Lately, I have spent quite a few time restauring and modifying different kinds of drums. I never did that before, so I learnt along the way, trial and error, and one of the first things I realized was having the right tools is C-R-U-C-I-A-L. I have bought many, which made my life easier, but one in particular, specific for drum building, is a must: a rotating tray.
There´s a "Lazy Susan" in IKEA under the name of SNUDDA which I used as the base for my rotating thing. It costs the prohibitive price of 5,50€...
As its diametre doesn´t accomodate 16" or larger shells, first thing I did was adding an extended surface so I could work with bigger drums. I used a 50x50cm board on top of the IKEA tray, carefully aligning both centres so as not to get eccentricity and the whole thing rotating funny...
So, first thing was finding the centre of the SNUDDA. For that, I draw a chord 20cm. long (I chose that particular lenght in order to easily draw the perpendicular bisector without using a compass, as the lines would be outside the tray). Once I have my 20cm. chord, drawing its perpendicular bisector is easy, as I know it´s on the 10cm. mark.
Then I did exactly the same with another chord (where you draw them or their lenght is irrelevant: you can draw them wherever you want and as long or shot as you fancy). The point where the two perpendicular bisectors cut is our centre.
Once I know where the centre of our base is, I searched for the one on the "extending board", a conglomerate one measuring 50x50cm. (you can cut it bigger should you want to work with 18", 20" or 22" bass drums... At the moment I don´t need it that big, so I´m ok with this size).
Then, using the excess battens I got when cutting the board as my parallels drawing rulers, I draw a center line and two parallels 5cm. above and below it. I did the same again rotating the board by 90º.
I did exactly the same on the IKEA thing, but using the corresponding velcro to the one I already used on the board (pretty obvious, as if I use the same kind on both surfaces they would not stick together).
Why the velcro? The SNUDDA is made of two pieces already drilled in the centre, and I didn´t want to drill again, make the holes match perfectly, buy a screw, a drill, make a countersink... I already had the velcro (you may remember the "That damn vibraphone chord" article) and, with this solution, I can easily separate both parts whenever I want to).
Next thing is to put a layout mat on it so I can measure angles for lugs, shell sizes, distances for snare beds... But that´s for another day... ;-)
The "Lazy Susan" was 5,50€ in IKEA, and the board 4,50€ in Leroy Merlin (and I got two 50x50 pieces!). Total: 10€ for a fundamental piece if you want to believe you are a real luthier :-D.
How many times have you found the vibraphone cord rolled up around the strips holding the bars?, how many lying on the floor?, how many times have you stepped on the plug with the pedal?, how many times have you rolled over the cord when moving the instrument?, how many times did the motor not work due to a bad connection because of a battered cord? I bet many... Every vibraphone is a world in itself, and every vibraphonist has (or not!) a trick to deal with the chord... ;-) . It´s not unusual finding things like these:
A loose cord is a real pain in the ass, but fixing it is very easy: go and get self-adhesive velcro and cut such a lenght that permits embracing your rolled up cord plus the bar you´ll be attaching it to.
With two of them you can keep the cord nicely rolled up and secured to the frame of your instrument. Always face the soft part to the inside so as not to damage the cord nor the vibraphone.
I have already showed my interest in historical percussion and instruments in articles like "Spanish military drums" and "Radio memories". Because of that interest, my collection includes baroque timps, Provencal drum, riq... I have always wanted a historical rope tension drum, and I really wanted to build it myself, so I ordered the different parts and my adventure started. As the building of a drum is something I consider worth mentioning and documenting, this article (and future ones) will deal with the process of creating my own instrument.
My idea was to use drums from the 18th century (late baroque, where Bach and Häendel reigned) as models. On this picture you can see a rifleman and a drummer from the Spanish infantry ca. 1700: they would be my "inspiration".
In order to build the drum, I ordered the following parts (and many more, but that´s for a future article) from a luthier. Please forget the quality of the photos and the scenery... ;-)
Here we have a Keller maple shell. It measures 16"x16", as "square" shells (diametre=depth) were popular during this period. It´s eight layers thick: drums from that time weren´t thinner (think six layers) because of building techniques weren´t developed enough, and thicker (ten layers) would make it too heavy and impractical to carry.
This shell features a round bearing edge like those present in historical instruments (no fancy and modern double 45º cuts, 30º/60º...). The bearing edge is one of the key factors determining the sound of a drum, so it´s important for it to be historically correct.
Close view of the round bearing edge
Side view
Another key factor is the snare bed. For the snares to perfectly seat on the resonant head and be as sensitive as possible, it is necessary to lightly cut the lower edge to accommodate them. Here you can see it:
It also has a vent hole right in the middle, and aligned with the seam of the outer layer.
The rims are also eight layers thick maple, the "outside" edge rounded. They are 3,5cm high and feature ten holes for the tension rope.
The holes were drilled equidistant (obviously) and symmetrical with respect to the seam of the outer layer:
As it´s traditional with this kind of drums, the holes were drilled at an angle of 25º so the rope doesn´t pass the hoop perpendicularly, but "descending" trough it.
This photo shows the angle at which the hole was drilled
The lower hoop features a snare gate. It was made coincident and symmetrical to the seam of the outer layer:
So, this is the raw material I used to build my own drum. A future article will deal with the dyeing of the parts and the oils used for it.
If you own a rope tension drum or have built one yourself, I´d love to see it.
Today we´ll talk about a traditional instrument that has made its way into the symphony orchestra. The drum we are refering to is many centuries old and common to quite a few countries, but its French name (and its similarity to an English term) has made percussionists around the globe miss their instrument selection for decades... It´s the tambourin provençale (Provencal drum, drum from Provence) the drum this article will deal with.
The Provencal drum (also tambourin, tambourin provençale, tambourin de Provençe, tambour provençale or tambour de Provençe) is a very antique type of drum, already in use in medieval times. It was described by Marin Mersenne in the Seventh Book of his "Harmonie Universelle" (1636). Its depth is usually twice its diametre, features two heads, depending on the time it was built counter hoops may or may not be present, and it usually features a single snare diametrically crossing the batter head (although instruments without it are very common).
Harmonie Universelle. Marin Marsenne
The peculiarity of this instrument is that a single player (the tambourinaire) is in charge of two instruments at the same time: the tambourin and the galoubet (a small three-holed flute).
This "double playing" tradition is very popular in many regions in Spain (Andalucía, Extremadura, Cataluña, País Vasco, Baleares and Castilla y León), and it also exists in the United Kingdom, Portugal, France (obviously) and Latin America (I guess because of the Spanish heritage).
Maybe the most famous work featuring the tambourin is "L´Arlesienne", by Georges Bizet, which is scored designating two different players to the two different instruments (quite logical when making the step into the orchestra. Having said that, the relationship between the two instruments remains intact, as they always play together as a unit). From this work two suites were arranged, being the second one, on the Pastorale and Farandole dances, the one featuring the tambourin.
What´s the problem? Bizet asked for "tambourin", which is a word very similar to the English "tambourine" (some editors write "tamburin", not helping to clarify the issue... One
may think that if the "o" is missing, why not also the "e" of our "false
friend"?). Not knowing the traditional instrument, many percussionists and conductors have mistankely used a frame drum with jingles (a tambourine) to play the part. There´s also a Brazilian instrument named "tamborim", but its origin and use is so clear that, fortunately, I haven´t heard it on any version or recording.
Three very similar names for three very different drums... Now that the nomenclature is clear and we know the proper instrument, please make sure you are using a provencal drum and not a tambourine next time you play "L´Arlésienne".
There are some points regarding technique I´d like to talk about: because the left hand is busy playing the galoubet, it is always the right one in charge of the drum. So, when playing the tambourin in an orchestral context, despite not having to play a galoubet, I like keeping the traditional technique and only use my right hand to play the tambourin. I also like (instead of using any kind of stand) hanging the drum from my elbow, as a tambourinaire would do.
The following video features the Orchestre de Paris playing the Farandole from "L´Arlésienne" Suite #2 under Paavo Järvi. We can see the percussionist using a provencal drum (well..., not quite) and the traditional technique. We can also see how the timpanist (Frederic Macarez) uses a sticking based on the tambourin technique, as he is playing the first 8th note with his right hand, the other three with his left one. Should you want to follow the music, you can download the part legally and for free HERE.
Here you can see how even the great orchestras fall into the trap...
In the following video it´s me playing the part using my provencal drum (the stick I´m using is not "authentic", as I´m still waiting for a luthier to send me a replica based on traditional models):
Not only can we find the provencal drum in Bizet´s work: it´s also featured in "French Suite", "Suite Provençale", "Suite Concertante pour Piano et Orchestre", "Suite Campagnarde", "Scaramouche", "Promenade Concert", "Piano Concerto #1", "La Creation du Monde" and the 12 symphonies by Darius Milhaud; "Appalachian Spring", "El Salón Mexico" and "The Tender Land", by Aaron Copland*; "Turangalila Symphony", by Olivier Messiaen; "Fra Diavola" and "Concert à la cour", by Daniel François Auber; "Ariane et Barbe-Bleue", by Paul Dukas; "Rapsodie Dyonissiene", by Henry Barraud; Symphony #2, op. 51 ("Apollo and the Seaman"), by Joseph Holbrooke; "The Song of Saint Francis", by Howard Blake; "Symphony #4, op. 16", by Kurt Striegler; "Le Visage Nuptial", by Pierre Boulez; "Trois Dances", by Maurice Duruflé... Also, if we are into historically informed groups, chances are we´ll play this kind of drum with profusion.
*Copland didn´t score for tambourin provencale but for "tabor" (long drum). Sometimes these two terms ("tambourin" and "tabor") are interchangeable.
So, today we got to know an unusual instrument, its history, tradition, technique and the most representative works written featuring it. I hope next time you are playing "L´Arlésienne" you are using the proper drum... ;-) If your conductor objects and still wants to use a tambourine, tell him to read Percusize Me!... He will be for ever grateful!
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".
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".
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:
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.
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.
