The following information is not
available for use without permission of Mr. Burkhalter.
John
Burkhalter presented a talk on the trumpet and Conch horn in Maya
and Aztec Art that was illustrative and informative, enhanced by the
display and playing of Pre-Columbian musical instruments from his own
collection and several on loan from the magnificent collection of
Gillett G. Griffin. Unfortunately, the Spanish systematically
obliterated most of the culture that once flourished in Mexico and
Central America, with only some examples of Aztec poetry remaining.
Additionally, although musical artifacts and depictions of instruments
survive, no forms of musical notation or didactic sources remain;
sadly, there is no way that the music will ever be
re-created.
Mortuary ceramics illustrating scenes of daily life, from the Jalisco,
Colima and Nayarit cultures, are a rich source of information on
musical instruments and their means of implementation, as many of these
portray musicians or musical groups. In addition they exemplify the
role of music in Pre-Columbian societies, as in many cultures musicians
were viewed as shamans and music was a means of communication with the
dead. Conch or marine shell horns figure prominently in West Mexican
art. John first recreated the sounds of Pre-Columbian music by playing
an ancient Tlatilco whistle, the only known surviving Tlatilco wind
instrument, which was made in the iconic image of the old man emerging
from a turtle shell. Images of conch trumpets are seen throughout
Teotihuacan. In a mural in the Palace of the Butterflies, jaguars play
conch trumpets with mouthpieces, which John sonically reproduced by
using a copy of a 16th century ivory cornetto mouthpiece inserted into
the end of a conch. Using ancient three-chambered flutes from Vera
Cruz, John was able to evoke a beautiful recreation of possible
Pre-Columbian music, and he also demonstrated a one-tubed duct flute
also from Vera Cruz.
In
the Mayan culture, the Bonampak murals are the most well known
illustrations of ceremonial Maya music: they show musicians with drums,
plumed rattles, an ocarina and long wooden trumpets celebrating the
inauguration of a ruler. Turtle carapaces were also used as percussion
instruments. The turtle is often associated with rain, and when John
played a "red earred slider turtle" shell from Guatemala with a
white-tailed deer antler, it seemed to mimic the sound of raindrops
hitting the rain forest canopy of overhead leaves. To
recreate the sound of the long wooden trumpets, John utilized a
similarly shaped Swedish wooden trumpet. Jaina mortuary figurines are
also a rich source of depictions of musicians, and Maya ceramic musical
instruments, such as whistles, rattles, and small hand drums survive
today. Many whistle or rattle effigies depict musicians with
trumpets or marine conch horns some linked to shamanic transformations,
but others are representations of gods or reflective of the eco-system
depicting birds and animals. A major source of Maya musical
depictions is, of course, ceramic pots, many of which show musicians
with both wooden and conch trumpets. An excellent example is the
Ratinlixul Vase from the Penn Museum, which shows a lord carried in a
litter accompanied by musicians bearing long trumpets with mouthpieces,
and conch trumpets tied around their necks. Also displayed were a
delightful coati whistle and a Maya Jade flute. John speculated about
the common depictions of the old God N emerging from marine shells. In
many, the conch is missing its pointed distal end, which is analogous
to the manner in which a conch trumpet is created. Could these be
representations of conch trumpets?
Many
images from Aztec art and later codices show a large standing drum,
with the distinctive chevron cutouts in the lower half, and a large
cylindrical drum that was placed horizontally upon a separate stand.
Also illustrated primarily from the Florentine Codex were
rattles, conch trumpets and single chambered flutes with a
flared bells. John demonstrated a remarkable sounding Aztec polychromed
flute from Gillett's collection. Recorders were certainly among the
first instruments brought by the Spanish to the new world, and would
have seemed familiar to indigenous flute players. At the
end of his presentation, John also favored the group with a
rendition of a late 15th century Spanish Alta danza composed by
Francisco de la Torre and performed on a copy of a Renaissance
recorder. The society thanks John for his talk and musical
performance, and Gillett G. Griffin for the generous loan of a portion
of his extensive collection for our presentation.
John Burkhalter has lectured frequently on music in the ancient
cultures of the Americas, including presentations at Princeton,
Rutgers, Yale, Dumbarton Oaks and the Chrysler Museum. He has
also served as a musical consultant for the National Geographic
Society. Mr. Burkhalter studied early music at the New England
Conservatory of Music under Daniel Pinkham and Baroque performance
practice with noted Dutch recorder virtuoso Frans Bruggen at Harvard
University. He has composed and prepared music for film, video and
audio projects produced by NJN, Encyclopedia Britannica, PBS-WNET-13,
Antennae Audio; as well as for the following exhibitions: Maya
Monuments - Rise and Fall at the Newark, NJ Museum; River of Gold and
the current exhibition Painted Metaphors, at the Penn
Museum. Mr. Burkhalter was co-curator with Gillett G. Griffin of
the Princeton University Art Museum exhibition, Music from the Land of
the Jaguar.