At 1:51 AM +0200 8/18/08, shirling & neueweise wrote:
can anyone here offer any advice on writing for an ensemble of field drums (eg. basel; highlands)?
The Basel group is one I was previously unaware of. Their show is certainly as exciting and as precise as anyone could ask for, although one might get conflicting opinions from advocates of the Drum Corps International (DCI) style, which is drum and bugle corps using a much wider variety of percussion including a non-marching sideline pit and sometimes very elaborate flag corps. I'm not sure what you mean by "Highlands"--perhaps the "normal" sort of drum and bagpipe band?
I do like the fact that the Basel drums are not tuned so excruciatingly tight that they sound as if they are hitting 2 x 4s!!! The DCI snare sound is just plain ugly!
The only advice I can offer is KNOW THE GROUP YOU'RE WRITING FOR, which isn't bad advice for ANY arranger.
how much of this repertoire is normally learned by rote and how much from the score? obviously for competitions it is all memorized, but in non-competitions is it played live from scores? what format of score would they perform from?
You're actually asking two separate questions: is it normally arranged and notated, and is it performed from sheet music? To the former I would hazard a guess that it is ALWAYS arranged and notated, by specialist arrangers, of course. Certainly drum patterns CAN be learned by rote, but it is time consuming and I can't see anyone choosing to waste rehearsal time doing so. But to your second question, I suspect that it is always memorized and that they NEVER choose to mess around with music stands after the first readthrough. For groups of this kind, EVERY performance is a competition, even if only against themselves, and they may very well be critiqued and graded on every single rehearsal and every single performance. (My brother-in-law has arranged for DCI Corps, and my son has coached a DCI Jr. drum line, and they would know much better than I.)
I'm more familiar with American university (and high school) marching bands, and by coincidence the percussion for our own Marching Virginians were on campus today starting to learn their music. (First away trip August 30.) And I'm sure it was all arranged and notated by our faculty arranger, James Sochinski, who has been doing it for the past 30+ years.
I haven't examined similar percussion scores, but I'm reasonably sure that they would be in normal percussion notation, probably with separate parts prepared for snares, toms, and bass drums. That, at least, is how they have their sectional rehearsals. And I'm not sure about cymbals, who may rotate among sectionals depending on the arrangements they're learning. If you're picturing a full-page multi-percussion score, I doubt that the players would be using any such thing, just the director.
What I'm not certain about is the Scottish Corps. There may very well be traditional tunes and even traditional cadences that one learns as an apprentice drummer, rather than the one-upsmanship arrangements played by U.S. college bands or DCI Corps. When I was in the U.S. Air Force Band ('57-'61), one of the small units was a fantastic pipe and drum corps. The drum playing was so incredibly clean and open that I figured you could drive a Mack truck through between strokes! And the unison was incredible--much better by far than Basel. But of course the tempo was traditionally slower.
any score examples would be appreciated. especially traditional works, but also more modern writing: american drum corps, basel's "top secret drum corps", etc. the more the merrier.
My guess: ALL those arrangements are considered proprietary, are NOT published, EVER!, and are not allowed to circulate lest someone steal all your good licks! Sort of like the Big Band arrangements of the '30s and '40s. I could be wrong, of course. You would need to contact individual arrangers.
your ideas on differences between writing for military-type bands and ensembles of percussionists playing field drums would also be appreciated.
Not sure whether you're using UK terminology here or not. In the U.S., at least, the actual military bands (bands made up of members of the military) would not likely do anything even close to the flamboyance of Basel. And I am not aware of any U.S. ensembles "of percussionists playing field drums." Both U.S. marching bands and DCI Corps use much expanded percussion sections, not just field drums but tuned tri-, quad-, and quint-toms as well as bass drum lines of at least 5 graduated and tuned sizes. The sideline pits use just about anything describable as a percussion instrument, including timpani, chimes, and all the mallet percussion plus a variety of cymbals and toys as needed.
In other words, and I apologize for this, I simply don't understand your question.
i know about snare techniques and performance practice, but is there anything specific to military bands that is different? any references to books or websites would be great.
Can't help on the latter, and again I have to ask exactly what you mean by "military bands."
and who writes this stuff!?!!
Arrangers whose names you have never heard, and likely never will! Arrangers who are narrow specialists in this kind of writing, or in DCI type writing, or in marching band type writing, and are VERY GOOD at it. DCI is just as much a closed shop with its own roster of well-known people involved as is competitive barbershop singing or Miss America state pageants. Very much closed corporations.
Of course I can only comment on what I'm personally acquainted with, and I am definitely NOT an insider in any of these organizations.
ah, there's nothing like swiss precision: http://www.drummerworld.com/watchlistdrummers/Top_Secret_Drum_Corps.html
Thanks so much for that link, Jef. Very illuminating. A few things I did notice (aside from the energy, enthusiasm and precision). While toms don't seem to be used, there is some difference in tuning of the field drums, within the 12 players that I seem to count. The bass drums (I think there may be 4, but it was very hard to tell) don't appear to be tuned to different pitches. And the drummers appear to be very young, much like the participants in DCI Corps in the U.S., who "age out" at a particular age, perhaps 18 (I'm not sure).
So are these the guys who guard the Pope? John -- John R. Howell, Assoc. Prof. of Music Virginia Tech Department of Music College of Liberal Arts & Human Sciences Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A. 24061-0240 Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034 (mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]) http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html "We never play anything the same way once." Shelly Manne's definition of jazz musicians. _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
