November 22nd, which means we celebrate St. Cecilia, Patron Saint of musicians.
Today is a special one as, exactly 100 years ago, Benjamin Britten was born in Lowestoft.
The musical coincidence doesn´t end here, as today I´ll be playing Britten´s "War Requiem" with the Asturias Symphony Orchestra, a real reason for celebration.
Nothing better to celebrate our day than "Hymn to St. Cecilia" by Britten himself.
From this post on, Percusize Me! will feature a new look. The former design was coherent with the one on David Valdes website, which had white backgrounds and typography and other elements were blue and purple but, as we announced on the post "New website", its design was changed, with the predominance of black, grey and white colours. For quite a few time, those two different layouts coexisted but, from now on, website and blog are coherent design wise.
This is not the only new thing we are introducing today... Due to the lack of a certain "blogging culture", Percusize Me! had no tags or any other organising means permiting content search or easier surfing. After a very meticulous process, all posts feature appropriate tags and, what´s even better, they are themed grouped.
In the upper part of the blog, right below the logo, there´s a menu with various tabs: you just have to click on one of them to access all content in the blog related to the clicked epigraph.
Let´s say you want to see all the articles related to timpani I have published on Percusize Me! Just click on the tab "Timpani", and you´ll gain access to all posts written about these instruments. It couldn´t be easier!
This way, the blog is well organized, and it´s much easier to surf.
I hope you you find these new improvements on Percusize Me! useful.
I had the privilege of getting lessons from John during the 1999 and 2000 International Percussion Courses in Cocentaina (Spain). Apart from getting to know an excellent person, I got to know a fantastic musician and teacher. I learnt from him many things that were totally new to me, like Indian talas and ragas and takadimi, he opened for me the door to frame drums and drum circles, made me get to know composers that had scaped my radar until that moment, and he totally surprised me with his vast and rich culture. It spoke very well about his interest in different disciplines the fact that his business card stated "percussionist, composer and gardener".
Remo had a signature line of instruments by him, and they featured a symbol that, to me, looked like the solar disc, so usual in agricultural societies, and very familiar to me (like the ones in Asturias -Northern Spain- where I grow up).
On commenting that similarity to him, he responded it was something else: four inverted "9" deployed as radius emerging from a common center.
For him, perfection was represented by number 9, as adding the figures in all its multiples always resulted in "9".
An example:
9x2=18; 1+8=9
9x3=27; 7+2=9
9x4=36; 3+6=9
9x5=45; 4+5=9
9x6=54; 5+4=9
9x7=63; 6+3=9
9x8=72; 7+2=9
9x10=90; 9+0=9
9x11=99; 9+9=18; 1+8=9
9x12=108; 1+0+8=9
9x13=117; 1+1+7=9
9x14=126; 1+2+6=9
..........
His mathematic perception of the world was not on a decimal base, but on a base-9 one, to which he attributed perfection, thus the symbol on his instruments.
Fascinated by his theory, we exchanged letters for some time. I would send him objects related to the solar disc because of the similarity with his symbol, and he would send me some CDs. I have linked some important events in my life with the number 9 symbology, influenced by John.
You may remember that, sometime ago, I wrote an article showing various rolling techniques for tambourine. That article was "Tamborine technique V. Rolls".
Ross Antonich, a follower of this blog, has got in touch with me asking about the roll we named "Riq style roll" in that article.
Trying to clarify as many points as possible regarding this rolling technique, I recorded the following video. On it, I explain how to hold the instrument and the motions producing the roll, all of them coming from the riq tradition.
This technique is a very versatile one, allowing us to play very long rolls with total fluidity, at every dynamic level and, if so we wish, articulating its beggining and ending.
I hope this video clarifies all points regarding this technique and you find it useful.
As you already know, I love learning new "tricks" and techniques so I can integrate them into my "musical arsenal". If you know of any you think I should learn, do not hesitate to contact me to tell me about it.
Sometime ago, in the article "Percussion Orchestrations in Spanish", I showed you a website named "Percussion Orchestrations" administrated by Ed Cervenka which, among other services, explains the distribution and parts of percussion instruments for more than 7500 works of the symphonic, operatic and contemporary repertoire. On that article I explained how I translated that web into Spanish.
It also contains an instrumental dictionary in several languages, but at the moment it was decided not to translate it due to the very hard work involved. Well, we are not afraid of difficulties, and the website that is now a worldwide reference, can now offer that database in Spanish.
After a looooooooooong time without writing (will explain why in a future article), I´m back to the office, retaking Percusize Me!, and willing to update it with the frequency I used to.
I´m sure you all know the importance the bass drum part has in this piece... Well, my colleague Sam Staunton, in charge of playing it, hired the services of the "little boy" you can see here:
This bass drum was built by Empire Drums, legendary percussion company located in London. It closed down several years ago, and much of its material was purchased by Bell Percussion (in fact, I remember eBay auctions selling huge amounts of instuments when the company went out of business). This bass drum is now part of Bell´s backline, and it can be rented. You can see it HERE.
It measures nothing more and nothing less than 66" in diameter (around 1.70 meters). Taking into account that a 40" (1 meter) drum is considered "big", you can get an idea of the size of this instrument...
I couldn´t measure its depth (I normally don´t carry an imperial measuring tape arround...), but it´s fairly shallow. You can see it in the next photo.
In this other picture, I have used a Tom Gauger TG04 mallet as a reference. The stick is 15 3/4", so the depth of this drum is roughly 16". We shouldn´t be surprised by the shallowness compared to its diameter, as this is quite common with British bass drums ("gong drums" are quite popular in this country: fairly considerable diameter, shallow, single headed... Many orchestras still use this design nowadays, the London Symphony among others).
In the two following photos you can see the claws, tension rods and lugs controlling the counter-hoop. It´s pretty obvious they are not very practical, as you cannot access them from the front, and you need a key in order to manipulate them. You better like the sound Bell provides the drum with, as trying to change it is a pain in the ass.
With regard to the size of the head, well... you can get an idea! There´s no cow in the world with enough skin so as to make a natural head for this drum (we would need a diplodocus!). The head is synthetic, and was made on purpose by Remo. Even this maker had problems making a head this big... In the two following photos you can see a line crossing the head: that´s the point where two sheets of material were joined, as not even their biggest sheet was enough to cover such a big surface.
It also features a plaque honouring the builders of this instrument, but it´s a shame it doesn´t mention a date. Will try to get in touch with Bell and investigate the age of this bass drum.
Despite I used an oversized set of timpani (32", 32", 29" and 26", which is far for negligible in terms of size), they paled size-wise with respect to the "monster" I had next to me.
After that much information, the only thing left is to see it in action. This video was recorded during the first rehearsal by Phil O´Kane. The sound is not great, as a a domestic camera was used, but you can get a rough idea (although the ideal thing would be to feel its lows in person...).
By the way... Have you realized Sam, even when playing the tutta forza strokes, remains seated? This may remind you the "To sit, or not to sit? That is the question" article.
