Xylophone in Richard Strauss "Salome".

We, percussionists, very often play on instruments that, in reality, are not those that the composer indicated. We have the keyboard xylophone in "Bluebeard" (B. Bartok), a part impossible to play on a regular model xylophone; the glockenspiel parts in many works ("Magic Flute", Mahler #7, «Daphnis et Chloe», etc.), which are impossible to play by a single player using sticks, sleigh bells instead of Turkish crescent ("Pomp and Circumstance") and many other examples.

Sometimes we do not know that our instruments were different in past times, that they featured a different disposition of the keys and, when played on modern instruments, the parts become more complicated because the keys are now arranged in a different way. That is the case we will dicuss today, the famous and hard xylophone part in Richard Strauss´ "Salome".

The instrument Strauss wrote for is the «strohfiedel», «straw fiddle» or «four row xylophone». It was named like that because the wooden slats layed on bunches of straw. More precisely, Strauss asked in "Salome" for  «holz und stroh instrument» (literally, "wood and straw instrument"). Here you can see the beginning of the opera:

 

Here you can se its complete name ("Holz & Strohinstrument") at the beginning of the "Dance of the Seven Veils" (which is very often played as an independent piece):

Obviously, this is the xylophone Strauss had in mind when he was writing the part:

 

 

 

 

This "primitive" version of the xylophone had a trapezoidal shape and the pitches were arranged as follows:

 

 

 

And this is the excerpt we all know:

 

 

 

Played on a modern instrument (the keys arranged in a piano keyboard style) it is a hard nut to crack, as we have to avoid crossing the sticks and, because it is in C major, we have no "black keys" to use as a reference.

 

If, on the contrary, we use the original instrument for which Strauss orchestrated the part, things become much easier. Having a look at the graphic above we can see that, due to the particular arrangement of the keys in the "strohfidel", we just have to move each hand up and down one row each, making for a very simple and musical passage, without crossings nor complicated shifts. We can clerarly see that Strauss knew the instrument and that he wrote the part adapting to the "strohfiedel". When played on a modern xylophone all that simplicity and logic gets lost because we are using a different instrument that uses a totally different arrangement of the keys. Can you see why it is important to know the original instruments that the composers score for? 😉

Even more, have a look at these two excerpts:

 

 

 

When played on a «strohfiedel» both are much easier because of the disposition of the keys.

My opinion is that, whenever possible, we have to play the parts on the instruments they were originally written for, as that facilitates things very much.

What do you think about this part?, have you played it?, would you play it on a "strohfiedel"?

…et in Arcadia ego.

© David Valdés

"Bluebeard´s Castle"-Xylophone.

This month, the Asturias Symphony Orchestra is playing Bela Bartok´s opera "Bluebeard´s Castle". This work features one of the most unusual and difficult xylophone parts in the repertoire, and this article will deal with this particular issue.

The opera starts with a spoken introduccion which leads to seven scenes corresponding to seven rooms. Judith, Bluebeard´s wife, is free to wander through the castle, but she is not allowed to enter one particular room. Moved by curiosity, she cannot help but to enter every room. When she gets to the forbidden one, she opens the door, which means her condemn...

Bartok knew the xylophone very well, as he used it on "The Miraculous Mandarin", "The Wooden Prince", "Music for Strings, Celeste and Percussion", "Sonata fo Two Pianos and Percussion"... But, as Bartok was heavily influenced by popular music (we know him as a pioneer on ethnomusicology), the instrument he associated with the xylophone was the at that time already dated "Strohfidel".

© LEFIMA

The picture above shows a "Strohfidel" (a "straw fiddle", because the bars layed on straw instead of on a frame with resonators). This is the instrument Bartok was familiar with (and also Richard Strauss, as that´s how he literally names the instrument in several of his works), as it is omnipresent in Hungarian folk music, and it´s closely related to (also from a technical/interpretative point of view) the "dulcimer" or "cymbalon", very popular in Hungary as well (this instrument coming from the Persian "santur"). Bartok knew this instrument so well that when the "Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion" was first rehearsed, Saul Goodman (legendary timpanist for the New York Philharmonic and one of the musicians playing the premiere) was asked by the composer to remove the resonators from his "modern" instrument in order to better suit the sound of the "Strohfidel". 

Cymbalon (CC)

Santur © Afshin Max Sadeghi

Aas an introduction, the history of the "Strohfidel" is not bad, as it was the kind of xylophone Bartok was familiarized with, but this is not the instrument he scored for in "Bluebeard´s Castle"... Before going on, let me show you the music for those infernal excerpts:

You can hear the first fragment from 15:50 onwards, and the second from 37:52 onwards:

As you can see, all lines in the first passage are doubled in octaves, which gives as some clues... We also get some evidences from the three note chords in the second excerpt... Yes: Bartok scored for a keyboard xylophone. This is something we will write about in the future, but many of you (those informed and with knowledge of the repertoire) already know that many of the excerpts we play nowadays with mallets on the glockenspiel were originally scored for keyboard glockenspiel. This is very common with this instrument ("The Sorcerer´s Apprentice", "Magic Flute", "Pines of Rome", "Russian Eastern Festival Overture"...), but no so with the xylophone... We have one of the very rare occasions in which a composer scored for keyboard xylophone. And how does the instrument look like? Thanking Szabolcs Joó, percussionist for the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra for all the information and photos, exactly like this:

© Szabolcs Joó

© Szabolcs Joó

© Szabolcs Joó

© Szabolcs Joó

According to Mr. Joó, this is the precise instrument Bartok got to know. The orchestra of the Hungarian State Opera owned one keyboard xylophone and, while wandering around the theatre during rehearsals, Bartok saw it and decided to score for it in his opera (a typical case in which a composer scores knowing which instruments are available, as it was this orchestra the one which premiered the work). That instrument had very tiny keys, sounded weak as was hard to play, so a better one was built in time for the premiere. The one you can see in the pictures above is the "new" one, the one Bartok himself got to know, and the one used in the very first performance of "Bluebeard´s Castle" (quite impresive, isn´t it?).

Apart from the fact that this instrument is quite damaged (it´s more than one hundred years old), it works the same way as a piano, a keyboard glockenspiel or a celeste but, instead of the hammers hitting strings, metal bars or bells, they hit wooden bars. In fact, the mechanism is identical to that of a piano, the only difference being that hammers are made of hardwood.

What´s the problem? Played on a keyboard xylophone the part is very idiomatic, not hard to play at all (any pianist worth his salt can do it), but played on a "normal" xylophone, with "normal" mallets, it becomes extremely difficult to play... Bartok was not a mediocre, and knew very well what he wanted: he knew both the "Strohfidel" and the modern xylophone, but he also knew that scoring the part for any of these two instruments would make the part virtually imposible to play, so he scored for an instrument that allowed him to play the music in his head and, also, for an instrument he had at hand, "at home", right in the theatre that was about to premiere his opera.

There are serious difficulties if we are to play this part on a modern instrument. First, the octaves: they are impossible to play by a single percussionist (not even Teddy Brown would be able to play that nightmare...). Second: synchrony is very hard when the part is split between two percussioinists playing on two xylophones (the normal practice when no keyboard xylophone is available, which is the usual thing...).

Each job demands the proper tools and, in this case, if we want to play this passage perfectly and easily, a keyboard xylophone played by a pianist is the way to go. If we want things to get hard, nothing better than two percussionists on two xylophones spliting parts.

Well... This hard nut to crack turns up in audition lists quite often, so you better be prepared and practice it just in case. Also, if you want to rent one of these, Tristan Fry (legendary London based percussionist) owns two.

Last thing: the version I own is the one the London Symphony recorded in 1965 with Christa Ludwig and Walter Berry under István Kertész for DECCA.

© DECCA

Wow... Today we got to know a very rare instrument, and it happens to be the one Bartok himself used in the premiere of his "Bluebeard´s Castle". Many thanks to all the members in the "Orchestral Percussion Talk" group for their vast knowledge and their generosity for sharing it.

…et in Arcadia ego.

© David Valdés

Teddy Brown, a xylophone virtuoso.

As a percussionist, I always thought George Hamilton Green was the paradigm of the xylophonists, the virtuoso par excellence. His book is the Bible of the instrument, containing concepts I have incorporated to my playing (keeping wrists very low, using the edge on the accidental bars...). He was a prolific composer, a magnificent player and a successful teacher.

© Meredith Music

Apart from George Hamilton Green, my "xylophonistic radar" engaged George Lawrence Stone, Bob Becker, and few others. Recently, and thanks to the magic of the Internet, I have discovered a fantastic player: Teddy Brown.

Abraham Himmelbrand (that was his real name) was a man of rotund appearance, multi-instrumentalist, with an extraordinary musical talent, who played xylophone extraordinarily well.

A few videos:

See the ease on his playing, the use of the edge on the accidentals (magnificent that lateral shot), how low he keeps his wrists, those one handed scales.. A true virtuoso!

On this last video, he makes difficult things look easy, so confident... This song is quite cheesy, but makes me want to sing "walking in a winter wonderland".

Apart from being a terrific xylophone player, he was an amazing snare drummer. See his left hand on 0:25 onwards!

Here he is playing both instruments:

Teddy Brown: a natural talent and, sadly, not known among percussionists. Maybe, it was his premature death at 46, together with the fact that he left no legacy in the form of a book (something George Hamilton Green did) that condemned this player to oblivion.

…et in Arcadia ego.

© David Valdés

Xylophone - Firebird.

Today we´ll speak about a real technical and musical challenge: the xylophone part for Igor Stravinsky´s "Firebird". More specifically, we´ll discuss the "Danse de la Suite de Kastchei Enchantée par l´Oiseau de Feu".

Here´s the music:

When we play this excerpt, we have to get on to the tempo of the orchestra at 126, and think 16th notes to perfectly fit in when we start playing. It´s a wise thing to listen to the 16th notes played by the strings so, eight bars later, when we start playing, we are already in tempo and 16ths are nailed.

The tempo indication is 152. Obviously, this will depend on the maestro, so we better practise faster and slower speeds so as not to get surprised by different tempi. On this video, I´ve chosen a tempo of 165. It´s a (let´s say it that way) audition tempo, maybe not to musical, but it´s a speed that proves a panel I can play fast and accurate; it´s a tempo that, when competing with other candidates, can tip the scales in your favor (or not... Who knows!).

My phrasing idea until the "storm" of 16ths starts (four bars before 130) is as follows: A little weight on the first note, get all notes from that initial energy, and taper down at the end:

I don´t know if that phrasing can be heard due to the compression applied by the camera, but that was my intention.

Equally important is the dynamic gradation: piano at the beginning, mezzo piano four bars later on , mezzo forte at 129, forte at 130, etc... Again, that was my intention, but I don´t think the compression makes it easy to hear wat I wanted to communicate.

It´s crucial that, during the rest bars, we keep feeling the 16th note pulse and look at the condutor. You may have realized that I raise my head to stablish visual contact with the hypothetical maestro: never ever get caught by a conductor not looking at him. When ever possible (this excerpt, because of its difficulty, it´s not prone to this), I always raise my head from the instrument to look at the conductor.

We have to be very careful with the rhythm played by the strings in 128, as they start the bar with an 8th rest, producing a syncopation. Don´t let that confuse you: our tempo and rhythm have to be rock solid. The same happens at 129, where the motif is taken by the double basses:

Four bars before 130, I change the logical sticking and I start with my left hand so as to play the fourth interval  between D and A with my strong hand (right one).

Until 130, our job has been a "colouring" one but, from that rehearsal number on, we are doubling either the woodwinds or the strings. We always have to be careful with our playing, but specially when doubling, as mistakes are more obvious due to some other instruments playing our same line.

At 131 and 132, where we are playing an upper pedal together with the strings, even we have a "generous" dynamic, I prefer to play a little bit less to let the other motif to be heard.

With respect to the ending (four bars before the allegro feroce), some players do an accelerando to prepare the new tempo, but I think it´s more effective and dramatic to make the change súbito (so it has a more ferocious character), but that doesn´t depend on me, but on the man with the batton. In an audition, I prefer to stick to the paper (and my own taste) and not play it. Different conductors involve different interpretations but, in an audition, I prefer to literally play what is writen so the panel doesn´t have to think, is he doing the accelerando because he knows the music, or because he cannot keep the tempo? When in doubt, I prefer to stick to the paper.

Last thing: you can see I play the last note with my right hand (contrary to the natural sequence). With that, I try to get the note that is supposed to be the strongest one with the recquired energy (I´m right handed).   

I urge you to listen to this fantastic piece of music. Do not miss the tremendous ending.

…et in Arcadia ego.

© David Valdés