Instruments and Pre-Columbian

Aztec Instruments

100

This Aztec gourd rattle filled with seeds was used in rain deity ceremonies. 

Ayacachtli

200

This turtle-shell percussion instrument was struck with a deer antler

Ayotl

300

This large upright hand drum was the most prestigious Aztec instrument, often carved with iconographic scenes. 

huehuetl

400

This horizontal slit drum produces two pitches and was often paired with the huehuetl. 

teponaztli

500

Carlos Chávez composed this orchestral work for indigenous instruments only, named after the Aztec god of music.

Xochipilli-Macuilxochitl

Scholars and Methods

100

Robert Stevenson identified this as his first research method: physical objects dug up at Mesoamerican sites. 

Archaeological evidence

200

Stevenson's second method involved studying paintings, murals, and codices depicting musicians. 

Iconographic evidence. 

300

Stevenson's third method drew on written observations by Spanish soldiers and missionaries. 

Chroniclers' accounts

400

This Spanish conquistador's first-hand chronicle is a key primary source for pre-contact Aztec music. 

Bernal Diaz

500

This Maya site in Chiapas has murals (c. 790 CE) showing the most vivid pictorial evidence of ancient Mesoamerican music performance

Bonampak

Living Indigenous Music

100

The language of the Aztec people, still spoken today, in which ritual songs and many instrument names are rooted. 

Nahuatl

200

This Yaqui ceremonial dance from Sonora re-enacts a deer hunt to the accompaniment of water drums and rasps.

Yaqui deer dance

300

This Mexican musician reconstructs and performs pre-Columbian music on replica indigenous instruments.

Antonio Zepeda

400

Stevenson concluded that Aztec music was primarily tied to this - not entertainment - serving state and temple functions. 

Ritual/ceremony

500

Based on 16th-century sources, Stevenson concluded that indigenous music professionals were trained in this type of school. 

Calmecac

Colonial Music

100

This term describes the sacred music composed for Catholic worship in colonial Latin American cathedrals. 

Ecclesiastic music

200

This chapel master of the Mexico City Cathedral composed vallancicos in Nahuatl - the first polyphonic settings of indigenous-language sacred texts. 

Hernando Franco

300

This maestro de capilla at Puebla Cathedral is considered one of the greatest composers of the colonial Americas 

Juan Gutiérrez de Padilla

400

The colonial racial classification system used in New Spain to categroize people by degree of mixed heritage

Castas

500

This 18th century Spanish guitarist's tablature manuscripts contain rare documented examples of Afro-Latin dances including the cumbé

Santiago de Murcia

The Son Family

100

This broad Mexican folk genre is characterized by syncopated rhythms, string interplay, and sesquialtera

Son

200

This rhythmic device alternates between 3/4 and 6/8 meter, creating a hemiola effect central to Mexican son

Sesquialtera

300

The son jarocho foot-stomping dance performed on a raised wooden platform

Zapateado (on a tarima)

400

Name two instruments from the son jarocho ensemble

Arpa jarocha, jarana, requinto jarocho, or leona

500

This Mexican state's regional son style - including La Negra and El Son de la Loma - formed the musical foundation of mariachi

Jalisco/son jalisciense