Here you will find native music by various groups in Santiago Atitlan. In Santiago most of the music is related to their religious beliefs.

We are limiting ourselves to recording the more authentic local music, and staying away from the music of the big, organized religions.

The oldest recorded form of music in Atitlan are the "songs of the earth" or the teaching songs. Until recently these were played by a single man with a five string guitar tuned in a strange, 15th century tuning. Most of the time there were no lyrics, as the melody (the "son") itself was enough to invoke the particular lesson that each song was about.

In the 70´s the young men came together and formed the first "tijax" group, playing the traditional songs but accompanied by guitars, mandolins, whistles, "tuns", drums and shakers. Now there are lyrics for every song. The "son" remains the same, the different groups just interpret them differently, and the lyrics, although always speaking about the same topic, are freely interpreted by the singer.

We have recorded two of the better "tijax" groups in town,Ixim Acha (Men of Corn) and Aj´Tzutjila (The Flower of the Corn) and I have united the best of the two and produced a CD called "The Sacred Teaching Songs of the Maya Tzutujil"

There are several other interesting local styles of music. A collection of these will be available from Discos Atitlan this year.

Aqui encontraras musica autoctona de diferentes grupos de Santiago Atitlan. En Santiago la mayoria de la musica preferida  es religiosa.

Aqui nos hemos limitado a grabar la musica autentica local, y hemos ignorado la musica de las religiones grandes y organizadas.

La clase de musica mas antigua recordada en Santiago son la "Canciones de la tierra", o las canciones educativas. Hasta recientamente fueron tocados por un solista con una guitarra de cinco cuerdas afinada a una afinacion del siglo 15. La mayoria de la musica no tenia letra, pues la melodia (el "son") era suficiente para invocar la leccion particular de cada cancion.

En los años 70 los jovenes comensaron a tocar esta musica en grupos de  "tijax", tocando las canciones tradicionales pero acompañado de guitarras, mandolines, pitos y flautas, tunes, tambores, maracas y otros instrumentos nativos. Ahora hay letra para todas las canciones. Los diferentes grupos interpretan  cada cancion a su forma, pero siempre se mantiene el "son" igual. La letra es cambiada y interpretada por el cantante, pero tiene que tratarse de el tema representado por el son.

Hemos grabado a dos de los mejores grupos de tijax y hemos reunido lo mejor de los dos para producir el CD llamado "Los cantos sagrados de los Maya Tzutujil"

Hay varios otros estilos de musica autoctona aqui. Estamos juntando una  colecion en disco que estara listo este año. 

The Sacred Teaching Songs of the Maya Tzutujil

Click on the CD cover to hear a sample. Señale con su mouse en la portada del CD para escuchar una muestra

A fine Anthropological collection of the trance songs that have stayed alive through the ages in this highland mayan town.

Una coleccion Antropologica de musica sagrada que se ha mantenido tras los siglos en este pueblo del altiplano maya.