Mexican music : notes by Herbert

Weinstock for concerts arranged by

Carlos Chávez as part of the exhibition:
Twenty centuries of Mexican art
The Museum of modern art, May, 1940

Author

Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.)

Date

1940

Publisher
Printed for the Trustees of The Museum
of Modern Art by W. E. Rudge's sons

Exhibition URL

www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/2985

The Museum of Modern Art's exhibition history—

from our founding in 1929 to the present—is
available online. It includes exhibition catalogues,
primary documents, installation views, and an
index of participating artists.

MoMA © 2016 The Museum of Modern Art

MEXICAN MUSIC

THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART

MAY • 1940
LIBRARY
THE MUSEUM
OF MODERN ART
Received: i

MEXICAN MUSIC
NOTES BY HERBERT WEINSTOCK FOR

CONCERTS ARRANGED BY

CARLOS CHAVEZ

AS PART OF THE EXHIBITION: TWENTY CENTURIES OF

MEXICAN ART
THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART • MAY, 1940
Teponaxtle of Tlaxcala, from the National Museum of Mexico
 vtift

106 c. X
PROGRAM

With an orchestra especially assembled, and a chorus from the National Music League.

CONDUCTORS: May 16, 17, 18 (evenings ) — Carlos Chavez

May 17, 18 (afternoons) and May 19 through May 29

(afternoons & evenings) — Eduardo Hernandez Moncada

Afternoons: 2:30 o'clock Evenings: 8:45 o'clock

PAGE
I. Xochipili-Macuilxochitl — music for pre-Conquest
instruments (XVIth century) — Carlos Chavez 13

II. Sones Mariachi — Jalisco (XlXtli, XXth centuries)

— arranged for orchestra by Bias Galindo 14

III. CorridosMexicanos — Michoacdn (XlXth, XXth centuries )

— arranged for orchestra and chorus by Vicente Mendoza . 15

IV. Mass — Mexico City (XVIIIth century) — Don Jose Aldana

— arranged by Candelario Huizar 17

V. March a, Vals, Cancion — Zacatecas , Durango, Chihuahua

(XlXth century) — arranged for orchestra by Carlos Chavez 19

VI. Huapangos — Vera Cruz (XVIIIth, XlXth, XXth centuries)

— arranged for orchestra by Geronimo Baqueiro Foster . . 19

VII. La Paloma Azul — (traditional) — arranged for

orchestra and chorus by Carlos Chavez 23

VIII. Yaqui Music — Sonora (traditional) — arranged for

orchestra by Luis Sandi 23

IX. Los Cuatro Soles — two dances from the ballet, for
orchestra and chorus (1925) — Carlos Chavez 27
Acknowledgments and Notes

The collecting and arranging of the music for these concerts were made possible by a
grant from the Rockefeller Foundation.

The notes are based on material generously supplied by Geronimo Baqueiro Foster,
Carlos Chavez, Bias Galindo, Candelario Huizar, Vicente Mendoza, and Luis Sandi.

The program will be broadcast from 9:00 to 10:00 P.M., May 16th, by WJZ on a national
NBC Blue hookup, and by short wave to Latin America. A special broadcast of the
concert will be heard on WABC and a national CBS network from 10:30 to 11:00 P.M.
on May 19th; this broadcast will go by short wave to Latin America and Europe.

An album of phonograph records of the program is projected.

The photographs on pages 2, 13, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 28 and 30 are by Manuel Alvarez
Bravo.

The Hammond Organ is furnished through the courtesy of the Hammond Organ Stu
dios, Hammond Building, 50 West 57th Street, New York City.

We wish to thank Mr. Lincoln Kirstein for his generous assistance in connection with
both these concerts and this book.

We wish to thank Mr. Daniel Castaneda for assistance in obtaining reproductions of

ancient Mexican instruments; and the National Museum of Mexico for cooperating in
the reproduction of special instruments used at these concerts.

Trustees of the Museum

Stephen C. Clark, Chairman of the Board; John Hay Whitney, 1st Vice-Chairman;
Samuel A. Lewisohn, 2nd Vice-Chairman; Nelson A. Rockefeller, President; Alfred H.
Barr, Jr., Vice-President; John E. Abbott, Vice-President; Mrs. John S. Sheppard,
Treasurer; Mrs. Robert Woods Bliss, Mrs. W. Murray Crane, Marshall Field, Edsel B.
Ford, Philip L. Goodwin, A. Conger Goodyear, Wallace K. Harrison, Mrs. David M. Levy,
Henry R. Luce, William S. Paley, Mrs. John Parkinson, Jr., Mrs. Charles S. Payson, Mrs.
Stanley Resor, Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, Jr., Beardsley Ruml, Edward M. M. Warburg.

Honorary Trustees: Frederic Clay Bartlett, Frank Crowninshield, Duncan Phillips,

Mrs. Rainey Rogers, Paul J. Sachs.

COPYRIGHT 1940 BY THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, NEW YORK. PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
 INTRODUCTION by Carlos Chavez

In the program of these concerts I have tried to present an idea, general but as
detailed as possible, of the music of Mexico. It is necessarily a short program, briefer
than that of the usual concert, for it must fit into an exhibition that includes all the
Mexican arts through a period of twenty centuries. Our first problem, then, was one of
selection. In making our choices, we considered first the purely musical interest of the
program; our second insistent desire was to give some conception of the historic devel
opment of music in Mexico during the twenty centuries already mentioned. So that the
reader and listener may decide as to how complete or imperfect our selection has been,
he must first have a notion, however general, of the extent and profundity of the ma
terial which was at our disposal.
Before Europeans arrived on this continent, there flourished in Mexico civilizations
or cultures which present-day archeology and history are learning to understand and
relate to each other. I do not believe that anyone could separate specific musical char
acteristics of each of the known cultures (Archaic, Toltec, Maya, etc.) in the same way
as it is possible to define separate characteristics in architecture, sculpture, and ceram
ics. This does not necessarily mean that such musical characteristics have ceased to exist,
but only that we do not recognize them. On the other hand, we do know precisely the
degree of progress which Aztec culture achieved. There are irrefutable proofs that the
Aztecs did not wholly originate their musical development. It is therefore evident that
their musical culture was left to them as part of the general culture of their precursors.
Among the Aztecs, music achieved the marks of a true artistic culture. It filled a role
of real social importance in government, religion, and war. It was a true state institution,
and was the object of special study and cultivation. In his Monarquia Indiana, Fray
Juan de Torquemada, a Spanish missionary of the XVIth century, wrote a vivid descrip
tion, from which I quote certain salient points:

One of the principal things which they had in all this land was Songs and Dances, as much to solemnify
the Fiestas of their Demons as to honor Gods whom they thought to honor in this manner and for their
own joy and solace. For this reason, and because it was a thing on which they counted much in each
Village, each Gentleman in his house had a Band of Musicians, with its Singers, its composers of Dances
and Songs, and these, in order to show their imagination, tried to know how to arrange Songs in their
manner of Meters or Couplets. And when they were good, they were kept very busy, as the Gentle
men in their Houses on many days sang in a subdued voice. Ordinarily they sang and danced in the
principal Fiestas, which took place every twenty days, and in others of less importance. The Dances
of most importance were in the Plazas, other times in the house of the most important Gentleman, in

5
 his patio, for all the Gentlemen had great patios; they danced also in the houses of other Gentlemen
and Leaders. When they had won some victory in War, or created a new Gentleman, or married some
important Lady, or for any other occasion, the Masters composed a new Song, in addition to the usual
ones which were used in the Fiestas of the Demons and of ancestral deeds. The Singers, some Days
before the Fiesta, foresaw what they would have to sing. In the large Villages there were many Singers,
and if there were any new songs or dances others joined them so that there would be no flaw on the day
of the Fiesta. The Day they had to dance, the first thing in the morning they put a great mat in the
middle of the Plaza, where the Instruments were placed, and all the musicians robed themselves in the
House of the Gentleman, and came out singing and dancing. Sometimes the Dances began in the morn
ing, and sometimes at the hour which is now that of High Mass, and at night they went around the Palace
singing, and there they ended the song, and sometimes they Danced far into the night, even up to mid
night. There were two Instruments. One was high and round, thicker than a Man, about five hands high
of very good wood, hollow and elaborately carved. It was painted on the outside. Over the opening of
this Instrument they placed the skin of a Deer which had been cured, and was stretched from the edge
towards the middle. They stretched and pressed this in certain places to make the higher and lower tones.
This Instrument played in tune with the singers. The other Instrument was so elaborate that I cannot
explain it to you without painting it. This served as a contrabass, and they both sounded well, and you
could hear them from a great distance. When the Dancers arrived at the place, they put themselves in
order to play the Instruments. The two best singers, as Leaders, then began the song. The large Drum was
played with the hands, and this one was called a Huehuetl. The other, being made differently, was played
with sticks like the Instruments of Spain, and this one was called the Teponaztli. The Gentleman, and
other Principals and Old men, went in front of the Instruments, dancing and singing. Around them
another circle formed and increased the chorus. Those who moved thus in the big Villages were some
times more than a thousand, and even sometimes more than two thousand. In addition, on the outside
there was a procession of two kinds of Youths, great Dancers. The ones heading the dance were two
Men alone, the best dancers, guiding the Dance. In these two circles, in the course of some turns they
made, they sometimes found themselves facing members of the other circles. In other Dances, they moved
with the one next to them or behind them. There were so many of these two groups of dancers that
sometimes there were almost a thousand of them, and sometimes more, depending on the Villages and
the Fiestas. In ancient times, before the Wars, when they celebrated their festivals with freedom, some
times in the large Towns three or four thousand or more joined the dance, though now the population
has diminished, and very few join in the dance. Wishing to begin the dance, three or four Indians raise
very shrill whistles, then the Instruments sound in a low tone, and little by little increase in volume.
When the dancing People hear that the Instruments have begun, they understand from the tone the kind
of song and dance, and they begin. The first Songs go slowly and in a deep tone. The first is according to
the liesta, and is always started by the two Leaders. Then the whole Chorus takes it up jointly with the
Dance. This enormous group of people keeps such perfect time as do very dexterous Dancers in Spain,
and what is more the whole body, the head, arms, and hands are so much in unison that there is no
discrepancy of beat. If one dancer makes a step with the right foot and then the left foot, they all do the
same thing and in exactly the same way. In the same manner the Instruments, the Song, and the Dancers
are all in time. There is not a discrepancy. When some very good Spanish Dancers have seen this, they
have despaired. And even the ones on the outside farther away, those who keep the rhythm, and the ones
who work hardest in the Dance are all in unison. Those in the middle do their part more simply and
their movements of the feet and body are more serious. And certainly they raise and lower their arms
with much grace. Each Verse or Couplet is repeated three or four times, and they keep moving and

6
pronouncing their Song so well intoned that there is no discord. When one Song is finished, seeing that
the first ones seem the longest because they go most slowly, though none of them lasts more than an hour,
as soon as the Instrument changes tone, when all cease the Chant and when certain intervals have been
made (in the Song but not in the dance) then the Leaders begin another Chant, a little higher and more
lively. In this way the Songs keep rising and the sounds keep changing, as though someone changed
from a bass to a tenor voice, or from a dance to a counter-beat. There are also some Boys who follow the
dancing, the Children of the principal men, usually seven or eight years old, and sometimes four or five
years old. They sing and dance with the Fathers, and as the Boys sing in a very high voice or falsetto
they improve the singing very much. Sometimes these play their own Trumpets and little Flutes with
few tones. Others whistle with bone whistles which make a lot of noise. Others go disguised in costume
and voice, travestying other Nations and their languages. Those of whom I speak are Clowns and they
make themselves conspicuous, making faces and jesting, and they make those who see and hear them
laugh a great deal. Some of them imitate old women, others imitate fools. Sometimes drinks are brought
to the dancers. Then some go out to rest and eat, and others take their places. In this way all are able
to rest without stopping the Dance. Sometimes they bring Bunches of Roses and other Flowers or small
Bouquets to carry in their hands, and Garlands which they place on their heads, in addition to the
costumes they use for the dance —elaborate Mantles and plumage. Still others carry in their hands
instead of Bouquets beautiful small Plumage. In these dances they wear many decorations and emblems
which show which ones have been valiant in war. From the hour of vespers until night the Dances and
Songs keep getting more lively and the volume gets greater all the time. The sound is more graceful,
so that it seems almost like Hymns of happiness. The Instruments also increase in volume, and as there
are many people dancing, it is heard far and near, especially when the Air carries the voice, and even
more during the night, when everything is subdued. In order to dance at this time, they use many Lights,
and certainly it is something to see.

Among the Aztecs music also played a purely lyric part. Fray Bernardino de Sahagun
preserved Aztec poetry which tells us of the contemplative and delicate interior life of
the Indian poets. All this poetry was sung. Its music must have been completely distinct
from the military music and that of the great dance ceremonies. There was also another
literary form with singing: the narrations of stories and occurrences, a form similar to
the Spanish romance and to the music of the troubadours.
Besides the chroniclers (Torquemada, Sahagun, and many others), we have another
unquestionably reliable source of information: the archeological instruments preserved
in museums. The study of these instruments indicates the existence of true musical
culture among the ancient Mexicans. We would ill be able to talk of musical culture
among the Aztecs if we did not have proof that their music was regulated in conformity
with a well-established system. The Aztecs understood and applied the natural phenom
enon of harmonics. For this understanding, the sea snail's shell was of prime importance.
The antiquity of the use of the shell is not easy to determine, but it seems likely that
it long antedated the Aztecs. The shells of Teotihuacan tend to prove that peoples at
least as early as the Toltecs made use of it. The marine snail-shell provided a lone tube
serving the same purpose as in ancient Oriental cultures was served by the animal horn.
In playing it — which the Indians did for perhaps thousands of years — they received

7
 a music lesson from nature. A shell preserved in the National Museum of Mexico (see
illustration, page 30) produces the following scale:

The first harmonic is not produced; those indicated between parentheses are pro
duced with difficulty. The rest are beautifully and powerfully sounded with great ease.
With this instrument, the Indians of our America discovered a natural scale, that of the
so-called natural harmonics. This scale obeys a series of acoustic laws which are the
basis of the musical system of the Occident. The Indians based on this scale the founda
tion (conscious or instinctive) of a musical system using octaves, fifths, and thirds.
Applying this knowledge, they obtained their pentatonic scale without semitones:

It is clear that the Indians learned this lesson well, and put it into practice con
sistently: not one of the Aztec instruments produces sounds outside this system. The
teponaxtle is a cylindrical piece of wood, hollowed out to produce the sound box. Two
wooden tongues, parts of the same cylinder, produce two different notes. Various arche-
ological teponaxtles produce the following intervals: fifth, fourth, major third, minor
third, and major second. \ arious museums of the world have examples of the great
Indian drum called huehuetl (see page 12). It is of one piece, the hollowed-out trunk
of a tree. A membrane is stretched over the top of the cylinder, while the bottom is left
open to permit the vibrations to emerge. Huehuetls are constructed in many sizes.
There were a multitude of percussion instruments made of various materials — bronze
rattles, wooden and bone rasps called omichicahuaztlis, ocarinas, whistles of every size,
and true flutes of clay, of which there are many examples in the National Museum of
Mexico (see illustration, page 30). All of these instruments use the pentatonic scale.
How did the music produced on these instruments sound? What forms did it take?
What sentiments did it express? It is easy to know what sentiments it expressed if we
know the religious or military occasions it accompanied, or if we understand the poetry
to which it was allied. As to its form, we will probably never arrive at a definite, unchal
lengeable understanding of that. For this is a question of general feeling, of penetrating
tiie totality of Indian culture. Some light is thrown on it by the pure indigenous tradi-

8
tional music still heard in various remote localities in Mexico. In any case, the objective
and incontrovertible data of the instruments themselves are of fundamental importance.
It will be understood that a musical tradition so strong, complete, and rooted could
not easily be overthrown or supplanted. The conquistador did not combat it. From the
beginning he accepted the continuation of the pagan rites, merely adapting them to
Christianity. For this reason it is still possible, in the atria of many churches in small
towns, and in the great religious processions, to hear the Indians playing the huehuetl,
the teponaxtle, and their little flutes. Nor could the conquistador have battled against
the custom of singing the traditional hymns of which we still hear some (final dance of
Los Cuatro Soles). The military music, of course, disappeared for natural reasons.
But the conquistador brought in a real wealth of new music, new instruments, new
melodies, new forms. This torrent of music began little by little to usurp the place of the
aboriginal music. In this brief exposition it will only be possible to mention, without
comment, the general lineaments of the music brought into Mexico by the Spaniards.
I. In the first place, there was music for religious services, of which the most impor
tant was plainsong, which was taught to the Indians from the first days of the Conquest.
Catholic music in Mexico followed the same course as in other parts of the world, in
accordance with papal regulations. Its general influence throughout Mexico was as
enormous as the power of the Church itself.
II. Popular and peasant music and dances were introduced by the Spaniards (coming
from many districts of Spain) into all the chief regions of Mexico. From this source our
peasant dances, such as the jarabe, the huapango, and many others, probably come.
Practically all the music known under the generic name of son shows a Spanish origin.
III. The Spanish romance was widely diffused at an early date. It took root because
of its resemblance to native Indian songs, and has become the Mexican corrido.
IV. The profane songs and dances of picaresque character — the gay street songs,
and even those of the courtly festivals — must have had enormous importance, if we
can judge by the testimony taken during innumerable trials conducted by the Inquisi
tion for the sin of singing, playing, and dancing unchurchly music. We can find a
concrete example in the invention in Mexico, in the XVIth century, of the pavan, which
takes its name and its aspect of gallantry from the courtship of the turkey (pavo ).
V. During the XVIIth and XVIIIth centuries the viceregal court maintained a royal
orchestra which played European chamber music.
VI. At the beginning of the XVIIIth century, opera reached a high stage of develop
ment in Mexico. All the leading Italian, Spanish, and even French companies held
long seasons, not only in Mexico City, but in other large towns of the country. Operatic
music had an enormous general influence, as may be seen today in the huge number of
songs of Italian cut and flavor, descendants of the Italian aria or romanza.
Conclusion : by the phrase "Mexican music" we mean the Indian music of the ancient

9
 Mexicans; the music of Spanish or other origin implanted in Mexico, and, finally, the
production in Mexico of a mixture of these elements. The Indian branch and the
Spanish branch differ in that Indian music from the Conquest on remained static, while
Spanish music has undergone constant evolution. By way of Spain there came to Mexico
Italian, German, French, and Moorish- Arabic music. More recently, in the XlXth cen
tury, when communications were improved, and the world became smaller, and locali
ties less local and more universal, influences came from everywhere. It must be added
that along the entire coast of the Gulf of Mexico the music of Negro slaves from Africa
has had important influence.
In what form and to what degree has a new music, characteristic of Mexico, been
produced from the sum of these elements? This is a question which cannot readily be
answered. The best response is the program which the Museum of Modern Art is
presenting, and the best answer will be that of the listeners.
Here I take the liberty of making a few general observations. Mexican music is largely
the product of a mixture of influences, that is, of crossbreeding. This mixed ancestry,
chiefly Indo-Spanish, is never found to be in exact proportions of half and half. In the
majority of cases, one basic element is altered by the other in a proportion much smaller
than fifty per cent.
The Indian music best preserving its purity is not what remains of Aztec culture, but
that of more or less primitive or nomad tribes which never, properly speaking, achieved
a culture. Such are the Yaquis, the Seris, and the Huicholes.
I do not think that the qualities of Mexican music depend 011its proportion of Indian
and Spanish ancestry, but on the existence of many new, local factors — historical,
geographic, and ethnic circumstances which work directly on the artistic phenomenon.
The reader himself, having an idea of the wealth of material, can judge the place and
meaning of each number on the program in relation to Mexican music as a whole.
Before concluding this introductory note, there is one other point, perhaps the most
important, that I should like to take up : the form in which this music is presented at
these concerts. With the exception of Aldana's Mass and my own pieces, none of it was
originally intended for concert presentation. It was therefore necessary to find an in
strumental ensemble which could be used differently in different numbers. This raised
the problem of form. The mariachi and huapango sones, for instance, are sung and
played for hours on end. Their form is prolix, their melodic and rhythmic constituents
obstinately repeated, their keys insufficiently varied and contrasted. They are a rich
source of new and various material, but diluted through hours and hours of music.
We had to concentrate this diluted essence into a compact form, at the same time pre
serving its original unity. We had to arrive at a less insistent and much more varied
continuity without marring the resulting piece by a succession of unrelated elements.
The melodies and rhythms, though distinct, always have a close relationship to each

10
 other, belong to a natural family. It was not possible to work by rule, but it was possible
to solve each problem instinctively. One melody calls for another to balance it, and that
one still another. The same is true of rhythms and tonalities. The Sones Mariachi of
Bias Galindo, for example, is a highly developed, true sonata movement, and the music,
far from losing character, has been intensified. The Huapangos of Geronimo Baqueiro
Foster is an extraordinary example of free variations entirely in the popular manner.
The method of presenting the Cancion (of Marcha, Vals, Cancion ) is another entirely
different case. Respecting the binary form it originally had, we have added one or two
closely related motives, the first serving as a sort of round-refrain, the other as a coda.
The Yaqui IVlusic of Luis Saudi is a clear case of the unity of a work being produced
by natural affinity among the motives. This is also true of the Corridos Mexicanos of
Vicente Mendoza. On the harmonic and contrapuntal levels, the works presented in
this program retain their original complexion.
It is my hope that the inspiration which originally gave rise to this music may arrive
here, living and fresh across the intervening years and miles.
Translated by Herbert Weinstock

Carlos Chavez, Eduardo Hernandez Moncada (seated left) and members of the orchestra, with Indian
instruments, during a rehearsal in the Auditorium of the Museum

11
Ml
 I. XOCHIPILI — MACUILXOCHITL
Xochipili-Macuilxochitl was the Aztec god of music, the dance, flowers, and love. His
name was chosen by Carlos Chavez as the title of this piece because its very sound (it is
pronounced exactly as spelled, x sounding like a sibilant s, i like a long e) seems to
evoke the flavor of an ancient Indian culture.
This music is not based on archeological melodies or quotations from true pre-Con
quest music, for no records of such melodies or music exist. As Carlos Chavez points out
in the introduction to these notes, however, careful study has been made of Aztec
instruments and combinations of instruments. The scale they produce is accurately
known. Their expressive possibilities have been explored in the light of what is known
of Aztec culture in general, through its architecture, literature, and sculpture, and the
chronicles of the conquistadors.
Full advantage has been taken in the creation of this piece of the completely novel
sonorous possibilities offered by Aztec instruments. As might be expected, then, the
result is in effect a new, rather than an old-fashioned, music. Carlos Chavez states clearly
that Xochipili-Macuilxochitl is not an actual reconstruction of pre-Conquest music, but
that he believes that it offers a general impression of how that ancient Mexican music
must have sounded.
The special orchestra used for this piece consists of copies of archeological instru
ments and, in one case, the nearest modern equivalent to such an instrument — the
original being impractical in an ensemble under modern concert conditions. It includes
flutes, teponaxtle, huehuetls of various sizes, rasps of wood and bone, many rattles, and
(to approximate the sound made by blowing into a sea snail's shell) a trombone.

Ancient Mexican musicians, from the Codex Florentinus

13
II. SONES MARI ACHI
Mariaehi is the name given to an instrumental ensemble found chiefly in the Mexican
State of Jalisco, and to a lesser extent and in varied form in Colima, Michoacan, Nayarit,
and even Mexico City itself. Fundamentally, a mariaehi consists of two violins, a large
five-stringed guitar, a small guitar, and a five-octave harp. In modern ensembles, the
harp is frequently omitted, while clarinet and trumpet are added. The name is of
unknown derivation, the most plausible suggestion advanced thus far being that it is
an adaptation of the French word mariage. For though the instruments themselves are
of Spanish provenance so far as Mexico is concerned, this ensemble seems to have first
been called mariaehi during the French occupation in the early I860's, and to have
taken part in wedding festivities.
The characteristic music of a mariaehi, like that played during a huapango, is called
a son, though mariachis also accompany the popular ballads known as corridos, as well
as canciones. The son mariaehi is frequently a type of primitive round. It is both sung
and danced. If the occasion is a religious fiesta, the mariaehi is likely to take up its
place at the door of the church.. For secular festivities, such as weddings, birthday
parties, celebrations of memorable dates, or gaieties attending a good harvest, however,
it usually plays out of doors in an arbor of branches or wide banana leaves.
The son mariaehi is basically rhythmic, of complex and intertwining beats. Its har
monic structure is simple, moving from tonic to dominant and back, and seldom touch
ing the subdominant. The singers are always the men who play the instruments. They
use a high falsetto voice, and traditionally keep a third or a sixth apart. The verses
sung are almost invariably gay, frequently picaresque in character.
The instrumentalist-singers likewise dance. Never moving on heel or toe, they keep
their feet flat to the ground. Movement is confined almost entirely to the legs, and
particular point is made of not moving the head at all. A specialty of some mariaehi
dancers in Vera Cruz is a number in which a bottle is balanced on top of the head.
The Sones Mariaehi of these programs was arranged by Bias Galindo, a young full-
blooded Indian from Jalisco, native home of the mariaehi. It is in G major, in 6/8 time,
and is based largely on a popular son called La Negra, into which, as variation, Galindo
has introduced two other sones, El Zopilote and Los Cuatro Reales. Galindo remarks
that though the piece has wide rhythmic variety it has a unity of effect, for even when
the melodic themes vary, the rhythmic and harmonic resemblance prevents any loss
of a sense of continuity. A fragment of the principal melody is given here :

14
 III. CORRIDOS MEXICANOS
The modern Mexican corrido is a true folk ballad. Its simple, artless, narrative verses
have long served, particularly in remote sections of Mexico, in lieu of newspaper, post,
telegraph, and newsreel. Professional corrido singers, arriving in a remote village, bring
in the only available news of the outside world. Similarly, it is from these singers that
other parts of the world learn of the occurrences in remote mountain fastnesses and
desert plains. Printed versions of these ballads have served to spread and perpetuate
highly colored retellings of crimes, violent deaths, bandit raids, natural catastrophies,
railroad wrecks, wars, and heroic deeds.
The texts of the corridos, marked off by assonance or rhyme into strophes of four,
six, or eight verses, commonly of eight syllables to a line, are usually the anonymous
creations of the musician who sings them. However, some of these verses have been
polished by passing time into a variety of set versions. They frequently begin with an
invitation to listen, and end with a farewell strophe of thanks, stating that such and
such a story has been told. Recently, students of the corrido have come to know some
of the best present-day corrido singers, and are thus able to add an author's name to a
few of the ballads.
The word corrido seems to be a corruption of the Spanish corrida, from correr (to
run), and thus refers to the manner in which the song runs on indefinitely without
change. The form is descended from the Spanish romance, which flourished most bril
liantly during the XlVth, XVth, and XVIth centuries in Andalusia and Estremadura,
the two sections of the mother country from which a majority of the conquistadors
came. The earliest Mexican example that can be dated has a printed text issued in
Mexico City on August 19, 1684. Called Coplas al " Tapado it tells of the decapitation
of one Antonio de Benavides, who emigrated to Mexico from Spain to pursue a devious
career until restrained by the law. Corridos continued to appear throughout the Colon
ial period, and reached their biggest development just after Mexico became a republic,
when Centralists and Federalists were locked in protracted civil strife. They still play
an important part in the lives of unsophisticated Mexicans in all parts of the country
except Yucatan, Campeche, Chiapas, and Quintana Roo, and have spread to colonies of
Mexicans in California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. The corrido is particularly
fertile and pure in Michoacan, home of the Tarascan Indians.
Corridos are sung at fairs and fiestas, or in village plazas to loiterers and passers-by.
A lone guitarist may do the singing, or he may be joined by a woman who will also
vend sheets of colored paper containing the printed words of his most popular ballads.
Less often, two men may sing, or even be joined by a woman. When there are two voices
the interval between them is most commonly a third or a tenth.
The musical form of the corrido is dictated by its simple literary form. Although

15
Corrido singer, fresco by Diego Rivera in the Secretariat of Public Education, Mexico City
considerable ingenuity and variety are often displayed within the verse, its substantial
regularity results in an unquestionable monotony in the music, which consists of a
melodic phrase repeated indefinitely until the story is completed. Usually in a kind of
simple or combined triple time (3/8, 6/8, 9/8), the melody often has two strong beats,
each divided into three sub-beats, giving the effect of rapid waltz-time. Examples of
other rhythms are found, 2/4, 4/4, and even 5/8 and 7/8 time having been noted. The
melodies are usually confined within a range of one octave, and are preponderantly
diatonic and major.
As a rich lode of material on folkways, the corrido has been minutely studied in
Mexico, where authorities divide the collected examples into romantic, tragic, didactic,
picaresque, and other categories, some with reference to the type of verse-form used.
Vicente Mendoza, a profound student of corridos, based the Corridos Mexicanos of these
programs on the following: El Casamiento del Huiltacoche (Michoacan), El Tigre de
Alica (Zacatecas), Los Dorados (Chihuahua), El Caballito (Puebla), La Sandia
(Michoacan), El Toloache (Zacatecas), Don Lucas (Jalisco), and two unassigned melo
dies — El Coyote Vie jo and El Caballo Criollo.

IV. MASS by Don Jose Aldana

The manuscript copy of this XVIIIth century Mass was discovered by Candelario
Huizar and his assistants in the archives of the National Conservatory of Music in
Mexico City in April, 1940. Its composer, Don Jose Aldana, is identifiable by sparse
biographical data. His birthplace and birth date are alike unknown. In 1786, he was
a second violinist in the orchestra of the Coliseo in Mexico City. In 1790-91, he was
director of the same orchestra though he continued to function as a violinist. Saldivar,
in his History of Music in Mexico, calls Aldana "the ablest violinist of his time." As
late as 1808-09 he was still an orchestral violinist, a function he combined with those
of teaching and of rehearsing the band of the Colegio de Infantes. He died on February
7, 1810, the year of Mexico's first unsuccessful rebellion against Spain. Aldana was a
prolific composer: the archives of the Cathedral of Mexico City contain many of his
religious works. An examination of the Mass sung at these concerts indicates that he
was familiar with the music of Handel and Mozart, probably through performances
by the royal orchestra playing at the viceregal court. In addition to strongly Handelian
passages, the Mass has the intermittent gaiety for which solemn musicologists have
criticized many of the religious pieces of Haydn and Mozart.
This Mass was composed so that it could be sung any day of the year, and therefore
consists solely of the four sections of the Ordinary: the Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, and Sane-

17
 A=««*>* Ct miiSKA,
<<•J. ft tORETTO,
n&4e

First page of the bass part of the manuscript Mass, by Don Jose Aldana
(XVIIIth century), as recovered in Mexico City in April, 1940
tus. It follows the tradition of singing the texts of the Benedictus and Agnus Dei to the
music of the Sanctus.
The Mass makes little use of the system of thematic development so highly evolved
in European compositions of the same period. The melodies themselves are notably
original, some of them (particularly the one at the introduction of the Gloria) showing
specific criollo, or Mexican-Spanish, color. The simple harmonic scheme is treated with
masterly finesse, and avoids commonplaces. Variety is achieved throughout separate
sections by means of striking contrasts between orchestra and chorus. As the work of
a self-taught composer — most Mexican composers of the XVIIIth century had little
formal training — Aldana's Mass well represents Mexican religious music of the late
viceregal period.

V. MARC HA, VALS, CAN C ION

The March of the title is the most popular of all Mexican military marches, La
Marcha de Zacatecas; the Waltz is Club Verde, a musically more interesting brother
to the world-famed Sobre las Olas ( Over the Waves), while the Song is an international
favorite, La Adelita. The first two certainly, the third probably, come down to us from
the repertoire of the ubiquitous Mexican battalion bands of the "Victorian" period of
Porfirio Diaz. In the center of the plaza of almost every Mexican, town and city, to this
day, an iron kiosk gives testimony of the once regular band concerts which were the
very nucleus of community social entertainment. The army, naturally, was everywhere,
and so was its music, of which La Marcha de Zacatecas and Club Verde were constant
favorites. La Adelita, however, did not become a universal Mexican possession until
the 1910 Revolution, as is testified to by its well-known words, which have reference
to the exploits of a soldadera following one of the revolutionary armies. Club Verde
and La Adelita are anonymous, but La Marcha de Zacatecas was composed by one
Codina, of whom little is known.
The Marcha and Vals represent the Mexican XlXth century in full flower, while
La Adelita may be said to echo the breakdown of that rather fulsome period, which
was all but completely obliterated by the Revolution of 1910.

VI. HUAPANGOS
Huapango is the name of a type of fiesta celebrated in the States of Vera Cruz,
Tamaulipas, San Luis Potosi, Hidalgo, Tabasco, and Puebla, particularly along the
shores of the Gulf of Mexico and in the adjacent tropical lowlands. It consists of instru
mental music, singing, and dancing. The word huapango is derived either from Nahuatl

19
Huapango musicians, State of Vera Cruz
vocables signifying "on a wooden place," referring to the platform on which the danc
ing is done, or from Huaxtecas de Pango — Huaxtecas being the indigenes of the tropical
lowlands, Pango the ancient name of the river now called Panuco. As present-day
Huastecans use huapango with reference to the entire fiesta, and do not connect it with
the platform alone, the second derivation is accepted as more likely.
Whole communities participate in huapangos, only the instrumentalists being pro
fessionals. In its purest form, the music, called a son, was played on a tiny five-stringed
guitar and a harp. (This type is still closely approximated at Alvarado, the fishing
village just south of Vera Cruz in which Paul Strand's The Wave was filmed.) In the
more or less hybrid and decadent forms in which the music is usually heard today,
this ensemble has widened to include large four- and six-stringed guitars and violins.*
Rhythm, constantly created by instrumentalists, singers, and dancers, is the most im
portant element in this music, and is infinitely varied. Most sones are in 3/4, 2/4, or
6/8 time, often rapidly alternating, and even combined. The melodies, almost certainly
derived from XVIth century Spanish music, are not likely to be used in more than
one locality, or even by more than one singer: they are personal and seem improvisa
tory. The harmonies are likewise of such ever-shifting complexity, such variety from
region to region — and even ranch to ranch — that simple definitive statements about
them are all but impossible.
The singing of a son is done by the community, divided into groups and soloists of
special abilities. The verses are made up of rhyming stanzas of four, five, six, or ten
lines. All but a few of them deal with two universal subjects: women and nature. They
are romantic, insinuating, often humorous, and almost never weakly sentimental; in
cline, in truth, to burlesque the sentimental.
The dancing of a huapango is done on a high wooden platform. A man and woman,
pairs of men and women, or women alone, are the principal dancers, though children
and the village elders may join in if sufficiently talented and strong. The steps are fast
and dazzlingly complicated in rhythm. In certain popular sones, trick steps are tradi
tional. In La Bamba (the music of which has an unmistakable Negro tang), the dancer,
to gain applause, balances a glass of water on his head without spilling a drop. Or the
man may loop a silk scarf with his feet without losing the rhythm. If successful in
this difficult trick, he places the looped scarf on the head of a chosen girl — very often
with important results in their lives. As a genre, the huapango reflects the vivacious
gaiety of the inhabitants of the Gulf coast of Mexico, so different in their laughter and
song from the more somber Mexican of highland and desert.

*Huapangos, arranged by Geronimo Baqueiro Foster for these concerts, is based on sones from localities in which a deep four-
stringed guitar is employed.
 n*

Contemporary lithograph of the opera

house, Mexico City, in the middle
XlXth century

XlXth century Mexican military mu

sicians, from a contemporary photo
graph
VII. LA PALOMA AZUL
La Paloma Azul (The Blue Dove) is based on a XlXth century Mexican cancion
of that name. The exact original source of its music is impossible to determine. Perhaps
it is a much-changed version of one of the many Spanish songs that have drifted into
Mexico across the years. Carlos Chavez leans to the theory that it is more recently
descended from Italian opera, which was enormously popular throughout Mexico in
the XVIIIth and XlXth centuries. It is easy to feel that it had its beginnings, or at
least its pattern, in some Italian aria or romanza.
The Mexican people must have felt a need for a simple form in which to express
their personal sorrows and sentimental heartbreaks. The cancion would seem to indi
cate that part of the popularity of Italian opera in their country was due to their having
found that form in the sweetest of its airs, a type of song they have gradually remade
in the light of their own sentiments and character.
Beginning with lines in which a lover, who is leaving for Laredo, says good-by to
his sweetheart, the cancion breaks again and again into a slightly varied refrain, which
I give here in free translation: "What a beautiful blue dove, which with its wings flies
where it wishes! What a lovely blue dove! Do not have too much to do with anyone.
Open your wings. I am the keeper of your love." It concludes with a verse saying, "Now
with this I bid you adieu, my love, by tipping the brim of my hat, and here ends the
singing, my love, of the little verses of Laredo."

VIII. YAQUI MUSIC

In the State of Sonora, on the shores of the Yaqui River and on the beaches of the
Gulf of Cortes, two Indian tribes live: the Yaquis and the Seris. These are tribes which
have for many centuries lived in the same region. Without any doubt they represent
the beginning of the long trek of the Nahuas to the center of Mexico. Their culture,
on the other hand, does not seem to have changed since those remote days. That is to
say, part of their culture, for they are now bicultured and bilingual: the fact that they
use both guns and arrows is very significant along this line.
The archaic part of their culture corresponds to that of nomad hunters. Tlieir music
is pentatonic among the Yaquis, and in even smaller scales among the Seris. The most
popular dance among the Yaquis is El Venado (The Deer), a totemic dance in which
the hunting and killing of a deer are represented.
The significance which the music of these tribes has for the new Mexican musical

23
HRRHB

pwimprttfjj

Contemporary lithograph of the opera

house, Mexico City, in the middle
XlXth century

XlXth century Mexican military mu

sicians, from a contemporary photo
graph
VII. LA PALOMA AZUL
La Paloma Azul (The Blue Dove) is based on a XlXth century Mexican cancion
of that name. The exact original source of its music is impossible to determine. Perhaps
it is a much-changed version of one of the many Spanish songs that have drifted into
Mexico across the years. Carlos Chavez leans to the theory that it is more recently
descended from Italian opera, which was enormously popular throughout Mexico in
the XVIIIth and XlXth centuries. It is easy to feel that it had its beginnings, or at
least its pattern, in some Italian aria or romanza.
The Mexican people must have felt a need for a simple form in which to express
their personal sorrows and sentimental heartbreaks. The cancion would seem to indi
cate that part of the popularity of Italian opera in their country was due to their having
found that form in the sweetest of its airs, a type of song they have gradually remade
in the light of their own sentiments and character.
Beginning with lines in which a lover, who is leaving for Laredo, says good-by to
his sweetheart, the cancion breaks again and again into a slightly varied refrain, which
I give here in free translation : "What a beautiful blue dove, which with its wings flies
where it wishes! What a lovely blue dove! Do not have too much to do with anyone.
Open your wings. I am the keeper of your love." It concludes with a verse say ing, "Now
with this I bid you adieu, my love, by tipping the brim of my hat, and here ends the
singing, my love, of the little verses of Laredo."

VIII. YAQUI MUSIC

In the State of Sonora, on the shores of the Yaqui River and on the beaches of the
Gulf of Cortes, two Indian tribes live: the Yaquis and the Seris. These are tribes which
have for many centuries lived in the same region. Without any doubt they represent
the beginning of the long trek of the Naliuas to the center of Mexico. Their culture,
on the other hand, does not seem to have changed since those remote days. That is to
say, part of their culture, for they are now bicultured and bilingual: the fact that they
use both guns and arrows is very significant along this line.
The archaic part of their culture corresponds to that of nomad hunters. Their music
is pentatonic among the Yaquis, and in even smaller scales among the Seris. The most
popular dance among the Yaquis is El Venado (The Deer), a totemic dance in which
the hunting and killing of a deer are represented.
The significance which the music of these tribes has for the new Mexican musical

23
Yaqui musicians. Note cocoon rattles on
dancer's ankles, antlers for Deer Dancer,
water gourd, rasps supported on halves of
calabash

Tenabari, butterfly cocoon rattles worn by

Yaqui dancer-musician
movement initiated by Carlos Chavez is great, for it is of an undeniable archaic type.
That is to say, it is certainly indigenous to Mexico, and is still used by the Indians of
today. These two facts destroy the objections with which the Europeanism of the earlier
musicians defends itself against the new movement: that the Indian does not exist in
music, that he has only an archeological interest.
Beyond its theoretic significance, this music has the double practical importance of
being beautiful and of leading Mexican music along a truly catholic path — for only
that which has all the elements of a nationality and an epoch can acquire universal
quality.
Luis Sandi's first contact with this music was ten or so years ago, when a regiment
of Yaqui soldiers arrived in Mexico City. A group of musicians was invited to hear their
music and see their dances in the barracks where they were quartered. It was there
that for the first time he heard the music that may be called the living voice of an
ancient culture, and could see the Deer Dance which is without doubt the most beautiful
done by Mexican Indians.
That which principally impressed Luis Sandi was the fact that the Yaquis had a
veritable orchestra of percussion instruments. They accompany the Deer Dance with
the following instruments: the double-membraned Yaqui drum; a wooden rasp sup
ported on half a calabash and rubbed with a hardwood stick; seed rattles, calabashes
full of small stones and pieces of wood; a species of sistrum; a water gourd, half a
calabash placed mouth down in a recipient full of water and struck with a stick of
wood covered with dried corn leaves; necklaces from which hang a lot of deer
hooves, and bunches of dried butterfly cocoons full of pebbles -— these last worn around
the ankles of the dancers (see page 24) . All this complicated orchestra of percussion ac
companies a clay flute or a singer, alternating in the melodies of the dance. The flautist
simultaneously plays the little drum, the singer the rasp. The T aqui manner of singing
resembles that of the majority of peoples of ancient culture. In the expression of the
Egyptian singers of the Old Kingdom we can recognize this way of singing, still habitual
among the Arabs: the sounds are always sharp, produced by a great effort, with the
mouth hardly opened to emit the voice; the face remains immobile while the effort
seems almost to burst the neck.
The work played at these concerts is made up of Yaqui and Seri instrumental and
song themes. The instrumental Yaqui themes are sometimes diatonic, sometimes penta-
tonic; those that are sung are always pentatonic. They have, in spite of being construct
ed on a European scale, Indian characteristics that are not just Mexican, but continental,
as, for instance, the appoggiaturas at an interval of a minor third are likewise found in
Inca music. The second theme of the slow movement is constructed on only three notes,
which does not prevent it from having great expressive value. The rhythmic constitution
of the work is exuberant, as is usual in all music which is not limited by the bar line.
 Cjujzm Zh
** *
it— r T P ft -t*
jv *
b-t

bESe Tjj

Manuscript first page of Danza a Centeotl, second of the two dances from Los
Cuatro Soles, by Carlos Chavez
Originally, each percussion instrument carried a distinct rhythm, and the melody
changed time freely. Both characteristics have been preserved as far as possible in Luis
Sandi's piece.
He has also respected the harmonic essence of this music, not using in it notes other
than those contained in the scale on which it is constructed. In the first and last move
ments there is practically no harmony: the dynamic constructions of the rhythm are
developed above a static concord.

IX. LOS CUATRO SOLES— TWO DANCES

In 1921 Carlos Chavez first had the idea of writing Indian music, or, rather, music of
Indian inspiration. He was working on a ballet. Mexico was then passing through a
period which has with reason been called a renascence. The so-called Mexican Renas
cence was a trifle chauvinistic, and led to unnecessary exaggerations. But it did have
results of great importance : it led young Mexican musicians to discover Mexican tradi
tion in its full extent; it made them realize the natural affinity between their inspiration
and their ancestral music, and it made them consider their position in relation to the
great European classics.
Any truly Mexican tradition was unknown, hidden away. The most distinguished
Mexican musicians of the last generations did nothing but repeat badly the music of
the European schools. The native imagination was silenced by the academic dictates
of the "maestros." These dicta were that there was no tradition but that inherited from
Europe, and that the music of Mexico itself was poor and barbarous. It was necessary
to rebel, to demonstrate the enormous richness of Mexico's legitimate tradition, in the
first place that of the pre-Cortesian civilizations.
Nothing has ever impressed Carlos Chavez more than the religious fiestas of the
Indians, true pagan rites, which he saw during his childhood, almost as a participant.
He has never forgotten the ancient rhythms of the huehuetl played by venerable In
dians with the dignity and solemnity of their most remote ancestors. The chirimias of
today produce the same notes as the ancient flutes which they have replaced, and are
undoubtedly played in the same spirit today as in ancient times. Then too, the melodies,
dances, and songs of Spain, transformed by the Mexican spirit are a music both rich
and varied which has acquired coloration related to the different parts of Mexico.
"Our whole being is moved by this music," Chavez says. "In it we find ourselves. Its
essence corresponds to our emotions. Its expressive qualities are related to our character
and our unrest."
It was not Chavez' intention that the young musicians should become mere rear-

27
Indians in costume for the Danza de las Pastoras
rangers of this music. But a great problem remained: folk music is always limited, of
reduced scope harmonically, melodically, and instrumentally (it is enormously rich
rhythmically). On the other hand, there was their own historical position as men of
greater evolution, benefiters by the lessons of the European classics, possessors of
superior forms of organized and logical complexity. There is the contradiction. There
was the problem. And there, they felt, was their place. The problem was great, but
fecund, its solution a challenge. They were not going to regress from the instrumental
and harmonic advances of Europe. They were not going to negate the larger forms that
had been evolved in universal music. They intended to take advantage of the experience
of the great classics, but to nourish themselves at the sources of native traditions.
It was amidst the stir of all these ideas and uncertainties that, in 1921, Chavez com
posed his first Mexican ballet, El Fuego Nuevo. Three or four years later, he wrote
another Mexican ballet, Los Cuatro Soles.
These two ballets were based on legends of the ancient Mexicans, which is why
Chavez called them "Mexican ballets."
Los Cuatro Soles is based on a Mexican legendary explanation of prehistory. It divides
time into four epochs, or soles (suns) : the first destroyed by a deluge; the second by
glacial winds; the third by volcanic fire — the fourth, of course, being the continuing
present. The destructions, interpreted as punishments sent by the gods, show a certain
understanding, however imperfect, of the geologic periods of the earth.
The importance of these legends (which are of course related to legends found in
many other countries), is in the vigor of their expression, their high drama. It is in
their feeling of great superior powers, of the natural elements — water, air, fire, and
earth — in their positive or creative, and negative or destructive aspects, of great fears,
great superstitions, of the position of men in the cosmos.
The music of the ancient Mexicans, of implacable, profound rhythm, elemental and
mysterious — still to be heard among the Indians of today ; the legends that are foun
tains of feeling and drama; the paintings, sculpture, and monumental architecture of
the primitive Mexicans living and dead (but even then living within the present-day
Mexican) — all this fed the inspiration of Chavez and his colleagues toward the crea
tion of a living art which may truly be called Mexican.
In these concerts two dances from Los Cuatro Soles, connected by a brief interlude,
are being played. The first deals with the earliest sol, or epoch, and ends dramatically
with the deluge. The second is a ritual dance of adoration of Centeotl, the goddess of
maize. It is a dance of praise for the abundance and fertility of the earth. This is the
only section of the ballet in which use is made of musical themes Chavez had heard
used by Indians in their religious dances of our own times, particularly in the Danza de
las Pastoras (see pages 26 and 28).
Chavez heard the melodies given below among the Mazahua Indians of the State

29
Ancient instruments from the National Museum of Mexico. The inset picture from the
Codex Florentinus represents many of the same instruments
of Mexico. Their distinction, their originality leave no doubt that they are traditional
and of very ancient origin. They show no traces of Spanish or other European influence
of any sort.
The melodic motives in both dances are numerous. They appear and reappear in the
course of the dances in a constant line. Nevertheless, their common descent and the
constant reappearance of basic elements made it possible to achieve unity in the work
as a whole.
A list of important themes of the final dance follows :

mi 1m

The Two-Eagle Design, from the antique panhuehuetl of Tenango

31
TEN THOUSAND COPIES OF THIS BOOK HAVE BEEN PRINTED FOR THE TRUSTEES
OF THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART IN MAY, 1940, BY WILLIAM E. RUDGE'S SONS, NEW YORK
300061954