Escenas de los Aztecas - LM550 | Music

The Aztecas created a very sophisticated civilization and economy in the area now known as Mexico City.
Much like the Romans of an earlier time, the Aztecs were great mathematicians, enineers and soldiers. They built monumental structures, including large pyramids for religious rituals, and massive strucutres in Tinochtitlán, their capitol city. Also similar to the Romans, they were brutally pagan, extremely violent by nature and constantly at war with their neighbors.

The Work has three recognizable sections, but it is cast in a single movement. The first portion, entitled "Jaguar Dance" employs a crude flute (ocarina), log drums and other Aztec instruments such as jawbones and rattle sticks to invoke a sort of folk dance celebrating the animal that the Aztecs worshipped and respected above all others: the jaguar.

The second portion of the work, first introduced by a lengthy English Horn solo, is called "Cantares", or "Ghost Dance". Cantares were mystical chants employed by Aztec high priests to invoke the return of their ghostly ancestors.

The third portion of the piece, "Human Sacrifice", is a moderate dance in 7/8 time, intended to invoke the horror of the massive Aztec religions sacrificial ceremonies, where thousands of captured prisoners from neighboring tribes were slaughtered atop the high pyramid as a gift to the various Aztec gods.

- Test piece 2nd division World Music Contest 2013 (WMC) in Kerkrade (The Netherlands) -