TAWITOL/ARCO MUSICAL
Robert Murrell Stevenson, cites Charles L. Boiles work (1932 - 1984)
Boiles cites 14 native language dictionaries with a definition for "string instruments"
which were published in Mexico during the 16th century
(see page 23) of Music in Aztec and Inca Territory (2)
(Unfortunately he does not specify which indigenous dictionaries these appear in)
Is it possible that such an instrument existed and we have yet to find a record?
We have to remember that even though images have not been found in the Codices that we can still investigate murals, pottery and sculptures and new discoveries continue daily.
Boiles cites 14 native language dictionaries with a definition for "string instruments"
which were published in Mexico during the 16th century
(see page 23) of Music in Aztec and Inca Territory (2)
(Unfortunately he does not specify which indigenous dictionaries these appear in)
Is it possible that such an instrument existed and we have yet to find a record?
We have to remember that even though images have not been found in the Codices that we can still investigate murals, pottery and sculptures and new discoveries continue daily.
MUSICAL BOWS/ARCO MUSICAL
of the
CORA
HUICHOL
MAIDU
MAYA
TEPEHUANO
TAWITOL (4)
THE MUSICAL BOW
FROM THE TEPEHUANOS
*LUMHOLTZ writes,
"As we entered on the plain we could distinctly hear the beating of the tāwitól, the musical instrument of the Tepehuanes. At this distance it sounded like a big drum. Strange to say, the shaman was a Tepehuane. I learned later that the Aztecs consider the shamans of that tribe better than their own. In front of the shaman was the musical instrument on which he had been playing. This was a large, round gourd, on top of which a bow of unusual size was placed with its back down. The shaman's right foot rested on a board which holds the bow in place on the gourd. The bow being made taut, the shaman beats the string with two sticks, in a short, rhythmical measure of one long and two short beats. When heard nearby, the sonorousness of the sound reminds one of the cello.
"This is the musical bow of America, which is here met with for the first time. It is intimately connected with the religious rites of this tribe, as well as with those of the Coras and the Huichols, the latter playing it with two arrows. The assertion has been made that the musical bow is not indigenous to the Western Hemisphere, but was introduced by African slaves.
Without placing undue importance on the fact that negroes are very rarely, if at all, found in the north-western part of Mexico, it seems entirely beyond the range of possibility that a foreign implement could have become of such paramount importance in the religious system of several tribes. Moreover, this opinion is confirmed by Mr. R. B. Dixon's discovery, in 1900, of a musical bow among the Maidu Indians on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada, northeast of San Francisco, California. In the religion of that tribe also this bow plays an important part, and much secrecy is connected with it."
*CARL LUMHOLTZ UNKNOWN MEXICO VOLUME 1
http://books.google.com/books/about/Unknown_Mexico.html?id=fSr5Nnu_C3EC
HOOL (5A) (5B) (5D)(5D)(5E)(5F)(5G)(5H)
"A PRIMITIVE MAYA MUSICAL INSTRUMENT"
Mr. M. H. Saville
"M.H. Saville described a primitive stringed instruments which he had personally encountered in the winter of 1890-1891, while exploring a cave of the Tabia hacienda in Yucatan, some Mayas from "various small villages in the interior of the country, remote from Spanish influences," introduced him to a "primitive form of stringed instrument" call a hool. This instrument was made by stretching a piece of rope-like vine called ohil, between the two ends of a pliable piece of wood, making a bow about two feet in length."
To hear a sample of the musical bow go to (5H)
"This is a percussion instrument consisting of a long wooden bow with gourd resonator beneath. An ordinary string is stretched taut and wound around the two notched ends of the bow. The bow is stretched on the gourd, which rests on the ground, the performer holds the two together his his foot, striking the string with two thin wooden sticks"
(5G)
Carleen D. Sanchez1
Songs of the Ancestors: Ancient Maya Musicians
http://istmo.denison.edu/n17/articulos/sanchez2.html
MORE LINKS TO CHECK OUT
(1)
MUSIC IN MEXICO - A HISTORICAL SURVEY
written by Robert Murrell Stevenson
http://books.google.com/books/about/Music_in_Mexico.html?id=VDwuAAAAMAAJ
(2)
MUSIC IN INCA AND AZTEC TERRITORY
written by Robert Murrell Stevenson
http://books.google.com/books?id=VGLT-pJDxcYC&q=Charles+L.+Boiles#v=snippet&q=Charles%20L.%20Boiles%20dictionaries&f=false
(3)
NATIVE AMERICAN STRING INSTRUMENTS
written by Dr. Daniel G. Brinton
see page 19
http://books.google.com/books?id=3ZQLAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA19&dq=NATIVE+AMERICAN+STRING+INSTRUMENTS+Daniel+G.+Brinton+American+Antiquarian&hl=en&sa=X&ei=oTy5UYLEMM7qiQL024GgAQ&ved=0CDsQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=NATIVE%20AMERICAN%20STRING%20INSTRUMENTS%20Daniel%20G.%20Brinton%20American%20Antiquarian&f=false
or
http://archive.org/details/nativeamerinstru00brinrich
and
3A MUSIC IN AZTEC AND INCA TERRITORY page 23
(4)
TAWITOL - THE MUSICAL BOW FROM THE TEPEHUANOS
See page 474 of Carl Lumholtz UNKNOWN MEXICO VOLUME 1
http://books.google.com/books?id=klMTAAAAYAAJ&q=tawitol#v=snippet&q=tawitol&f=false
(4b)
http://archive.org/stream/unknownmexicovol16426gut/16426.txthttp://archive.org/stream/unknownmexicovol16426gut/16426.txt
(5A)
See page 24 of MUSIC IN AZTEC AND INCA TERRITORY
(5B)
A PRIMITIVE MAYA MUSICAL INSTRUMENT
by Mr. M. H. Saville in the American Anthropologist for August, 1897,
go here
http://archive.org/search.php?query=maya%20instrument
to search, read online and/or download
see page 272
(5C)
THE MUSICAL BOW IN ANCIENT MEXICO
by Mr. M. H. Saville
is an article from American Anthropologist, Volume 11.
http://archive.org/details/jstor-658759
(5D)
THE GARLAND ENCYCLOPEDIA OF WORLD MUSIC:SOUTHEAST ASIA(!)
PAGE 658
http://books.google.com/books?id=Xb2ibVAXO9sC&pg=PA658&lpg=PA658&dq=hool+instrumentos+mayan&source=bl&ots=ahOE6xJUjR&sig=_PqKTDePA-3wukFKiHtVK7cRkoQ&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Aw3BUbKVLefkiALUq4DQCA&ved=0CE4Q6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=hool%20instrumentos%20mayan&f=false
(5E)
THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN AND ORIENTAL JOURNAL
VOLUME 19
pages 19 and 20
(5F)
THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE MUSICAL BOW
http://books.google.com/books?id=pSQJAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA45&lpg=PA45&dq=musical+bows+mexico&source=bl&ots=XX3jQp9ZYZ&sig=eBuS6oyo8JOrevwbds_YhYba7v4&hl=en&sa=X&ei=RA_BUeSWBaeciALlooH4Dg&ved=0CGAQ6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=musical%20bows%20mexico&f=false
(5G)
The following link will take you to recordings by Henrietta Yurchenco
Henrietta Yurchenco, folklorist, broadcaster and writer,
born March 22 1916; died December 10 2007
and can be heard here
http://www.folkways.si.edu/indian-music-of-mexico/a/american-indian-world/album/smithsonian
go to
206 - CORA HARVEST SONG - Cora Shaman with Mitote
207 - CORA HARVEST SONG - Cora Shaman with Mitote
The Mitote is the same musical bow,
played by the Cora, Huichol, Maidu, Mayan and many others
"Ethnomusicologists study music in varying ethnic contexts. Ms. Yurchenco began by tracking down 14 all-but-unknown Mexican and Guatemalan tribes, reaching them with little but a mule and 300 pounds of recording equipment. She eventually recorded 2,000 of their songs for the Library of Congress."
New York Times obituary
Henrietta Yurchenco obituary excerpt
"Aged 21, Yurchenco and her husband travelled to some of the remotest parts of Mexico.
Using what was then state-of-art equipment - portable at a mere 200-300lb - they recorded
the sounds of native Mexican peoples, such as the Cora, Huichol, Seri, Tzotozil and Yaqui,
who had always lived cut off from mainstream society. Even now, with the possible exception
of that of the Yaqui - a people made famous through the writings of Carlos Castaneda - this
music sounds otherworldly. Yurchenco's recordings from that and later trips to Mexico and
Guatemala between 1942 and 1946 resulted in such releases as
Folk Music of Mexico (1948) for the Library of Congress and
Indian Music of Mexico (1952).
was also, in 1968, her Latin American Children's Game Songs Recorded in Puerto Rico and Mexico.
Her most commercially successful album was The Real Mexico (1966)."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/feb/11/folk.mainsection
Henrietta Yurchenco obituary
http://thevillager.com/villager_242/henriettayurchenco.html
go here to see and hear the other recordings she did on FOLKWAYS and NONESUCH
http://www.nonesuch.com/albums/mexico-the-real-mexico-in-music-and-song
check out the music of the PUREPECHA here
ANCIENT BOOKS:
Mixtec Group Codices
http://www.famsi.org/research/pohl/jpcodices/pohlmixtec1.html
Geographical Distribution of the Musical Bow Dr. Mason
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Popular_Science_Monthly/Volume_54/March_1899/Fragments_of_Science
MEXCLA MUSIC PERFORMANCE 2016