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Percussion Instruments
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Percussion instruments form the oldest of the instrumental groups.
Drums and other membranophones were introduced to ancient
Greece and medieval Europe from the Orient but were generally
limited to ceremonial and military functions and song
accompaniment.
The Kettledrum, which originated in the Middle East, was introduced
into Europe before 1400 and first used in the orchestra during the
17th century.
During the next two centuries such idiophones as the Cymbal and
Triangle were increasingly used in orchestral works.
It was not until the present century that composers started to
explore the percussion family with sharply drawn rhythms and tonal
colors. Percussion instruments have achieved an importance in
Western music comparable to the status they have long enjoyed in
other cultures.
The two major categories of percussion instruments are membranophones,
which add timbre to the sound of being struck, (this includes the entire family
of drums), and idiophones, (made of such material such as wood, metal, or
bone, examples are Bells, Gongs, Triangles, Marimbas, and wood blocks)
which make a pitched sound by themselves.
The tambourine is both a membranophone and an idiophone.
Most percussion instruments have a distinct tone; even drums are tuned.
However, the distinction is usually made based on whether the instrument can
play a definite pitch or not.
In fact, the division of percussion instruments is not always clear cut. Such
indefinite pitched instruments as the triangle and temple blocks often produced
well defined tones, but these will vary from instrument to instrument and are
not standardized.
Membranophones, which have existed in some form for over 4000 years, are
instruments that make sounds when a stretched skin vibrates. Usually a
membranophone is a drum which makes a sound when the membrane is hit. Hands
or drumsticks are typically used to strike the skin. Some drums can be set to
different pitches by tightening or loosing the tension on the skin.
There are four basic types of drums:
Friction drums--the membrane vibrates when a string is pulled through it, the
membrane is not struck
Frame drums---one or two membranes are stretched over a frame such as the
tambourine or bass drum
Vessel drums--a membrane is stretched across a vessel such as the kettledrum
Tubular drums--a membrane is stretched over one or both ends of a tubular form.
Tubular drums are often classified by the shape of their body
Barrel--a drum with bulging sides such as the conga drum
Conical--a drum whose head is larger than its base
Cylindrical--a drum with a long, narrow body and straight, even sides, like the
timbales
Waisted--a drum that is narrower in the center than at both ends
Goblet--a drum that stands on a narrow base
Footed--a drum with feet carved from its body
Long--a drum whose length significantly exceeds its diameter
Idiophones are instruments made of naturally sonorous material. That
simply means that those materials are naturally capable of producing sound
vibrations. Their development began in the early days when man hit sticks,
rocks, bones, and other items together to communicate. This often mimics
the language of the people, and also emphasizes the rhythms of clapping
your hands or stomping your feet.
Idiophones are categorized by:
Stamping: Sounded by banging them on the ground or another hard
surface.
Stamped: Sound comes from the surface on which the stamping
takes place.
Shaken: Sounded by shaking.
Percussion: Also called 'struck idiophones'. Sounded by striking with
an object (bells, gongs, xylophones)
Concussion: Sounded when 2 or more similar parts are hit together.
Friction: Sounded by rubbing.
Scraped: A ridged or notched surface that produces tap sounds
when rubbed.
Plucked: One or more flexible tongues attached to a frame. They are
sounded by plucking the tongues.
The snare drum
• Drums make use of circular membranes which have
many modes of vibration. The excitation of the various
tonal frequencies depends upon where the drum is
struck. The timpani is struck near the side to excite
certain preferred vibrations. By contrast, the snare
drum is struck in the center and excites the 01, 02, 03,
or fundamental tones.
• The snare drum is a two-headed drum, as is the bass
drum and other orchestral and band drums used in
Western music. On the snare drum, eight to ten wirebound gut strings, or snares, usually are stretched
across the lower of the two heads; they vibrate against
the heads as the membranes are struck.
• The two membranes of the snare drum are acoustically
coupled to each other, particularly at the low
frequencies. This coupling via the enclosed air acts to
double the modes. The lower frequency member of the
mode pair involves both heads moving in the same
direction and for the higher mode they move oppositely.
The timpani
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The timpani has a round head stretched over a
sealed enclosure. The tension may be altered by
means of a foot pedal which actuates tensioning
elements. The pedal connects to the lugs which
control the tension in the membrane.
The choice of striking point emphasizes the
preferred modes of the circular membrane. The
resulting sounded frequencies are further
influenced by the enclosed air cavity.
The round head of a timpani can vibrate in a large
number of vibrational modes. The fundamental is
not preferred; it is a dampened, muffled sound and
does not produce as pleasing a sound as when
the head is struck a few inches from the rim. At
this point, the timpani's fundamental mode is not
excited. The player tries to excite the preferred
frequencies of 11, 21, 31, 41, 51, 61 . The head is
struck about halfway to three quarters of the way
out from the center. This is near the nodal line of
several of the modes which minimizes their
contribution to the sound. The actual sounded
frequencies are further affected in a significant
way by air damping to finally produce the
sequence of frequencies actually heard from the
instrument.
Definite Pitched Percussion
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The xylophone appeared in Southeast Asia about the 14th century. It became highly developed through
use in the Indonesian gamelan, or percussion orchestra.
The simplest xylophone were a pair of bars that laid across the player's legs. More complex instruments
were developed that were mounted on a frame.
The use of the xylophone spread throughout the continent of Africa, possibly by being imported through
Madagascar. It became a prominent instrument in African music. It became introduced to Latin America
by African slaves. There it became known as the marimba.
The xylophone received its name from the Greek word xylon, meaning "wood", and the word phone,
meaning "sound".
The xylophone arrived in Europe around 1500. It became a widely used folk instrument in central
Europe. The Polish and Russian performers had popularized the xylophone in western Europe by the
19th century. It was first used in the orchestra in 1874.
Bell Lyre
Celeste
Chimes
Crotales
Glockenspiel
Marimba
Orchestra Bells
Steel Drums
Timpani
Vibraphone
Xylophone
Links to pictures of other
percussion instruments
Latin Percussion
http://www.lpmusic.com/Product_Showcase/online_catalog.html
African Percussion
http://www.geocities.com/willow_wilg/instrafric.html
World percussion
http://www.thedrumworks.com/World_Drums_Ashikos-p-1-c-320.html
A whole bunch of percussion
http://www.music.vt.edu/musicdictionary/textp/Percussioninstruments.html
instruments