Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 1.djvu/476

to tune the instrument to any note within its compass. The shell is generally made of brass

in France and of copper in England. In the cavalry two drums are used, one on each side of the horse's neck. Two are likewise required in orchestras. The larger of the two drums should be able to go down to F, and the smaller to the F above (a), giving a range of an octave to the two. Each drum should have a compass of a fifth, viz. F to C for the larger (b), and B♭ to F for the smaller (c).

In the key of F, the tonic and dominant may be obtained in two ways (d), and likewise in B♭ (e), but in all other keys in only one way.

Thus in F♯, G, A♭, and A, the dominant must be above the tonic,

while in B♮, C, C♯, D, E♭, and E, the dominant must be below the tonic,

Drums are generally tuned to tonic and dominant; but modern composers have found out that they may advantageously stand in a different relation to each other. Thus Beethoven, in his 8th and 9th Symphonies, has them occasionally in octaves (f), and Mendelssohn, in his Rondo Brillante, most ingeniously puts them in D and E (g); thereby making them available in the

keys of B minor and D major, as notes of the common chord, and of the dominant seventh, in both keys. By this contrivance the performer has not to change the key of his instruments all through the rondo—an operation requiring, as we shall see, considerable time. Berlioz says that it took seventy years to discover that it was possible to have three kettledrums in an orchestra. But Auber's overture to 'Masaniello' cannot be played properly with less, as it requires the notes G, D, and A; and there is not time to change the G drum into A. In Spohr's 'Historical Symphony' three drums are required all at once in the following passage:

And in 'Robert le Diable' (No. 17 of the score) Meyerbeer uses three drums, C, G, and D [App. p.618 "Meyerbeer uses four drums, G, C, D, and E"].

Another innovation is due to Beethoven, namely, striking both drums at once. This occurs in his 9th Symphony, where, in the slow movement, the kettledrums have

Gounod has a similar chord in the ballet music of 'La Reine de Saba.' But Berlioz, in his 'Requiem,' besides fifty brass instruments, has eight pairs of kettledrums, played by ten drummers, two of the pairs having two drummers each. The drum parts have these chords—

most of the notes being doubled. Besides their obvious use in forte passages, the drums are capable of beautiful piano effects. Observe a passage several times repeated in Mozart's overture to 'Die Zauberflöte,' beginning at the 41st bar from the end: also the mysterious effect of the 13th bar in the introduction to Beethoven's 'Mount of Olives'; that of the A♮ against a tremolo of the strings in the first movement of Weber's overture to 'Der Freischütz,'

, and of a single

on the return of the subject in the middle movement. When musicians talk of 'drums' they mean kettledrums, in contradistinction to the side drum or bass drum, of which hereafter. The two latter can only mark the rhythm, not being musical notes; but kettledrums give musical sounds as definitely as the double bass, and can only be used when forming part of the harmony played by the other instruments. Composers have usually treated them thus; but Beethoven was probably the first to see that they might also be treated as solo instruments. Thus in the Andante of his Symphony No. 1 the drum repeats this bar

several times as a bass to a melody in the violins and flutes. In Symphony No. 4 it takes its turn with other instruments in playing this passage—

In the wonderful transition from the scherzo to the finale of the 5th Symphony, the soft pulsations of the drum give the only signs of life in the deep prevailing gloom. Of the drums in octaves in Beethoven's 8th and 9th Symphonies, we have already spoken. And in reviewing his Violin Concerto, which begins with four beats of the