INSTRUMENTS PLAYLIST with over 170,000 visitors https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDEuyQwh9kgkkbxsZv50fz5ahqGFntRy3 There are no audio recordings of music from the 16th century from Mesoamerica or from any other culture but unlike the continents of Africa Asia Europe or Australia THE AMERICAS lost 90% of their population due to genocide some 80 to 130 million people taken by callousness, disease, greed, and warfare the numbers are staggering to comprehend and genocide on that scale, has, thankfully, never been repeated while many know what was taken few know that we are still left with 530 MESOAMERICANCODICES from the 16th century the largest one being 2,400 pages long documented by Mexica tlacuilos and the Franciscan priest Bernardino de Sahagun unfortunately, only 3 of the 530 are still in Mexico (there are only 4 surviving Maya Codices) the instruments are alive and well and continue to be played by many modern day practitioners throughout the world, they are not gathering dust behind glass in a museum somewhere and Garcia was in Australia for the AZTEC EXHIBIT in 2015 where music was played by Mexican national living in Australia the architecture the pyramids (there are over 1000 pyramids in Mesoamerica and approximately 100 in Eqypt that we are aware of oral history from elders stelae culture foods from the Americas permeate the worlds cuisine cacao beans, corn, peppers, pineapple, squash, tobacco, tomato, turkey thought and ways of beingness the INDIGENOUS WAYS CONTINUE albeit in a very different inflection from THE AMERICAS we continue to be surrounded by its RESONANCE |
HEARING THROUGH EUROPEAN EARS
the attitude reflected below continues to ebb and flow with time
sometimes it leans very heavy one way = European/non indigenous
and
sometime it leans very heavy the other way = Indigenous/non European
but the beauty and resonance of the instruments,
their colour of sound
their reverberations
whether alone,
in conjunction with each other
or
with instruments of different cultures
continues to
CREATE A NEW RESONANCE
for audiences of all ethnicities and cultures in
concert halls across the world
establishing a new
MULTI CULTURAL MUSIC
for a new
MULTI CULTURAL WORLD
as every human being shares 9 months of
rhythmic training in their mothers womb
before their feet touch mother earth
every human being is
INDIGENOUS
to this planet
VIVA LA VIDA
WESTERN VIEW ON
INDIGENOUS INSTRUMENTS OF MESOAMERICA
“The music of the Aztecs was unworthy of so cultivated a people.
They were not acquainted with stringed instruments; those they used were confined to the “huehuetle”, the “teponastle,” trumpets, sea-shells, and flutes - generally made of terra-cotta, which produced shrill sounds.... the sound they produced can be imagined; it certainly lacked harmony Drums, flutes, even conch shells accompanied the hymns sung in the temples, which were chanted in a sing-song manner, in a rude, monotonous tune, fatiguing to European ears. But the Aztecs took so much pleasure in them that they frequently sang during entire days. In spite of this taste music is the only art that remained in infancy among them. Bad musicians, the Mexicans. On the other hand, were very skillful in the art of dancing, in which they exercised themselves under the direction of priests from childhood. Their dances, which were of great variety, had different names. They danced in circles, or arranged in files, between which a dancer executed fancy steps. The women often took part in this amusement. For this recreation the nobles put on their most costly clothes, and decked themselves with jewels of gold, of silver, or of feathers.” THE AZTECS Their History, Manners, and Customs FROM THE FRENCH OF LUCIEN BIART (Published 1887) |
“From the remaining exemplars of Aztec instruments preserved in the
National Museum of Mexico, we may infer that the music the people during the pre-Conquest era was as barbarous and harsh as were the ceremonies at which their music was heard…The conch shell, the Mixtecan tun, the teponaztli, the chicahuaztli, the sonaja, the Zapotec chirimia and the Yaqui tambor, are not instruments capable of producing either alone, or in conjunction with each other, a grateful harmony: nor can the sound of any of them induce a spiritual response that is in harmony with presently accepted standards of behavior “the music for these ceremonies must undoubtedly have been as lugubrious, incoherent, and macabre as the passions that inspired it" EL ARTE MUSICAL EN MEXICO Alba Herrera y Ogazon National Conservatory of Music Faculty Published under the official Direction in General de las Bellas Arte (Published 1917) |
the MUSICIANS of MEXICO
articulate MEXICANism thru
their music
SILVESTRE REVUELTAS
DREAMING OF MUSIC and BANGING ON WASHTUBS SILVESTRE REVUELTAS (1899 - 1940) "I was young, three years old, she tells me, when I heard music for the first time the little village band playing its evening concert in the square. I stood listening for a long time and with what must have been spectacular concentration because it was so intense that my eyes crossed. And cross-eyed I remained for three or four days after. (Now, Unfortunately, musicians no longer leave me cross-eyed.) As a small boy, (and maybe as an adult) I always preferred banging on a washtub or dreaming up tales to doing something useful. And that is how I spent my time imitating instruments with my voice, improvising orchestras and songs to accompaniments on the washtub, one of those round galvanized tubs that I always preferred to drum on more than to bathe in. And I went on dreaming of music........... I continued studying music but was not very diligent. I began to love Bach and Beethoven at a very early stage. It gave me much pleasure to stroll Chapultepec Park romantic avenues, taking long strides, arms behind my back,long hair in disarray. Those lithographs and engravings of poor Beethoven, grim-faced, defying the storm had a strong influence over me. I could do no less myself. I have had many teachers. The best of them, with no degrees, knew more than the others. For that reason I have always had little respect for degrees. Now, after many years I still study, have teachers, write music, dream of distant countries and sometimes bang on washtubs................" written March 13, 1938: |
CARLOS CHAVEZ “Mexicans must now learn to "reconstruct musically the atmosphere of primitive purity" because "the musical culture of the aborigines constitutes the most important stage in the history of Mexican music." CARLOS CHAVEZ The indigenous music of Mexico is a reality of contemporary life. It is not, as might be thought, a relic to satisfy mere curiosity on the part of intellectuals, or to supply more or less important data for ethnography. The indigenous art of Mexico is, in our day, the only living manifestations of the race which makes up approximately four-fifths of the country's racial stock. The essential characteristics of this indigenous music have been able to resist four centuries of contact with European musical expressions. That is, while it is certain that contact with European art has produced in Mexico a mestizo (mixed) art in constant evolution, this has not meant the disappearance of pure indigenous art. This fact is an index to its strength. The force of indigenous art is rooted in a series of essential conditions. It obeys a natural creative impulse of the individual toward an expression at once legitimate and free of affectation. In musical terms, the great expressive strength of indigenous art is rooted in its intrinsic variety, in the freedom and amplitude of its modes, and scales, in the richness of its instrumental and sound elements, and in the simplicity and purity of its instrumental and sound elements, and in the simplicity and purity of its melodies. There is never, in this music, a morbid or degenerate feeling, never a negative attitude toward other men or nature as a whole. The music of America's immediate ancestors is the strong music of a man who constantly struggles and tries to dominate his surroundings. Imported manifestations opposed to the feeling of the music have been unable to destroy it because they have not succeeded in changing the ethical conditions of individuals. CARLOS CHAVEZ COMPOSER |