Percusize Me!: David Valdés

Showing posts with label David Valdés. Show all posts

Friday, 24 May 2019

Do it yourself historical rope drum (IV)

Today is the last instalment of the making process of my own historical rope drum. You can see the first part HERE, the second one HERE, and the third one HERE.

Just so you can remember, this is how the drum looked like at the end of part 3:

The first thing I did was making ten leather ears. They tense the rope, and I made them using the same materials and procedures described in "Restauration of a rope drum". This is the result:

I bought a couple of natural skin heads (the batter one thicker, the resonant one thinner) mounted on wooden flesh hoops at Baena Sonido and, with quite a few metres (around 20) of hemp rope and lots of patience, I started roping the drum:

Here´s a detailed view of the ears I made:

Here you can see the pig tail (historically correct. See the iconography in part 3):

Once the roping job was done, I started working on the snares. For that, I soaked quite a few metres of natural gut I also bought at Baena Sonido:

Once flexible, I tied a bowline knot to the butt plate I bought at Cooperman:

I, then, passed the gut through the "J hook" strainer I also bought at Cooperman:

After six passes, here is the rear part:

The front part:

These are the snares on the resonant head:

Here´s a detail of the drag rope (used to hang the drum from a shoulder when not playing and to carry the instrument here are there):

The pig tail. See how the rope was interweaved to add more tension to the heads:

This is how I secured the drag rope. See the leather thread I used to stop the end from undoing:

My job could have finished here, but I wanted to add some more details. So, I secured a bronze British style carry hook to the batter counterhoop I bought at Cooperman. This allows the drum to be hung from a sling:

I also added three bronze legs to the batter counterhoop (which I also bought at Cooperman). Historically, when the drummer was not playing and was resting or doing something else, he would have put the drum on the ground, but always on the batter counterhoop. The snare counterhoop had the drag rope, and it would have been in contact witht the ground (we have to remember these kind of drums were played outdoors, on grass, ground, mud...), and that would have damaged it. Also the snare and the strainer (delicate parts) could have been damaged. Because of that, the drum was always put on the floor on the batter counterhoop, and these legs were used to separate and isolate the drum from the ground. Historically, always three:

Here you can see the drum on the floor, on the batter counterhoop, and how the legs keep it away from the floor:

Here you can see the batter counterhoop with all its "things" (carry hook and legs):

Finally, a photo showing the finished drum:

I think it´s gorgeous, and I can tell you it sounds fantastically well. Thanks to this drum (16"x16") and the other one I own (14"x14"), I have plenty of colours to play early music. I will upload some audio files in future articles. Do you like this drum?

…et in Arcadia ego.

Wednesday, 15 May 2019

Do-It-Yourself "baguettes d´éponge".

Berlioz was a composer who showed a great interest in percussion, and his contributions were crucial for the development of this instrumental family. Always trying to improve the sound timpanists could get from their drums, one of his indications was "baguettes d´éponge" ("sponge sticks"). When I had to play his "Symphonie Fantastique", I thought it was the perfect time for me to make a pair of them.

It seems like historical sponge sticks were made with a variety named "elephant ear", very abundant in the Mediterranean Sea at that time, but because I needed them quite urgently, I wasn´t very worried about being very HIP. So, a normal sponge would do... I sliced it into two sheets and cut two circles to cover the heads.

As always, I made two tonkin sticks:

I stuffed and rounded the ends to make them nice in the hands:

Added two wooden ball heads.

I sewn the two sponge discs.

Added some red thread as a cosmetic thing:

Voilà! I now have a pair of "baguettes d´éponge" so I can play the romantic repertoire:

What kind of sticks have you used when confronted with this indication by berlioz? Would you like trying some real sponge headed sticks?

…et in Arcadia ego.

Wednesday, 10 April 2019

Do It Yourself Turkish crescent.

You already know how much I like historical percussion and early music. I have been wanting a Turkish crescent for quite a long time, so I bought some stuff and decided to go for it. Before going on, I´d like to introduce you to the instrument: a Turkish crescent ("jingle Johnny", "chapeau chinois", "pavillon chinois", "schellenbaum", "cevgen", "capell cinese", "padiglione cinese", "mezza luna"...) is an instrument many centuries old, but Europeans got to know it in the 16th century because of the Turkish elite troops, the jannisaries. It was inmensely popular as a military instrument (both in bands and orchestras) untill the 19th century, falling into oblivion since then. Lully, Haydn, Beethoven and Berlioz were some of the composers who wrote for it, and it was an important member of the sistri, being part of the bassa musica in the Italian opera from the ottocento.

"Gabinetto armonico" (Filippo Bonanni)

Here we can see a manuscript note stating the percussionists in the percussion section of La Scala during the 1843 spring season. We can see the Turkish crescent was part of the section (it ALWAYS was, and it was ALWAYS played together with the bass drum and the cymbals. The parts were never written, but it went without saying -see Lichtenthal, Picchianti, Dacci and others-). We can also see two different players are assigned for the bass drum and the cymbals, which busts the myth of both instruments being played "alla turca" (by one player) in Italian opera (we also have poster bills, hand bills, payrolls, documents, iconography and letters proving this). As a curiosity, because the date (1843) and the mention of a drummer, we can deduce "Nabucco" was still being played (it was premiered in 1842). "Nota dei professori d´orchestra al servizio dell I. R. Teatro La Scala per la stagione di primavera dell´anno 1843. Timpani: Carlo Antonio Boracchi, tamburo: Augusto Stehle, triángolo: Leonardo Negri, capell-chinese: Antonio Sala, piatti: AntonioTangi, gran cassa: Gaetano Rossi".

My project started with a visit to the local flea market, where I bought a horrendous old lamp. Ugly as hell, but perfect for the idea I had in mind...

I dismateled it down to pieces, took the cables off, cleaned it...

The "wings" of my crescent would be the lamp arms, which I attached to the "vases" holding the bulbs. I first marked two diametrically oposed points...

...and then drilled, first marking with a punch so the bit doesn´t slip. Then I used progresively larger bits untill I got to the desired diametre.

Then it was just a matter of screwing the "wings" using the same nuts the lamp already had.

With the "wings" done, all pieces ready, and using the central rod the lamp already had, I started skewering and combining the different pieces. I also hang sleigh bells from the different "umbrellas". As always, I punched before drilling, and then used progresive sizes of bits. I attached the sleigh bells using leather straps.

Looking for inspiration I found this crescent. I liked the bottom part very much, so I tried something similar:

How to do it? I had some cymbals laying around. I collected then when I was trying to learn how to weld bronze. One of them was a 10" Sabian Pro Sonix, the only blemish being some cracks around the hole. Perfect for the job! Using an angle mat I marked 20 points:

I marked and drilled as usual, got rid of the logos to make it look more "authentic" and "historical" and hang the bells around its perimetre using leather straps:

This is how it looks on the instrument:

As you can see, the central rod is visible, as I ran out of lamp parts to cover it, so I paid another visit to the flea market to get another batch of horrendous lamps...

Here´s how it ended up. You can also see how I finished off the whole thing at the end (using one of the remaining "cups"):

I added sleigh bells to the new "umbrellas":

I also covered the holes the "dome" still had. I got some extra volutes at a scrap yard (which I visited to get raw material for a project I´ll write about in the future 😉). I used a file to shape the arms to the round surface of the "dome", and fixed them using screws:

I added some more bells, and this is the final result on the "dome":

As a final detail, I added the horse hair traditionally present on these instruments.

I bought some red tassels at a local haberdashery and hang them from the lower arm:

Now, a pole was needed to hold the whole thing, so I got a bronze finished curtain pole at Leroy Merlin.

I also got some door stoppers, which I lightly sanded, to help me put everything together.

Now I just had to stuff the "Christmas tree" into the pole:

Because this instrument is sometimes played hitting the floor, I kept the rubber feet the pole already had.

I also made some pads using yoga mats should maestri don´t want the stompig noise against the floor.

I was able to make an instrument which was inmensely popular for some centuries and was abandoned when orchestras increased in size, bass drums and cymbals became larger and larger and their volume covered the sound of the Turkish crescent, making it useless. Nowadays, this instrument is a must if you are into historically informed performance. Would you add it to your section? 😉 Stay tuned, as I will soon upload some video files.

…et in Arcadia ego.

Posts by themes

Percusize Me! en español.

Friday, 24 May 2019

Do it yourself historical rope drum (IV)

Wednesday, 15 May 2019

Do-It-Yourself "baguettes d´éponge".

Wednesday, 10 April 2019

Do It Yourself Turkish crescent.