Brighton Early Music Festival 2006
The theme of the 2006 Brighton Early Music Festival is music and dance from Spain, Portugal and the New World. (Written/compiled by Ian Mursell/Mexicolore)
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Tunkul and friends outside Brighton Museum (Click on image to enlarge) |
On Saturday October 14th. the performing group Tunkul offered a highly unusual opportunity for some 25 local children to explore the rhythms and sounds that the Aztecs may have played in their ceremonies, with a collection of hands-on wind and percussion instruments that ranged from two-tone wooden tongue drums to large vertical skin drums, and from clay whistles to conch shell horns.
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Brighton children go Aztec! (Click on image to enlarge) |
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Tunkul performing at BREMF 2006 (Click on image to enlarge) |
Those taking part in the workshop in Brighton Museum presented a rehearsed piece as part of the public performance later in the afternoon in the Unitarian Church.
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The Unitarian Church reverberated with chanting and drums! (Click on image to enlarge) |
Tunkul’s performance at the Unitarian Church included music, chant, song and film projection.
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‘Aztec’ music may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but much fun was had by all... (Click on image to enlarge) |
The performance illustrated some key elements in Aztec public ceremonies: dedications to the 4 cardinal directions, pulsating rhythms growing steadily in volume and energy, dancers moving monotonously in an anti-clockwise direction round the musicians, a chant dedicated to ‘Mother, Father, Earth, Sun...’
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Participants’ ages ranged from 5 to 15... (Click on image to enlarge) |
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Ian directs the musicians (Click on image to enlarge) |