Mexico |
300 - 700 clay figurine
Northwest coast of Mexico |
300-1000 painted clay figurine:
rattle or pipe?
Northwest coast of Mexico
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1889-1913 Tuxpan |
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1939 “The Pascola Dance by Aztec Sonajero dancers of Tuxpan in Southern Jalisco.
Two tunes played for this dance by two musicians each with a pipe and a little round tabor:” "...the tambor y chirimia used in many parts of Mexico today resemble the mediaeval European
pipe and tabor rather than the probably indigenous Yaqui instruments, and there is seldom anything
specifically Indian in the tunes..."
‘The Musical Quarterly’ 1939-04: Vol 25 Iss 2 |
Early 20th century “Towards the end of August…At seven in the morning the men and boys go out
with spades and coas to the milpa
which lies nearly two hours
on foot from the town
. The whole day
they work while the teponaztli [slit drum] throbs through the standing
corn and pipe and tabor
shrill
their music to high heaven….
When all had gathered and the teponaztli had been drummed once more
on the base of the cross, we all started back to the village in a straggling,
loose-knit procession to the
bursting of rockets and a gay little tune on the pipe and tabor…”
‘Mexican mosaic : folklore and tradition’ by Gallop, Rodney, 1901-1948 |
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Yorome player |
2015 Yorome Sinaloa Festival |
2023 Yorome band |
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There are three sizes of drum (tambora) in Tarahumara.
Only the largest has a skin on both sides. |
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Tarahumara, NW Mexico, about 1880 |
Tarahumara, NW Mexico |
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about Dec 1979, Mexico Day of the Indians
Outside Basilica in Mexico City. Chris Brady reports:
"They danced to two pipe (3-hole) & tabor players. They were a mixed gender team - men and women dressed alike. They danced in two files - forward and back and cross-over. Their costume was tasselled leather over-shirt, tasselled leather trousers, sandals with metal plates as soles, headdress of embroidered head band with vertical feather at rear. The 'sticks' were two pronged wooden rattles with tin-lids in between." |
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Tunditos |
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from Veracruz - voladores
The Danza de los Voladores (Dance of the Flyers), or Palo Volador (Pole Flying), is an ancient Mesoamerican ceremony/ritual still
performed
today, albeit in modified form, in isolated pockets in Mexico. It is believed to have originated with the Nahua, Huastec and Otomi peoples in
central Mexico, and then spread throughout most of Mesoamerica. The ritual consists of dance and the climbing of a 30 meter
pole from
which four of the five participants then launch themselves tied with ropes to descend to the ground. The fifth remains on top of
the pole,
dancing and playing a flute and drum. According to one myth, the ritual was created to ask the gods to end a severe drought.
Although the
ritual did not originate with the Totonac people, today it is strongly associated with them, especially those in and around
Papantla in the
Mexican state of Veracruz. The ceremony was named an Intangible Cultural Heritage by UNESCO in order to help the ritual
survive and
thrive in the modern world. video
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1964 ex. captain |
21st century voladores close-up |
1940-1957 photograph |
pipe mouthpiece |
"the mouthpiece has a piece of reed that divides the mouthpiece in two. So to generate the sound you have to cover the lower part of the mouthpiece with your lip and direct the air to the upper part." |
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pipe There are about thirty different tunes. |
local statue |
statuette c British Museum |
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1690 10-fold screen with two players [detail]
another version |
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from Oaxaca - square drum and pipe |
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large square drum |
not known |
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Paintings by Romeo Tabuena |
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