1st anniversary prize draw results.

As you may remember from the post "Percusize Me! is now one year old", to celebrate the first anniversary of the blog we have organized a prize draw consisting of two DVD´s of the Gijón Symphony Orchestra performing G. Verdi´s "Requiem" together with the Orfeón Donostiarra, all under the baton of Óliver Díaz.

The winners are:

Daniel San Martín

Jesús Lorenzo Peña

We will soon get in touch with them to have their DVD´s sent.

Spread the word, recommend Percusize Me! to your friends, every percussionist has to know about this fantastic blog!

…et in Arcadia ego.

© David Valdés

Flam Paradiddle-diddle.

Practising, studying and analysing the rudiments has made me realize the PAS list has quite a few errors on it. Before going on, you can download that list for free from the PAS website.

The rudiment we are going to analize is the Flam Paradiddle-diddle, which appears on the PAS list as follows:

Obviously, this rudiment comes from the Single Paradiddle-diddle:

The first problem arrises with the name of this basic rudiment: “Single Paradiddle-diddle”. As there´s no other rudiment named “Double Paradiddle-diddle” or “Triple Paradiddle-diddle”, I see no need in using "Single" to name it. All drummers in the world have had no problem identifying this rudiment as “Paradidle-diddle”. Also, it´s the only rudiment in the Paradiddle family which its pattern is written twice (see the pdf file from the previous link). The Paradiddle, Double Paradiddle and Triple Paradiddle being written twice makes sense, as these rudiments alternate hands on each beat so, before you complete a full cycle and start again with the same hand, two patterns of the rudiment have passed, thus the doble writing making sense. That´s not the case with the Paradiddle-diddle, as it always starts with the same hand, thus writing its pattern twice is not necesary.

So, the Paradiddle-diddle always starts with the same hand, and this where I think the mistake with the Flam Paradiddle-diddle comes from. Logic makes us think that the Flam Paradiddle-diddle is nothing but a Paradiddle-diddle with the adition of a flam (and that´s exactly how it is), but I think that adition of a flam should not alter in any way the sticking of the basic rudiment on which it is based. That´s where the problem lies: the Flam Paradiddle-diddle alternates hands on each beat, while his “dad” (the Paradiddle-diddle) doesn´t. Again, here are the pictures for you to check this inconsistency:

To me, it makes no sense at all to alter the basic sticking of a rudiment just because we are adding a flam. In my modest opinion, this is the correct way the Flam Paradiddle-diddle should be written:

Here´s a video on which I´m comparing both versions at different tempi:

This is my idea about the Flam Paraddidle-diddle. I think the transcription mistake is evident. What´s your opinion on this subject?

…et in Arcadia ego.

© David Valdés

Percussion archeology.

So used to see them in the orchestra, we don´t realize that many of the percussion instruments have an "exotic" origin. Today, we´ll talk about them.

To get in situation, we have to know janissaries, elite corps serving the Turkish Sultan. These troops were young christians trained under a strong discipline, and they got to constitute a fearful army which expanded the Ottoman Empire through North Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, Greece, Albania, Hungary, Romania... They even sieged Vienna.

These elite troops were accompanied by military bands (the oldests known) named mehter. We know these bands existed in the VIIIth Century, and Europeans got to know this musical expresion in the Crusades. Timpani, first percussion instruments to join the orchestra, were used by janissary to frighten the enemy in the battle field. Later on, and always to suggest a military or eastern carachter, European composers added these mehter instruments to the orchestra. So, the bass drum-cymbals-triangle combination became a standard, and was used by Mozart in "The Abduction from the Seraglio", by Haydn in his "Military Symphony", Beethoven in his Symphony No.9... The new instruments added to the orchestra were:

Zil. Even today, the best cymbals are those from Turkey, and we have to remember there´s a brand named Zildjian.

© mehter.co.tr

Dabul. Ancestor of our bass-drum. See the use of a light stick in the left hand, which still is used today in historically informed peformances.

© mehter.co.tr

Kös, obviously related to timpani.

© mehter.co.tr

Nakkere. Greatly used in Spain during the Middle Ages.

© mehter.co.tr

Other important instrument (know in disuse) was the turkish crescent or "jingle-johnny":

© mehter.co.tr

Mehter bands looked like this:

I thougt this kind of music was lost centuries ago, but YouTube gives me (again) a nice surprise in the form of some pieces of musical archeology.

To prove the influence of Turkish music in Europe, and how new instruments joined the orchestra, here we have Mozart´s "The Abduction from the Seraglio" overture, played by the Wiener Symphoniker (see the bass drum played with rute):

From Rossini "Il Turco in Italia" (I love this version, with rope bass-drum, played with rute, and very small and thick cymbals). This version is by the Orchestra of the Opernhaus Zürich:

"Military Symphony" (F. J. Haydn), second movement. Nick Woud on baroque timps with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra:

…et in Arcadia ego.

© David Valdés