the Pipe and Tabor compendium

the Pipe and Tabor compendium

essays on the three-hole pipe

South and Central America

archeology to today

Mexico
300-700300 - 700 clay figurine
Northwest coast of Mexico
300-1000CE300-1000 painted clay figurine:
rattle or pipe?
Northwest coast of Mexico
1889-19131889-1913 Tuxpan
player1939 Tuxpan, Jalisco player1939 Acatlachque dance player
   
1957 1957  
Yaqui20th century Yaqui player Deer dance YacqiYacqi musician playing the deer dance Pascola danceYacqui Pascola dance
   

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:”
1939"...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

   
YoromeYorome player 2015 2015 Yorome Sinaloa Festival 20232023 Yorome band    
playerunusually, player sitting down, Tarahumara

There are three sizes of drum (tambora) in Tarahumara.
Only the largest has a skin on both sides.

 
drumTarahumara drum duct flutes1940's Tarahumara duct flutes at auction
 

playerplayer


 
pipeTarahumara, NW Mexico, about 1880
mouthpieceTarahumara, NW Mexico
paradeat Independence Day parade paradeCuetzalan coffee fair for dancingCuetzalan village; small drum ( nenetl)
and reed flute ( flauta) for dancing
player in Tlaquepaque, Jalisco
pipeMaya
19641964, procession on the way to church
Mexico pipepipe

1972 1972'Folk music instruments' by Buchner, Alexandre

1979 Mexico City

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."

19481948 Fiesta Grande, State of Chiapas, playing the Pito 20092009 Fiesta Grande, playing the Pito
20202020 playing for Acatlaxquis dance 20232023 Playing for dancing in those
huge fan-like headdresses
20232023 Playing for dancing in those
huge fan-like headdresses
20232023 Los Tunditos PHOTO BY PATRICIA ZAVALA GUTIÉRREZ

"Los Tunditos, a musical group in the state of Guanajuato, performs traditional songs with drums and flutes at the National Otomí Gathering in San Juan Ixtenco, Tlaxcala, Mexico. The gathering is part of a movement to restore indigenous identity through traditional music."

TunditosTunditos
 

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


player playerchild playerat top of pole playerYacatan close-up of handsclose-up of instruments
 
player on the ground
vol player
more volsthe flying "Caballeros Águila" from Cuetzalan

19641964 ex. captain voladores close-up21st century voladores close-up 1940-19571940-1957 photograph
mouthpiecepipe 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."
pipepipe There are about thirty different tunes.
playerlocal statue playerstatuette c British Museum  
16901690 10-fold screen with two players [detail]
another version
1690 player 1690 player on ground
   
from Oaxaca - square drum and pipe  
player player
player
playerlarge square drum square drumnot known  
square drumsquare drum s
square drumplayed in the dance of the eagles for the Voladore drumstickdrumstick square drumsource
 

 

Paintings by Romeo Tabuena

   
1963 paintingpainting by Romeo Tabuena 1963 1971 paintingpainting by Romeo Tabuena 1971 1979 paintingpainting by Romeo Tabuena 1979
1983 paintingpainting by Romeo Tabuena 1983
 
 
Pre-Colombian clay 'flutes' here
   

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