George Frederick McKay · section 94 of 111

The full and subtle use of percussion instruments

Although, for centuries, the music of primitive, ancient and oriental peoples had a highly developed art of percussion, the familiar European orchestral music has been somewhat underdeveloped in its use of percussive timbre. At some point in history European composers began to introduce certain Turkish military instruments into their music to simulate the exotic. The habit became established in bands and orchestras without being fully understood or explained — a striking example of “cultural lag” for the sociologist to consider.

A commonplace set of sounds — the snare drum, bass drum, cymbal and timpani — continues to dominate our music. One of the saddest of this writer’s memories is the performance of Londonderry Air by a high school band, with the full percussion section idiotically playing along with the familiar “chunk-a-chunk” of the military instruments, almost completely negating the poetry of this beautiful folk song.

Carlos Chávez and others have made use of unusual native Latin-American percussion (e.g., Sinfonia India), and certain “avant-garde” composers, notably Cage, have made use of various unheard-of combinations with emphasis on the shockingly unorthodox (“lion’s roar,” “typewriters,” “tin pans,” etc.). What the art of percussion still lacks is a sufficient scientific analysis of the potentialities of percussion timbres and a systematic categorization which will make available to the composer a much wider choice of percussion types. The future will also certainly bring into our music the already established and extraordinarily varied and subtle timbres of Asian and African musical traditions.

There is a most valuable section in the Thesaurus of Orchestral Devices by Gardner Read, in which he has listed the

many subtle ways of treating the familiar percussion instruments. This book includes references to specific measures in many scores where particular usages can be found. Complete knowledge and experimentation should eventually “cure” Western music of its too frequent addiction to the Turkish military instruments and too many mere “noise makers,” such as the rattle, the whistle, the whip, and other approximations of “everydayness.” The University of California at Los Angeles and The University of Washington have instituted special courses in the techniques of oriental music, and there are other evidences that music is nearing a “break-through” into a new and experimentally vital attitude toward idiophonic values.