Mystical Melodies: Icnocuicatl - A Journey into Indigenous Sounds with Lila Downs

Icnocuicatl SONG OF NOSTALGIA/LILA DOWNS

A NAHUATL FOLK - From her 2000 Album Tree of Life/rbol de la Vida Several of the songs on the album are sung in native Mexican languages such as Mixtec, Zapotec and Nahuatl. A masterpiece shrouded in mysticism from ancient codices. Sequestered indigenous spirits emerge incarnate in and astonishing voice that can be heard. A selection of Native Oaxaca folksongs in modern interpretation. Her arresting dynamics and depth of feeling are evident in spades of the CD. Lila Downs, played and sang in movie Frida, 2005 Grammy Latino. ICNOCUICATL / LILA DOWNS

SENSUAL PLANE: The Icnocuicatl is hard to translate, the song is simple and purely aboriginal, the sad tune caught people immediately as it seems to come from the ancient indigenous spirits. It s precious, a quality piece of music, seriously treated musically. The slow procession and native language sung by Lila Downs make it a bit Sad. The melody flows back and forth with bridge repetition is haunting. Something very special, ethereal, otherworldly, a communique from her ancestors, poetry from long gone souls for the living to learn from. Voice touches a deep cord in listener s soul. Ocarina made from clay (the Earth) is very earthy and heart touching. ICNOCUICATL / LILA DOWNS

EXPRESSIVE PLANE Sad mood, a bit funeral like. But the reincarnation into a hummingbird make it a bit lighter than the western style funeral as shown in Berlioz s Fantasy. Truly the lyrics mentioned about death. Although it s a nostalgia folksong, built upon the original language of native culture, it s not nostalgia in any sense of western music. Even in Nahuatl lyrics, the music speaks in words that connect straight to your heart. The song coupled with Uno Muerte, another ethereal Mixtec song to the celestial deity: sun/you decompose the dead/ and transform death into life Huitzizilin(onomatopoeic) sounds vivid -blissing, bright like sunshine. The Sun -Aztec God. Ancient, far, earthly-deep. Huitzilopochtli is the War and Sun God, deco of Hummingbird. ICNOCUICATL / LILA DOWNS

MUSICAL PLANE One acoustic guitar, surely unplugged, accompany one vocal. Muted clay pots and drum. Crafting a vocal waltz or lullaby in figurative and literal terms, the song opens with a subdued Ocarina solo into which Downs' voice flows almost indistinguishably, an airy blending of tonalities. Percussions include pre-Columbian and Mexican folk instruments. Slow, three-meter rhythm, Strophic form, basically 2 phrases matching the lyric couplet. A bridge of pure instrumental playing, then only the second half of the song is repeated, a bit change, reaching climax. Stable rhythm, same guitar pattern accompany the repeated phrases, clay flute and drum make the repetition more haunting. ICNOCUICATL / LILA DOWNS

LILA DAWNS Born in Oaxaca, Mexico, her mother's home, Downs finds artistic inspiration in the indigenous traditions of greater Latin America, making her music a compelling cosmopolitan hybrid of indeterminate cultural identity, an organic expression of her own mixed background. Downs studied music and anthropology at the University of Minnesota, where her father taught, and at Oaxaca's University of the Arts. In the song, Lila delivers her message eloquently with native and modern background including clay flute (Ocarina) and pots and drums that do not distract but further accentuates her marvelous voice. Mixtec images from various codex s were borrowed and are colorfully integrated, which appeals to the anthropologists as Downs music delves deep into her Mixtecan roots. She ha descended from the clouds in the mountain of Oaxaca to share her ethnic vision, like the hummingbird. Downs through her activism has gone through great lengths to preserve the Mixtec language as well as many other Indigenous Mexican languages. Besides her musical career, she involves herself withhumanitarian causes and political activism, especially dealing with issues ofLatin America's indigenous population.

The musical interpretation reveals her superb ensemble as finely adept in the folkloric realm she explores here, demonstrating her vocal ability withtraditional music, Latinand American influences. Treatment and sung like an Art song, Lied we recently learned. Downs thus offers an extraordinary series of visions animated by the capricious and enduring figures of Mexican indigenous folklore. Lila Downs delivers interpretation that are exquisite manifestation of her native root and aboriginal being. As a woman role, her earthy, soul & spiritual connections. Tree of Life draws its revelatory character in great degree from the Mixtec codices, a hieroglyphic rendering of the history of her mother's people. Like the Aztec Sundial or Calendar, song titles of nine wind, seven grass, three flint, and seed of stone are sung and this reincarnation into hummingbird, end with one death, the Sun.