Aztec music: Did you mean...?

Between c. 1700 and 1950, Western classical music evolved alongside profound political, social, and technological change, moving through four broad stylistic phases: Baroque, Classicism, Romanticism, and Modernism. The Baroque era (c. 1700–1750...

A scene from the 16th-century Florentine Codex depicting Aztec musicians. Music and dance were an important element of Aztec education and public life.

The Aztec Sun Stone (or Calendar Stone) depicts the five consecutive worlds of the sun from Aztec mythology. The stone is not, therefore, in any sense a functioning calendar, but rather it is an elaborately carved solar disk, which for the...

Aztec supreme god Huitzilopochtli with hummingbird-inspired look, book illustration by unknown artist, included in the Codex Tovar by Juan de Tovar, p. 240, 1582. John Carter Brown Library, Providence.

Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) was a French composer of classical music best known for his innovative piano pieces and orchestral works like Bolero and Daphnis et Chloé. Sometimes called an 'impressionist' composer, much was made of a practically...

Join World History Encyclopedia as they talk to Michael Levy, a prolific composer of the ancient lyre all about his inspiration and knowledge of the instrument. If you want to hear Michael perform, be sure to check out our video interview...

An Aztec ceremonial knife with a cedarwood handle and flint blade. The figure of the handle is covered in turquoise and shell mosiac and represents an Aztec Eagle knight. 1400-1521 CE. (British Museum, London)

Coatlicue (pron. Co-at-li-cu-e) or 'Serpent Skirt' was a major deity in the Aztec pantheon and regarded as the earth-mother goddess. Coatlicue is represented as an old woman to symbolise the antiquity of earth worship. Coatlicue was the patron...

The striking turquoise mask now in the British Museum in London is thought to represent Xiuhtecuhtli, the Aztec god of fire, and dates to the final century of the Aztec empire, c. 1400-1521 CE. It is made from hundreds of small pieces of...

Claude Debussy (1862-1918) was a French composer most famous for his piano and orchestral music. Works like Clair de Lune have become piano standards while La Mer, with its unusual use of instruments and impressionistic use of waves of sounds...