Percussion Research

I'm not particularly familiar with percussion instruments. I know roughly what each one is and how they are played, but wouldn't know where to begin with writing for them. Reading the course notes, I thought it would be useful to do some research on a few of the instruments before trying to start the first projects. I found youtube really useful for this because of the visual element; by seeing how they are played you get an appreciation of how different sounds and tones can be generated.

For Project 1 I decided I would use the same instruments as in the notes; side drum, cymbal and wood block. I decided to do some research into these first, but also have a wider look into other percussion instrument. I found this Wikipedia article really useful (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orchestral_percussion), not so much for the content, but for the examples it gives against each instrument.


Woodblocks

Not knowing much about woodblocks I had a look around the internet. The first thing I came across was this youtube video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rgc839e_wVc). Whilst this may be perceived as a simply a video of someone playing woodblocks, I found it very useful for a few reasons:

1. It shows the different tone colour you can get depending where you hit the block and which type of beater you use.
2. It shows how nimble players are between different blocks.

Bernstein's Symphonic Dances from West Side Story (or the original musical score itself) uses woodblocks extensively, particularly in the mambo. It adds a really rhythmic element to the music; the percussion writing in general gives each section movement and helps to characterise each dance.

Snare Drum

Unlike woodblocks, I find it very easy to think of examples of writing for snare drum. When used in orchestras, the pieces that spring to mind immediately are where the snare drum part is an ostinato over which the rest of the piece is built - Ravel's Bolero, Shostakovich's Symphony 7 (1st Movement).

I found this video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpJTEQawE_E) which shows a study written for snare drum and used as an audition piece. Again, I found it useful to understand how the drum is struck and the complicated rhythms that can be achieved. 

What also comes to mind when I think of a snare drum are those used in the pipe-bands I grew up with at school. Doing some research into pipe-band drumming I found that the pipe section sets the style of a piece (tempo, time signature etc.) but it's up to the drumming section to write their parts; usual the drum major. At drumming competitions, part of the scoring criteria is the originality of the writing.

Cymbals

I found in general that cymbals are used to accentuate a musical line. Unlike the suspended cymbal, clash cymbals can only play individual notes and are rhythmically limited as time must be allowed to sound each note.

When I was searching around I found this excerpt from a documentary about Tchaikovsky's 4th Symphony (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqFh43iCUJs). What I found most interesting about this is how the percussionists focused on the appropriate tone that instrument should produce. I was impressed that they tried an array of cymbals before decided which they preferred. The excerpt of the Finale at the end of the video is very impressive.

Tambourine

When I think of the tambourine, I think of Spanish/Latin music. In particular I think of Bizet's Carmen; the tambourine features heavily in the Aragonaise and the Danse Boheme. In the Danse Boheme the rhythms required are quite interesting; I found some videos of people playing it (http://youtu.be/acCvp478aws at 1:47) and most seem to run their fingers along the rim in order to create a trill effect.

Triangle

As the triangle adds a very delicate, subtle tone, it must be used appropriately. Shostakovich uses it effectively in his 9th Symphony (1st Movement) in sections written for solo piccolo; the tone of the triangle blending well with the high thin piccolo melody. Also, looking through the scores I had available, I found many composers write relatively long note values for the triangle compared to other parts. I assume this is to allow the instrument to resonant, thus allowing the sound to penetrate into the overall texture.