Music - Resources by Instrument

Twentieth-century composers created thousands of original works for solo percussion and percussion ensemble. Concise and ideal for the classroom, Artful Noise offers an essential and much-needed survey of this unique literature. Percussionist Thomas Siwe organizes and analyzes the groundbreaking musical literature that arose during the twentieth century. Focusing on innovations in style and the evolution of the percussion ensemble, Siwe offers a historical overview that connects the music to scoring techniques, new instrumentation and evolving technologies as well as world events. Discussions of representative pieces by seminal composers examines the resources a work requires, its construction, and how it relates to other styles that developed during the same period. In addition, Siwe details the form and purpose of many of the compositions while providing background information on noteworthy artists. Each chapter is supported with musical examples and concludes with a short list of related works specifically designed to steer musicians and instructors alike toward profitable explorations of composers, styles, and eras.

In this work, a broad spectrum of publication is studied, from Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms, through Rodgers and the Beatles. It contains essays annotating bibliographic entries concerning percussion. Subjects include opera, symphony orchestra, and popular and jazz music.

Timpanists of the Baroque era were virtuoso showmen of privileged rank, protected by royal decrees throughout Europe. These musicians learned by rote through apprenticeship performance mannerisms called Schlagmanieren which encompassed rudimentary rhythmical figures and embellishments, as well as performance style. Timpanists were expected in performance to not only embellish simplistic parts, but expound upon them by improvising. Along with trumpeters, timpanists also served on the battlefield as communication relays from commanding officers to infantry ranks. These musicians performed short pieces which could be heard across great distances, while at the same time preventing opposing armies from directly understanding the communicated information. With two or more drums, timpanists could perform solos that developed the form and phrasing of the original work as well as the utilization of more than two pitches. Modern timpani repertoire continues to focus on the melodic potential of multiple pedal timpani, musical shaping and phrasing as well as development of basic rhythmical figures and ideas. My performance dissertation consists of recitals focused on the use of early timpani solos and military signals as a foundation for improvisation, connecting these early timpani performance practices to modern repertoire counterparts. Each recital features selections of standard solo timpani repertoire connected via improvisation to an early-era timpani solo or military signal. On each recital I have also included one standard orchestral repertoire selection that I have arranged for multiple pedal timpani. On my first recital, I included a reduced version of a Baroque style timpani concerto to provide the audience with context; as timpani became an integral part of the orchestral sound, composers had to find a way to remove the improvisatory and embellishing performance practices while maintaining the command and spirit in the written parts. This concerto offered the listeners precisely this experience. Through these performances I hope to exemplify the strong connection of modern repertoire to its seemingly simplistic origins; the expectations of the early timpanist are just as demanding today.

Listeners have enjoyed classical music recordings for more than a century, yet important issues about recorded performances have been little explored. What is the relationship between performance and recording? How are modern audiences affected by the trends set in motion by the recording era? What is the impact of recordings on the lives of musicians? In this wide-ranging book, Robert Philip extends the scope of his earlier pioneering book, Early Recordings and Musical Style: Changing Tastes in Instrumental Performance 1900-1950. Philip here considers the interaction between music-making and recording throughout the entire twentieth century. The author compares the lives of musicians and audiences in the years before recordings with those of today. He examines such diverse and sometimes contentious topics as changing attitudes toward freedom of expression, the authority of recordings made by or approved by composers, the globalization of performing styles, and the rise of the period instrument movement. Philip concludes with a thought-provoking discussion of the future of classical music performance.

The problems of rhythmic alteration are among the most controversial issues facing today's historically oriented performers of Baroque music. Hitherto, anyone seeking to understand the French practice of notes inegales and the related concept of overdotting had to absorb an unwieldy and frequently polemical literature of essays. Now, for the first time, Stephen E. Hefling's Rhythmic Alteration in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Music provides a comprehensive compendium of what is known about notes inegales and overdotting, including tables and summaries that make pertinent historical evidence readily accessible to performers and scholars alike. The volume concludes with a concise overview of problems and choices faced by performers. Notes inegales is the historical name of the French practice, prevalent from 1690 to 1780, of performing diminution-like passages as uneven pairs of notes despite their notation in equal values. "Overdotting" (a modern term) designates the Baroque custom of rendering certain dotted rhythms longer than their notation indicates. Appropriate adoption of both practices in performance requires that the performer weigh a wide range of interrelated variables, including tempo, articulation, and national musical styles. The book is divided into two parts. Part I, "Notes inegales," distills information from over 160 sources concerning conventional aspects of French rhythmic inequality, the negation of inequality, discrepancies among the sources, and the practice of notes inegales outside France. Part II, "Overdotting," examines the value of the dot, the relationship of overdotting to notes inegales, overdotting in French dances and overtures, and rhythmic alteration in the "Handel tradition." The final chapter functions as summation and practicum, focusing on specific performance situations in light of the conclusions drawn about rhythmic alteration. Here, Hefling's approach to interpretive strategies will be welcomed by every Baroque performer. The book also includes notes, an extensive bibliography, music examples, and facsimiles.

The percussion ensemble pieces of the 1930s and 1940s have many performance practice and instrumental selection considerations when performed in the modern day. The four pieces of music under consideration for this study are Ionisation (1933) by Edgard Varèse, Ostinato Pianissimo (1934) by Henry Cowell, First Construction (In Metal) (1939), and Third Construction (1941), both by John Cage. These works have stood the test of time, and are still an important part of today’s percussive literature. As with many historical works, issues such as interpretation and instrument selection arise when performed in the twenty first century. This project aims to provide general considerations and specific solutions when preparing these works for performance. The research conducted in this paper will help percussionists and musicologists alike further understand how to properly replicate the early percussion ensemble music, if the performers objectives are to emulate the composers’ original intentions.

This text contains over 100 essays headed with bibliographic entries, covering aspects of contemporary percussion music. It also contains over 20 essays on a range of subjects from the symphony to the xylophone. Essays of covering analysis, biography, education and history are included.

A history of percussion instruments from the Old Stone Age to the present day. Jeremy Montagu, a performer, historian, and curator of musical instruments, discusses common and uncommon percussion instruments from all parts of the world, tracing their development and use through the ages and across cultures.

The Encyclopedia of Percussion is an extensive guide to percussion instruments, organized for research as well as general knowledge. Focusing on idiophones and membranophones, it covers in detail both Western and non-Western percussive instruments. These include not only instruments whose usual sound is produced percussively (like snare drums and triangles), but those whose usual sound is produced concussively (like castanets and claves) or by friction (like the cuíca and the lion's roar). The expertise of contributors have been used to produce a wide-ranging list of percussion topics. The volume includes: (1) an alphabetical listing of percussion instruments and terms from around the world; (2) an extensive section of illustrations of percussion instruments; (3) thirty-five articles covering topics from Basel drumming to the xylophone; (4) a list of percussion symbols; (5) a table of percussion instruments and terms in English, French, German, and Italian; and (6) an updated section of published writings on methods for percussion.

More than eighty years have passed since Edgard Varèse's catalytic work for percussion ensemble, Ionisation, was heard in its New York premiere. A flurry of pieces for this new medium dawned soon after, challenging the established truths and preferences of the European musical tradition while setting the stage for percussion to become one of the most significant musical advances of the twentieth century. This 'revolution', as John Cage termed it, was a quintessentially modernist movement - an exploration of previously undiscovered sounds, forms, textures, and styles. However, as percussion music has progressed and become woven into the fabric of Western musical culture, several divergent paths, comprised of various traditions and a multiplicity of aesthetic sensibilities, have since emerged for the percussionist to pursue. This edited collection highlights the progressive developments that continue to investigate uncharted musical grounds. Using historical studies, philosophical insights, analyses of performance practice, and anecdotal reflections authored by some of today's most engaged performers, composers, and scholars, this book aims to illuminate the unique destinations found in the artistic journey of the modern percussionist.

Percussion music is both the oldest and most recent of musical genres and exists in diverse forms throughout the world. This Companion explores percussion and rhythm from the perspectives of performers, composers, conductors, instrument builders, scholars, and cognitive scientists. Topics covered include percussion in symphony orchestras from the nineteenth century to today and the development of percussion instruments in chapters on the marimba revolution, the percussion industry, drum machines, and the effect of acoustics. Chapters also investigate drum set playing and the influences of world music on Western percussion, and outline the roles of percussionists as composers, conductors, soloists, chamber musicians, and theatrical performers. Developments in scientific research are explored in chapters on the perception of sound and the evolution of musical rhythm. This book will be a valuable resource for students, percussionists, and all those who want a deeper understanding of percussion music and rhythm.

The vibrant world of jazz may be viewed from many perspectives, from social and cultural history to music analysis, from economics to ethnography. It is challenging and exciting territory. This volume of nineteen specially commissioned essays provides informed and accessible guidance to the challenge, offering the reader a range of expert views on the character, history and uses of jazz. The book starts by considering what kind of identity jazz has acquired and how, and goes on to discuss the crucial practices that define jazz and to examine some specific moments of historical change and some important issues for jazz study. Finally, it looks at a set of perspectives that illustrate different 'takes' on jazz - ways in which jazz has been valued and represented.

The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz constitutes the most definitive volume on the music, history, performers, and venues of jazz. It contains the broadest coverage of the subject of jazz to appear in one work and seeks to give detailed attention to all periods and styles from many countries,making it the largest dictionary of jazz ever published.Besides traditional jazz topics, there are extensive entries on blues, brass bands, soul music, ragtime, and rock music, as well as profiles on musicians such as Eubie Blake, Bessie Smith, Ray Charles, and Jeff Beck.Among the numerous categories covered in the volume are:* Performers from Louis Armstrong to Joe Zawinul, as well as performing groups from the early New Orleans Excelsior Brass Band to the contemporary World Saxophone Quartet* Jazz terms and topics including pieces on arrangement, form, harmony, and improvisation, as well as articles on jazz in film and jazz singing* Styles are described from Chicago Jazz, Dixieland, and Boogie Woogie through Cool Jazz, Free Jazz, and Third Stream. Also included are Blues, Ragtime, and Latin music* Festivals, clubs, and record labels that have had a seminal place in jazz history, such as the Newport and Montreux festivals, and the clubs Birdland and The Five Spot. Clubs are listed internationally by city, including their histories and the musicians who performed there* Instruments like the saxophone and double bass are covered in detail as well as exotic instruments and special playing techniques such as brass mute effects