Displays

The Many Faces of Ancient Mexican Music

Bangor University, School of Music, September 2016 – February 2017

This display comprised musical objects from pre-conquest West Mexico from Peter Crossley-Holland's collection at the School of Music.

The "Many Faces" of the display were the various human and animal faces which adorn these musical instruments and figurines. The title was also a reference to the multifarious expressions music which existed in ancient western Mexico.

The display was organised into three sections, with different interpretations. They were titled "Expressions of Culture", "Performing Identities" and "Sonic Mysteries". More information about these sections can be found below.

My selections were based upon my experience with the collection. The three sections seemed clear to me, after handling and viewing the objects, and reading the extensive documentary information provided by Peter Crossley-Holland.

Expressions of Culture. As well as being musical instruments, the ocarinas and whistles give a glimpse of cultural life in the various societies from which they came. Figures in masks and costumes represent hyperreal human and animal attributes, possibly for ceremonial or religious reasons. Similar interpretations of animals are seen elsewhere in Mesoamerican iconography but each culture has its own unique style.

Performing Identities. The figurines of the collection show us the contexts in which musical instruments were played in ancient West Mexico. They give invaluable insights into the performance practice of a musical culture of which we know very little else. Many of the figures capture the physicality and energy of music performance which seems familiar to us despite the geographical and temporal distance.

Sonic Mysteries. Many flutes in the collection are still capable of producing sounds but they are too fragile to be played. Their pitches vary from instrument to instrument, and there is no evidence of a tempered tuning system. The natural acoustic properties sometimes result in familiar relationships between notes—a major triad, for example. Crossley-Holland carried out extensive acoustic analyses during his tenure as Professor of Ethnomusicology at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Notes from the Past

"Notes from the Past: Music, Nature and Culture in Ancient Mexico" was exhibited at Storiel from September 2017 – April 2018.

Most of the objects displayed were musical instruments from the Crossley-Holland collection; some were figurines of musicians. As with the display "Many Faces of Mexican Music", the different themes came out of particular patterns in the objects of the collection. In this case, the display highlighted the close relationship between depictions of nature and music.

Music, Nature and Culture

The display showed a range of different styles of pottery from west Mexico. The musical instruments are also works of visual art, and they show us a glimpse of how these indigenous Mexicans viewed the world around them. The artefacts originate from very early pre-classic times (c. 3000 BCE) to around the time of the Spanish invasion of 1521. Despite the differences in style and the vast time zones and geographical regions they represent, patterns emerge which can give us an idea of the cultural life of these ancient people.

The objects in this collection show an association between certain animals and deities. For example, water creatures like frogs and turtles relate to the god of rain and death. Dogs were thought to accompany the dead to the underworld, and the caiman was connected with the World Tree. Musical instruments shaped like these creatures may have been used in music performances or in ceremonies which dealt with these concepts.

The World Tree, or Tree of Life, represents how ancient Mexicans viewed the world. The roots symbolise the underworld, the trunk stands at the centre of the world, and the branches, teeming with life, point towards the four corners of the world.

Musical Instruments

Most of the objects on display were wind instruments. They produce sound when breath is blown through a tube or chamber, causing the air within to vibrate. Ancient Mexicans also used percussion instruments, but there were no string instruments until after the Spanish invasion.

Most of the instruments are made from pottery, which creates a different sound to the notes on a modern flute or recorder made from metal or wood. Please visit the "See and Hear" section of this website for some audio examples.

It is very difficult to investigate what music actually sounded like in ancient times. Musical instruments themselves can tell us which pitches were used (although this changes over time, due to damage or natural fluctuations in the material). By studying many different instruments, we can speculate that music in western Mexico was not based on scales and keys like much Western music. The important characteristics seem to have been the relationships between pitches, and the way the notes interact when played by several instruments at the same time. Other differences in sound, like timbre (tone quality or "colour"), dynamics (how loud or quiet), and rhythm could have been more significant than pitch.