Over the last few weeks we’ve been focusing our attention on the history of various aspects of making music, starting with where the common notations came from, and moving into what are arguably the most popular musical instruments in the Western world: the guitar and the piano. We’re going to be continuing that theme this week, but this time we are going to look at the long and storied history or a particular group of instruments: percussion instruments. Let’s start off by defining exactly what “percussion instruments” are. The word “percussion” refers to striking something, therefore, any instrument which is struck to produce a sound is considered a “percussion instrument.” This includes drums, cymbals, cowbells, wood blocks, singing bowls, etc., etc., etc. Even slapping your palms against your thighs might be considered persuasion music.
Before anyone picked up a guitar or lute, before the mechanics that allow the guts of a piano to perform so beautifully were even conceived of, before even the use of musical notations was necessary, there was percussion. Eons before you could do a Google search for “drum lessons” early humans were making music by slapping their hands, clacking rocks together, or using bones to bang on other objects. While the human voice was almost certainly the very first “musical instrument,” rudimentary drums and other percussion instruments predate written human history, and that is where our story begins.
While historians and anthropologists are nearly certain percussion instruments have been around as long as human thought has, our earliest remaining evidence of them comes from as far back into our history as 8,000 years. The first drums, regardless of the culture that produced them, were almost always used for religious or spiritual ceremonies and rituals. In many regions of Africa, certain drums symbolized and protected tribal leaders, and were often kept in special sacred dwellings, specifically built for the instruments. This tradition continues in many tribes across the African continent even today, but it is by no means isolated to it. Countless Native American tribes also used and continue to use drums made from gourds and other natural formations for their sacred rituals and rites. But drums have never been used exclusively for spiritual matters; they have also been used for communication throughout history. Again, coming from Africa, we know of the “talking drums” which imitated the pitch and pattern of human speech to signal meetings, danger, or other messages across great distances.
As the march of time progressed, drums became associated with another fact of human life and history: war. Drums have been used to keep soldiers marching, as well as a motivating force, for thousands of years. As modern warfare has advanced and combatants aren’t standing in straight lines, facing each other in hand-to-hand battle, the war drum has fallen mostly out of use, but it was an incredibly effective weapon of war until fairly recently. Not only did it help keep soldiers on a common and stead pace while marching, and provide motivation leading up to a battle, but it would have been a powerful tool for psychological warfare. Imagine hearing the awful beat of war drums hours before your enemy ever shows their faces. A powerful armament indeed.
Despite their exceptionally long association with mankind, the drum did not find it’s way into the orchestra until the 15th century in Asia Minor. At the time people had begun moving eastward, bringing their cultures and instruments with them as they migrated. When the Crusades ended soldiers took the drum designs they had discovered in the Middle East home with them, beginning an accelerated evolution, and the creation of a wider assortment of instruments, including the timpani, the snare, and the bass drum. However, despite this boom in the variety of percussion instruments, they were still only used sparingly in most music. It would still be a while before they held the esteem they do in today’s music.
By the 1700s the percussion section was given a little more to do, but not much. Most composers, like Mozart and Haydn, produced music that put most emphasis on the string, brass, and woodwind sections. They did, however, often include a part for kettle, or timpani, drums as accents. Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries the percussion section toiled in relative obscurity. Even as the section expanded to include things like cymbals and the triangle it was still only used in moderation, to accent certain musical passages and movements. It wasn’t until the 20th century that the drum section become one of the most important parts of the band, providing a “heartbeat” to keep the rest of the instruments together.
Nearly every genre of modern music uses some form of the percussion section in a hugely significant role. Many genres are even irrevocably tied to certain percussion instruments, or specific ways to play them. Consider traditional jazz: just the utterance of the word “jazz” can bring the distinctive rhythm of the hi-hat to mind. The same can be said of swing and the sound of the ride cymbal. In even more contemporary music the drum section has found itself to be a crucial part of music making. If you examine any modern genre from rock, to punk, to hip-hop and rap, you would be hard pressed to find more than a handful of songs that do not rely on the drum section to move the music forward (the only one that comes to mind right now is John Mellencamp’s “Jack & Diann” which still uses clapping hands as the percussion section).
Drums today enjoy a popularity probably not seen since they were the only thing available. Today it isn’t hard to find large musical groups entirely made up of drums and other percussion instruments. These groups produce beautiful and recognizable rhythms, harmonies, and melodies, all made by striking something. In fact, with just a little bit of online research you can find local drum groups or circles for amateurs. These gatherings are always fun, regardless of whether you participate or just enjoy the show! There is no question, the modern percussion section has become the backbone of almost any musical performance, and rightly so. It’s about time this eternal instrument was given its due respect.
