Aztec music: Did you mean...?

An illustration from the Florentine Codex depicting Aztecs storing maize.

Richard Wagner (1813-1883) was a German composer of Romantic music most famous for his epic operas like The Ring, Tannhäuser, and Tristan and Isolde. Wagner was concerned throughout his career with the theme of redemption through love and...

Aztec warriors in typical costume of elite ranks with back racks displaying group insignia. They each carry an obsidian-bladed spear. From the Codex Mendoza, folio 67. (Bodleian Library, Oxford)

An Aztec spouted jug. Mexico, 1450-1521 CE. (St. Louis Art Museum, Missouri)

An Aztec pendant representing an animal head and covered in turquoise mosaic and with eyes rendered in shell and pyrite. 1400-1521, Mexico. Height 10 cm. (British Museum, London)

An Aztec jade pendant in the form of a figurine. 15th century. (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)

The Aztec civilization of ancient Mesoamerica believed that dead warriors were reincarnated as hummingbirds or butterflies. These whistling pots often included such birds, and they were considered spiritual conduits. This fine specimen dates...

View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/music-and-creativity-in-ancient-greece-tim-hansen You think you love music? You have nothing on the Ancient Greek obsession. Every aspect of Greek life was punctuated by song: history, poetry...

Franz Liszt (1811-1886) was a Hungarian composer of Romantic Music. Liszt first gained international fame as a piano virtuoso, an activity in which he was a pioneer, and then as a composer of piano works and symphonic poems, a form he created...

Pedro de Alvarado (c. 1485-1541) was a Spanish conquistador who became the first governor of Guatemala in 1527. Living an extraordinary life of adventure, Alvarado participated in separate expeditions to Mexico, Central America, South America...