page_title: Sinfonía india
section_title: Instrumentation
hierarchical_section_title: Sinfonía india / Instrumentation
context_page_description: Sinfonía india is Carlos Chávez's Symphony No. 2, composed in 1935–36. In a single movement, its sections nevertheless follow the traditional pattern for a three-movement symphony. The title signifies the fact that the thematic material consists of three melodies originating from native-American tribes of northern Mexico. The symphony is Chávez's most popular composition.
context_section_description: The symphony is scored for two piccolos (the second interchangeable with third flute), two flutes, three oboes, E♭ clarinet, two clarinets, bass clarinet, three bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, two trombones, timpani, percussion (four players), harp, and strings.
  The percussion section originally included a large number of indigenous Mexican instruments, for example the jicara de agua (half of a gourd inverted and partly submerged in a basin of water, struck with sticks), güiro, cascabeles (a pellet rattle), tenabari (a string of butterfly cocoons), a pair of teponaxtles, tlapanhuéhuetl, and grijutian (string of deer hooves). When the score was published, the composer substituted their nearest equivalents in commonly used orchestral percussion, but requested that the originals be used wherever possible (Chávez 1950; García Morillo 1960, 91; Slonimsky 1945, 44, 216, 234).
caption: Aztec musicians playing teponaztli (foreground) and huéhuetl, both called for in the Sinfonía india
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