Though Ginastera had intended to write a total of eight movements for the piece, the composer died suddenly in June 1983, having completed only seven sections of the work.
Ormandy himself died in 1985 and the score remained nearly forgotten among Ginastera's papers until his friend the pianist Barbara Nissman brought it to the attention of Leonard Slatkin, then director of the St. Louis Symphony.
[1] Reviewing the world premiere, Michael Kimmelman of The New York Times gave Popol Vuh modest praise, remarking, "The piece offered enough coloristic charm, at least in this boisterous rendition, to sustain a listener's attention through the nearly 30-minute duration.
"[6] Andrew Clements of The Guardian observed, "As a torso it is still impressively coherent, though, in a style that leans heavily on the 'primitivism' of Stravinsky and Bartók, with textures dominated by a huge range of exotic percussion.
Despite noting its "vivid, subtle or mysterious sonorities," Oliver wrote, "Its six [sic] mostly brief movements are spasmodic rather than cumulative, the overall effect being of unrelated events that might just as well be played in a different order; my guess would be that Ginastera simply got bogged down in the piece.