In Cem Anahuac Yoyotli Concert Band - Digital Sheet Music

SKU: A0.1762918

This is a symphony-length piece in five movements that takes around 31-32 minutes to play end-to-end at the indicated tempi. It's possible to pull out selected movements to get a reasonable amount of music to include on a band program. The first, second, and fifth movements are good choices for this. The first movement is available as a separate purchase with a lower price.

Due to the length of the piece, I was unable to compress an mp3 file down to a size that was acceptable to the ArrangeMe site. I settled for including audio of the first two movements only.

The title is based on a Nahuatl phrase that may be translated as "throughout the ancient world," although other interpretations are possible.

The first movement, Yopihuehuetl, meaning "yopi drum," is inspired by the Aztec ceremony in which the living hearts of voluntary sacrificial victims were offered to the god Huitzilopochtli, "Hummingbird-Wizard." It comprises several distinct sections, all played attaca, leading up to the cutting out of the heart.

The culmination of the ceremony was accompanied by the largest drum in the Aztec arsenal of instruments, affectionately known as "in huehuetl yol-quixtini," or "the heart-tearing drum."

Yopihuehuetl quotes an actual Aztec song. You might recognize it: It's the same song H. Owen Reed used in La Fiesta Mexicana, written between 1949 and 1954, although it's presented differently here. The original composer of that song is unknown.

The second movement, Ocelotl, is inspired by the Ocelot Warriors, who were more-or-less the Special Forces of the Aztec military. It opens with the screams of the "death whistle," which some historians believe was sounded as the warriors advanced on an enemy through the dense forest to instill fear; but this is unconfirmed.

Confirmed uses of the death whistle include funerary rites, temples associated with Mictlan (the underworld), in imagery of Mictlantecuhtli and Xipe Totec, rituals symbolizing movement between realms, or the calling or sending off of the spirits of the dead.

The death whistle is a remarkable design that produces an uncanny sound. When you play it, you hear a kind of rough static. When you hear others play it (that is, when you listen to it outside your own head), you hear a sound resembling multiple otherworldly screaming voices. Appropriately, it is shaped like a human skull.

The third movement commemmorates Xipe Totec, "The Flayed One," the god of agrigulture, rebirth, and renewal. Flaying is the removal of the skin. Blood represents the water that rains down to initiate the growing season. Let's leave the details of his rituals to a forum where we can ensure no sensitive readers may be present.

The penultimate movement is slow, and in a contrasting style with the others. It represents Xochitlan, or "Flower-Place," which was to the Aztecs what Valhalla was to the ancient Norse, or Suto'vo'qor to the Klingons - the well-earned afterlife of warriors.

In closing, Popocatepetl, or "Smoking Mountain," represents the twin volcano peaks of the Mexica valley, rumbling and shaking the earth, giving rise to deep cultural beliefs in a living and powerful underworld that had to be held at bay by the gods, nourished with the blood and beating hearts of warriors.