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.