Percussion Orchestrations in Spanish.

Organizing a percussion section, where every work recquires a different number of percussionists, different instruments, asigning parts to musicians…, is a hard task. This involves the principal (who asigns parts, determines which instruments are to be used, where to set them up…), the stage mannager (who is in charge of the logistics), the personnel mannager (who contracts the extra percussionists needed), the artistic comitee and the music director (in charge of deciding the works to be played during the season).

All this hard work was done by the orchestras themselves, as there was not a global archive with all the repertory specifying the distribution of parts, number of extras needed, what instruments to use, if they can be shared among musicians… It was back in 2004 that Percussion Orchestrations landed on the internet filling that gap.

© Percussion Orchestrations

This powerful site is now a fundamental tool for orchestras arround the world. Since early this year, it´s not only written in English: it also features an Italian, German, French and Spanish version.

© Percussion Orchestrations

I was in charge of translating the web into Spanish, and I´d like to thank Ed Cervenka (founder of Percussion Orchestrations) for the confidence he put on me to make this project possible.

© Percussion Orchestrations

Visit Percussion Orchestrations. As percussionists, I´m sure you will find it of great interest.

…et in Arcadia ego.

© David Valdés

"The Typewriter"

New year, new post...

As the Gijón Symphony Orchestra was including "The Typewriter" (Leroy Anderson) for its New Year´s Concert, I thought it would be funny to tape a rehearsal and share this unusual experience (because of the instrument being played) with you.

The original score suggests two aditional percussionists (apart from the "typer"): one in charge of the bell, and other one imitating the carriage with a güiro. For the sake of the theatrical aspect, and for a better rhythmical fit, I decided to play everything myself. I also added some "notes" that were not on the original score, which I think make for a better phrasing.

This is the result:

Voilá... My letter to Santa is ready!

I´d like to whish you all a very happy, musical and percusive 2012.

…et in Arcadia ego.

© David Valdés