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Tube of delight!

#1 2009-03-22 12:47:59

axolotl
Member
From: Los Angeles
Registered: 2007-11-16
Posts: 215
Website

My first 'concert': playing shakuhachi during a shamanistic wedding(!)

Guess I forgot to mention this when I came back from Mexico, but I participated in a Mexica wedding ceremony when I was down there--on shakuhachi, no less.  My wife's friend was marrying her Mayan boyfriend on a little island in the north Yucatan, far from any tourists.  It was a wonderful merging of Aztec culture (the bride, the shaman), surrounded by a loving Mayan family.  When Mario, the shaman, heard me practicing shakuhachi the day before, he asked me to play music during the ceremony.  This was a modified version of the tortilla ceremony, if anyone is familiar with Mexica traditions.  It was very beautiful. 

I had to play against the omnipresent eastern wind, and didn't know when events would start and stop, but it worked out.  I had to twirl with Mario and the groom to the four cardinal directions, and the earth and the sky, and play along with his conch, which happened to be in Eb--so, high Eb I played, even when kneeling against the wind.  For each step in the ceremony, I played different little simple tunes in an attempt to reflect what was going on.  Loads of fun.  In addition to practicing my Spanish immersively, I got to hear Nahuatl during the ceremony and learned a little Mayan at the reception (and helped roast the groom, which was hilarious). 

If anyone has the opportunity to go to San Felipe, Yucatan, know that a shakuhachi has played there!

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