Playable BooksHector Berlioz · section 48 of 67
The Bass Drum
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Among the percussion instruments with indefinite sound the bass drum is certainly the one which has done the greatest mischief and has been most misused in
~modern music. None of the great masters of the last century thought of introducing the bass drum into the orchestra. Spontini was the first to use it in-the triumphal march in ‘La Vestale” and later in several pieces of his “Fernand Cortes”; there it was in its proper place. But it is really the height of folly to use this instrument in all ensembles, in every finale, in the most meaningless choruses, in dance tunes and even in cavatinas—as has been done during the past fifteen years; to call the matter by its right name—it is really sheer brutality. The composers do not even have the excuse of intending to accentuate a basic rhythm against other accidental rhythms. No—they senselessly beat the accented parts of each bar, they crush the orchestra, they choke the voices. No longer is there any melody, harmony, form or expression left; the prevailing key remains scarcely recognizable. And yet they naively think they
have created an energetic instrumentation, something especially beautiful !
It is needless to add that in these cases the bass drum is almost never used without the cymbals—as if these two instruments were inseparable by nature. In some orchestras they are even played by the same musician; one of the cymbals is fastened on top of the bass drum, so that he can strike it with the other cymbal in his left hand while using the drumstick with his right hand. This economical procedure is intolerable; the cymbals lose their sonority and produce a noise similar to the sound of a falling bag full of old iron and broken glass. The resulting music is utterly trivial and devoid of any brilliance. It is perhaps suitable for the accompaniment of dancing monkeys, jugglers, mountebanks, swallowers of swords and snakes in public squares and at dirty street corners.
Nevertheless, the bass drum is of admirable effect if used skillfully. The entrance of the bass drum in a fall orchestra can, for instance, redouble the force of a broad rhythm which has already been established and gradually reinforced by successive entrances of the most sonorous instrumental groups. In this instance it does wonders: the rhythmic power of the orchestra becomes immensely intensified; unbridled noise is transformed into music.
The pianissimo of the bass drum and cymbals together, struck at long intervals in an Andante is majestic and solemn, However, the pianissimo of the bass drum alone (if the instrument is well built and of large size) is gloomy and ominous; it resembles the distant sound of cannon.
In my Requiem I have used the bass drum in forte without cymbals and with two drumsticks. By striking the instrument alternately from both sides, the perform-
er can produce a rather quick succession of sounds. Combined, as in this work, with kettledrum rolls in several parts and with an orchestration depicting anguish and terror, these sounds convey the idea of the strange and awful uproar accompanying great cataclysms of nature, (Example 148, p.372).
In his mountain Symphony, Liszt also employed the bass drum very poetically to paint a solemn, distant rumbling.
I have used the bass drum in another instance in a symphony to obtain a hollow roll much lower in pitch than the lowest tone that the kettledrum could produce. The bass drum was placed upright like a military drum and was played simultaneously by two drummers.