A rainstick is a thin, long, hollow tube filled with pebbles or beans. A musician lifts the rainstick vertically and lets the pebbles slide to the bottom, then turns the stick on end so the pebbles can rattle to the new bottom, making the sound of a rainstorm. The stick seems to have first appeared in Aztec communities and used to be made of catcus but today almost anything can be a tube and almost anything can be the pebbles.
The huehuetl is a tubular Aztec drum that is made of wood that is covered with a skin at the top and not at the bottom and stands on three legs carved out of its base. Drummers strike the huēhuētl with either hands or a mallet.
The Maya civilization, dominant for over a thousand years–most so from the years 200 to 900 A.D.–in the lands we now know as Mexcio and Guatemala, was full and rich and certainly included volumes of Many music, but since there was no recording mechanism at the time, and because the Maya didn’t use musical notation, almost all of it has been lost. Spanish conquerors from the 16th century did note some Mayan music and learned enough about lingering Mayan rituals that ethnomusicoligists and anthropologists are confident that music was central to Mayan ceremonies and life events. The Maya favored flutes and drums and built their instruments from the nature around them–they used conch shells for trumpets and turtle shells as drums. The Mayan song Xtoles is believed to be one of the world’s oldest continually sung melodies. Watch a performance by Mexico’s Coro Universitario Estudiantil.
COUNTRY: Guatemala, Mexico KEY INSTRUMENTS: Conches and other natural trumpets, Flutes, Maracas, Tortoisehell drums, Whistles
Mayan culture is so ancient that most Mayan music has been lost, but contemporary interpretations of potentially ancient melodies like the one used in this Mayan folk song still exist. Researchers believe that music was very important in Mayan culture, especially in funeral ceremonies, during which it is believed that drummers and flute players would follow the casket of well-respected women, sealing their instruments into the burial tomb at the end of the march. Music also apparently was part of ceremonies and celebrations involving war. Archaeologists have found drums and whistles in the houses of many “lower class” Mayans, suggesting that in Mayan culture music was not just reserved for the elite.
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