The Music of Ancient American Indian Civilizations

Highly developed civilizations, the Aztecs, Mayans and Incans made music that still lives on.

Of course, those peoples didn’t leave behind records or tapes. But musical historians and people interested in their own cultural backgrounds have in recent years done a lot of research and recreation.

The ancient civilizations of the New World employed a wide variety of percussion and wind instruments to worship their gods during their religious ceremonies. It’s likely that much of ancient music was created in connection with religious and secular rituals rather than sheer entertainment as we often experience music today. Most of it was spiritual music — designed to accompany religious ceremonies and sacrifices. .

The conquering Christian Spaniards recognized this and therefore tried to wipe out the music as heathenish, but it survived and was eventually incorporated into the region’s popular music and even church music. This pattern took place throughout Latin America.

As an extremely warlike culture, the Aztecs made great use of drums and conch shell trumpets. As Cortez and his conquering army approached Mexico, priests in the temple of their god of war beat on large drums that reverberated through the city. The most important instrument the huehuetl, a large drum covered with a stretched animal hide and played by hand. It was usually played together with the teponaztli, a cylindrical log drum played with mallets. The Aztecs also played clay flutes, ocarinas, and various rattles and shakers. They also played long serpent rainsticks and two-tongued tongue drums.

Much of our knowledge of Aztec music comes from the writings of Bernal de Castillo and the Spanish monks Bernardino de Sahugan, and Diego Duran.

Much of the Mayan culture is buried, but we have found drums, rattles, nose flutes, mouth flutes, shell trumpets and scrapers. A surviving picture of a Mayan victory celebration depicts a man playing a tall drum with his hands (like a bongo drum) and marchers holding turtle shell rattles. One resurrected Mayan instrument is a Moon Goddess flute. The ancient Mayans considered music essential to religious expression and ritual. Their sacred books, The Popol Vuh and The Book of the Books of Chilam Balam, describe the invention of instruments and songs as a form of divine creation. The Mayans played music to appease the gods.

According to the Spanish missionary Diego Duran, the Mayans had “Houses of Song (or Chant)” or cuicacalli where teachers trained students in music, song and dance. Priests called “epoacuacuilli tepictoton” specialiced in composing and supervising chants. All the main gods had their own special chants.

We know that the Incas of South America had drums, whistling pottery jars and horns made from conch shells. More amazing, they also laced together reeds of graduated lengths, an Andean version of the Pipes of Pan. Some of what we know comes from the writings of Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, whose mother was an Incan princess.

The influence of their music continues, but history has submerged much of it under the later influences of Spanish and African music. Some musicians are doing their best to recreate these musical traditions. They play ancient songs on ancient instruments, which they sometimes have to make themselves. They include: Sukay, Inca Son, Ebert and Jabier, Chuck Jonkey, Xavier Quijas Yxayotl, Tunkul and more. Some composers have incorporated this music into more modern forms: Daniel Alomia Robles, Carlos Chavez, Daniel Ayala, and others.

Respect for cultural tradition and the universal need to expression beauty in sound has replaced the original religious context. But hundreds of years after their conquest by the Spaniards and despite intervening musical influences, some of the ancient voices continue to be heard today.