Mayas had their own musical scale, say experts
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Celebratory Mural in the halls of Bonampak [Credit: wikipedia] |
This is the first study to be made of instruments preserved in the Maya Gallery of the National Anthropology Museum, and which include flutes, whistles, trumpets, ceramic horns, conch shells, turtle shells, rattles and bells.
According to INAH, taking part in the study are professional musicians charged with finding out how to play each instrument and identifying their musical scales, their notes and semitones.
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Three Maya flutes exhibited at the Museo Nacional de AntropologÃa e Historia, México [Credit: wikipedia] |
Museum director Diana Magaloni said that the objects have been analyzed from an archaeological point of view, but lack a study on how they work as musical instruments.
She said that this research project, developed by a group of experts from INAH and the National Autonomous University of Mexico, or UNAM, directed by scholar Francisca Zalaquett, will continue with some 200 pre-Columbian instruments from the Gulf cultures and 40 more from the Mexica culture.
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Conch Shell Trumpet [Credit: xxxicana] |
"The number of chords that can be played varies with the instrument - for example, whistles have produced up to four", and the triple flute up to 600 combinations.
Source: IANS [December 14, 2011]
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