Music of Guatemala

Music has always been important in Guatemala and fiestas, rituals and religious ceremonies are tight-knit with traditional music and its typical instruments. The marimba, Guatemala’s national musical instrument, is played throughout the country. Usually the marimba, member of the xylophone family, is played by several men accompanied by other percussion instruments and a string bass. The ancient Mayan instrument is made of wood from the palo de hormiga (ant wood) also called palo de marimba.

Traditional dances are accompanied by a rich assortment of traditional instruments such as drums of various type (like the ones made of tortoise shell), flutes or rattles. There are many different dances performed in the Maya villages all over Guatemala. Some of those masked dances, such as the Danza de Venado (deer dance), have their origins in the pre-conquest Maya culture. The wooden masks are still hand-crafted and represent characters like birds, monkeys, serpents or Moors for the famous Baile de Christianos y Moros which shows the conquest of Spain by the Moors.