In his audio-visual presentation, Dr. Chalon Rodriguez discussed the music and musical instruments of the Inca, Maya and Aztec Cultures. He elaborated on the materials used to create these instruments, their musicality and the evidence confirming their existence. He showed slides of musical instruments from ceramics, murals, painted vessels, manuscripts, codices and other sources. He explored the time and places in which these instruments were used and examined their role in ceremonial and day-to-day functions as well as the musician's place in ancient society. Dr. Rodriguez also played recordings and music produced by original Pre-Columbian instruments, many of which he had on display.
Dr Chalon Rodriguez, a retired physician, has studied Pre-Columbian
cultures
for the past twenty years through lectures,courses, seminaries and
visits to
archaeological sites and principal museums throughout Mesoamerica and
South America. He has lectured on Pre-Columbian Music at the
The
Library of Congress,The Pre-Columbian Society of Washington, D.C.,
The
Center for Graduate Studies in Music of The Catholic University of
America, Washington, D.C..and at The Cultural Center of the
Inter-American Development Bank,Washington, D.C. Last spring
he
was invited to participate in the two-day Pre-Columbian Music
Workshop
at Dumbarton Oaks, Currently he is a volunteer in the Department of
Anthropology at the Smithsonian Institution's Natural History
Museum in
Washington, D.C