This site presents intriguing discussion and audio samples of ancient Mayan music, which is apparently still practiced by the Maya today.

Originally posted on 09-Jan-07.


UPDATE, Saturday, May 17, 2008: The illustration above is from a late classic clay vessel (600-900 AD) discovered in Northern Petén, Guatemala. A high-quality version of the image is included in the Justin Kerr Maya Vase Database (K Number K5233) (online at famsi.org/research/kerr, and mayavase.com).

The above illustration depicts a dancer and two musician accompanists. The accompanist to the far right plays a rasca (an idiophonic, rattle-like instrument) and the musician in the center plays a friction drum. A friction drum produces sound when a notched stick is drawn across a taut cord, with the cord being attached to a membrane that covers a pottery bowl. The sound mimics a jaguar's growl and can be heard at the Princeton University Art Museum site, which is cited above.

John Donahue of the University of California-Riverside Department of Anthropology used the above illustration as a guide in constructing a replica of the Mayan friction drum. Donahue's essay describing his project is available online and includes a survey of friction drums found in the Americas, Africa and Europe (John A. Donahue [undated, circa 2000], Applying experimental archaeology to ethnomusicology: Recreating an ancient Maya friction drum through various lines of evidence, online at mayavase.com).

Here's Donahue's comments on the sound created by his replica of the Mayan original:

The sound emitted from the friction drum can be said to resemble a large animal, growling or purring. Of those for whom I played the replicated friction drum, many said upon hearing it that it sounded, or at least could be construed as sounding, like a purring or growling large animal, specifically a cat such as a jaguar. This might be attributable to the knowledge of many of the listeners that this was a replica of a Maya musical instrument, hence the immediate association of some with a jaguar. Still, given the descriptions of sounds produced by many of the friction drums surveyed here, I must say the observations of my listeners is telling.

The jaguar is the largest cat inhabiting Mesoamerica, and the Maya associated it with authority and the underworld. The garments worn by the dancer and two musicians, illustrated above, are decorated with black spots, which allude to the jaguar's spots and indicate the elevated status that the three illustrated figures held.