Performance Issues Regarding Percussion and Strings - Part 1

In music (like life) nothings exists in a bubble and everything ultimately relates to everything else. Instruments inevitably play with each other and constantly create new sounds together.  As the process develops and instrumentalists learn about each other it becomes necessary to create a new knowledge base from which to draw from.  

The development of percussion as a major musical instrument is one of the most revolutionary and game changing events to happen in the history of concert music.  The same can be said about the expansion of the modern chamber and ensemble repertoire to include percussion.  These developments have had implications far beyond the percussion instruments themselves.  They have changed the way that all other instruments play as well.  As a result of this every instrument other than percussion has had to reinvent itself and it's standards. Conversely from the percussionist's perspective, playing with traditional instruments forces the percussionist in many cases to adhere to a more established (or at least less experimental) historical musical standard.  Every instrument has individual strengths and weakness that can potentially create performance issues. Students are very seldom taught about these issues when attempting to develop their repertoire with players of other instruments.  

String instruments are among the most developed and elite of all instruments in all forms of music. Their musical standards, repertoire, and the actual instruments themselves go back for hundreds of years and much of their music is among the most challenging to play.  In many ways the advent of percussion has enriched the next phase of their development.  In this series of articles I will be focusing on performance issues facing the combination of percussion and string instruments.  I hope to explore other instrument combinations with percussion in future postings.

My Personal Experience - A Little Background

I am proud to have spent a large portion of my career performing chamber music and concerti with strings.  I have performed dozens of works for violin, viola, cello, and percussion and I've done quite few arrangements myself.  As an educator at both The Juilliard School and NYU Steinhardt, I have also had the opportunity to coach and teach most major works.  On the larger stage, I have had the privilege of giving the world premiere and traveling around the world to perform the Double Concerto for Violin and Percussion by former Boston Symphony Orchestra percussionist and world renowned conductor Harold Farberman.  Throughout this process, I was extremely fortunate to play as the percussion soloist with many fantastic orchestras such as The New Mexico Symphony, The Puerto Rico Symphony, and The American Symphony Orchestra.  I was also fortunate to perform with several excellent violinists including one of the original founders of The Orpheus Chamber Orchestra Guillermo Figueroa.  As one can imagine I learned a great deal about playing with the violin during this experience.  Another interesting project I was involved with for strings and percussion was when I worked with composer Andrew Thomas.  We recorded his Double Concerto "The Heroic Triad" for acoustic guitar, percussion, and string orchestra with the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra of Katowice and classical guitar virtuoso David Leisner.  It served as another major learning experience for me.

I've learned a lot through my experiences and I've put together a list of useful things to think about for percussionists playing with string players and vice versa.  Both instrument groups are very different and it's very important to know the strengths and weakness of each.  While some of these issues may seem bias or weighted towards one particular group (either strings or percussion) I assure you they are not.  I am only speaking from my own experience as a percussionist looking outward.  

1. Strings and Percussion produce sound in different ways

Strings and percussion produce sound in different ways and as a result, the two must compensate for each other.  When we strike our percussion instruments the sound created is instantaneous.  On string instruments a minuscule amount of time is needed for the bow to make the string vibrate.  As a result of these basic differences in sound creation, several potential performance issues can occur.  

Entrances

Entrances can be problematic.  Due to the minuscule amount of time that it takes string players to vibrate the string, they are sometimes slightly late.  Although this is not an indigenous problem to strings playing with percussion (it happens when strings play with other instruments as well), the exceptional natural ability of percussionists to create an instant attack can sometimes amplify the issue.  

Rhythm

In passages with complicated rhythms (syncopated or otherwise) it can be a true challenge to keep up with the percussionist because it takes the bow a very tiny although relevant amount of time to change direction and rearticulate sound.  This takes place while the percussionist simply and easily strikes their instrument at the correct time to create attacks. As a result, even if the string players play the rhythms correctly they can sometimes sound staggered, expansive, late, and just off.  This can be extremely problematic due to the nature of the modern percussion repertoire.  Much of it contains very advanced rhythms and counterpoint that must be played exactly as written.  Some of the music is groove oriented too.  

A few possible solutions

I am not a string player but based on my experience, my instinct here is that in order to play with percussionists or play most modern music both of these performance issues can be addressed and fixed with a much faster bow technique on the string player's end.  String players must learn how to produce an instantaneous sound with precision and then switch sounds and bowings quickly.  They must do this to compensate because as we've discussed the percussionist requires only a simple motion to create sound.  

In Part 2 we will continue the list with two more common issues "Volume" and "Historical Rhythmic Starting Points."