Session: Hompak: The Mayan Trumpet Rediscovering the Trumpet from the Land of the Jaguar with Armida Rivera Reyes

Prelude: William Carey University Trumpet Ensemble

In many cultures, past and present, music has played and still plays a significant facilitator role, in the efforts made by man to communicate with the gods and to talk about them. At the same time, the human musical capability has been and is often ascribed to mythology and supernatural origin.

Maya culture is not an exception, judging by the rich treasure of pictorial sources where man is depicted undertaking his incursions to other worlds, frequently under the influence of the sound of rattles, drums, turtle carapaces, flutes, trumpets, voices, and dancing movements. Simultaneously, those sources show the same mundane musical practices reflected and multiplied throughout the different strata and spheres of the Maya cosmos.

The subject of Mayan trumpets is by no means a new field of study for Hispanic cultural scholars. This study has been planned to examine the Mayan trumpet according to archeology, society and the sound of music.