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About the Book

• Composer: Dave Nicolette

• Opus 18 (2011)

• Durations:

  • I. Yopihuehuetl 7:28 (synthesized audio)

  • II. Ocelotl 3:30 (synthesized audio)

  • III. Xipe Totec 6:38 (synthesized audio)

  • IV. Xochitlan 4:07 (synthesized audio)

  • V. Popocatepetl 8:52 (synthesized audio)

• Difficulty: 6

This is a relatively ambitious piece for concert band, for several reasons. It's over 30 minutes long and comprises 5 movements. It features extreme difficulty, exposed solo passages, and extended instrumentation.

The music is a set of tone poems inspired by life in the Aztec empire prior to the arrival of Europeans. The title is the nickname of the capital city, Tenochtitlan: "The heart of the one world."

In is the definite article ("the"); cem means one; anahuac means world; yoyotli means heart.

The first movement, Yopihuehuetl, centers on the ceremony of yopi. This is the one Aztec religious rite you may be aware of, unless you've studied the period. It's the ceremony in which the hearts of live sacrificial victims were cut out of their bodies and offered to the gods; primarily to the war-god, Huitzilopochtli, or Hummingbird-Wizard.

Different gods of the mesoamerican pantheon rose to prominence at different times among different peoples of the region. At the time of Hernán Cortés, the war-god was preeminent among the Aztecs (the Mexica or Nahua), who held sway over other peoples through military conquest.

It was the domination of the other regional peoples by the Aztecs that enabled the Spaniards to defeat them, as the subject peoples saw the newcomers' arrival as an opportunity to overthrow their oppressors. They didn't realize they were trading one oppressor for another...but then again, who ever does?

The word huehuetl means drum. The yopihuehuetl was also affectionately known as "the drum that tears out the heart." By some accounts, the yopihuehuetl was associated with Tlaloc rather than Huitzilopochtli, and was also known as the "thunder drum."

The instrument was a large frame drum. The Aztecs did not make drums with bodies, as did the Africans and Europeans of the same era. Even lacking a body, the drum could be heard quite some distance away.

The yopihuehuetl's use was not limited to religious ceremonies. It was used during battle to sow fear in the hearts of the enemy. The Spaniards faced this drum in their battles with the Mexica. Here is an excerpt from Crónica Mexicana, by Fernando Alvarado Tezozomoc (p. 173), as the tide of one such battle turned:

Y los soldados varoniles iban dando alcance a los toluqueños, diciéndoles "Volved, Volved, que a vuestro pesar nos habéis de tributar y ser nuestros vasallos." Y llegados a Tlacotepec, estaban allí mucha gente de refresco de los de Toluca aguardando a los mexicanos para darles por los espaldas. Y en esto llegó Axayaca con su poder y en viéndolos comenzó a tocar su tambor que alegría, que llaman yopihuehuetl, puesto su gran plumaje, e iba con tal prisa y corria que hacía estremecer de su ardimiento a sus enemigos.

My crude attempt at translation:

And the Baron's soldiers were overtaking the Toluqueños and telling them, "Come back! Come back so that you can pay taxes and be our vassals!" And at Tlacotepec (or Hill of Tlaco) many fresh people from Toluca were waiting for the Mexica to give back to [the enemy]. Seeing them, Axayaca came with his power and, adorned in his great plumage, began to play his drum joyfully, and was in a hurry and ran to shake his ardor toward his enemies.

The first movement of the piece includes a Nahua tune embedded with original material.

The second movement, Ocelotl, is a setting of a Nahua song in tribute to the Ocelot Warriors, who were the elite warriors of the Mexica.

It opens with a death whistle sound, written in the first flute part as a D. In the synthesized audio sample file, it just sounds like a D. The death whistle was actually a specially-designed instrument that produced a terrifying sound resembling human screaming. When performing the piece, it's best if an actual or reproduction death whistle can be obtained. Otherwise, the flute soloist can do their best to make a terrifying sound with their flute. (It's been done. Usually not on purpose.)

To get an idea of what a death whistle sounds like, check out this YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9QuO09z-SI

The third movement is inspired by the god Xipe Totec, or The Flayed One. Figurines and carvings depict Xipe Totec with crescent-shaped, closed eyes and a slack mouth, indicating that he was wearing the flayed skin of a person as clothing. According to an account of the ceremony of Xipe Totec related in The Major Gods of Ancient Yucatan, by Karl A. Taube (pp. 121-122), a priest would remove the skin of the sacrificial victim in two pieces - the head and the body - and would wear the skin with the exception of the feet and hands. He would then dance until he collapsed from exhaustion. Author Gary Jennings, in the novel Aztec, applies literary license to expand this description to horrific proportions.

The fourth movement, Xochitlan, reflects the Mexica warrior's afterlife, The Place of Flowers. This vision of an afterlife was not unlike the Vikings' Valhalla, or the Klingons' Sto-vo-Kor.

Dominating the landscape of the Mexica valley were, and still are, the twin volcanic peaks of Popocatepetl, or Smoking Mountains. The timpani take center stage in the fifth movement of the piece, as the volcanoes rumble and build up to an eruption.

About the Author

David Nicolette

Dave Nicolette is interested in software development, music, and science fiction.