Friday 22 November 2013

St. Cecilia 2013.

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. 




Enjoy this day, both musicans and music lovers.


…et in Arcadia ego.
© David Valdés

Tuesday 29 October 2013

Percusize Me! has been redesigned and organized.

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.  


© David Valdés

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.

Regards.


 …et in Arcadia ego.
© David Valdés

Sunday 20 October 2013

In Memoriam John Bergamo.

Yesterday, October 19th, 2013, John Bergamo has passed away.


© Hands On´Semble

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). 


© Remo

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.

Yesterday, a great person has gone.

Rest in peace.


…et in Arcadia ego.
© David Valdés

Wednesday 16 October 2013

Tambourine technique VI. Rolling using riq techniques.

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.


…et in Arcadia ego.
© David Valdés

Thursday 10 October 2013

Happy 200 birthday, Mr. Verdi!

On a day like this in 1813, Giuseppe Verdi was born in Le Roncole. To commemorate this date, I´m enclosing a video the Gijón Symphony Orchestra recorded on January 10th 2010 at Teatro Jovellanos in Gijón, together with the Orfeón Donostiarra and the soloists Svetla Krasteva, Lola Casariego, Mario Malagnini and Martin Tzonev, all of them under the baton of Óliver Díaz.




Percusize Me! has already written about this composer, so here are the links to the articles on which he was mentioned: 





Looking forward to play his music again, I hope you enjoyed the video.


…et in Arcadia ego.
© David Valdés

Sunday 9 June 2013

"Percussion Orchestrations" instrumental dictionary.

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.


© Percussion Orchestrations
 
This new service has been online since last april, and Ed Cervenka announced this update on the corresponding newsletter.


© Percussion Orchestrations

There are still some details to be refined, and some descriptions may be added, but the main corpus is already done.

I encourage you to visit this  website, and if you work in an orchestra, you will find it essential.


…et in Arcadia ego.
© David Valdés

Sunday 26 May 2013

A king size bass drum.

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.

On May 17th and 18th, I played Verdi´s "Requiem" with the Ulster Orchestra. JoAnn Falletta was on the podium, and the choir was the union of the Belfast Philharmonic Choir and Codetta. Concerts took place at the Belfast Waterfront Hall and the Derry-Londonderry Millennium Forum.

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:

© David Valdés

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.

© David Valdés

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). 

© David Valdés

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.

© David Valdés
© David Valdés

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.

© David Valdés

© David Valdés

Now, compare the size of the stamps you can have on your Remo heads on your snare drums with the one on this... It´s almost the size of my hand!

© David Valdés

The cradle is very solid (and heavy!), and the bars sustaining the drum are covered with cork.

© David Valdés
© David Valdés
© David Valdés

It features two vent holes in two diametrically opposed points on the shell (next to the stickers advertising its new owners).


© David Valdés

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.

© David Valdés

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.   


…et in Arcadia ego.
© David Valdés