Mesoamerican Music

Mesoamerican Music covers the music of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, the Aztec, Maya and neighbouring civilisations, and its modern reconstruction and continuation. The historical art is known from archaeology and chronicles: huehuetl and teponaztli drums, conch trumpets, ceramic flutes and ocarinas, bells and rattles serving temple ritual, calendrical ceremony and dance. Since the late twentieth century, Mexican musicians and instrument makers have rebuilt and recorded this sound world from surviving instruments and iconography, blending it with modern electronics, improvisation and contemporary ambient practice.