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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGUgJ9GJhio Watch Neil Grover's 2023 PASIC presentation, "Percussion Accessories - Not as easy as you may think!". Neil Grover's PASIC 2023 Masterclass “Video used with permission. The Percussive Arts Society (PAS) is the world’s largest percussion organization, with over 5,000 members in over 80 Chapters across the United States and around the globe. PAS hosts the Percussive Arts Society International Convention (PASIC) annually, featuring the top names in drumming and percussion. This video is from PASIC 2022 in Indianapolis, Indiana, November 9–12, 2022. For more information on PAS and PASIC, visit http://www.pas.org/ and http://www.pasic.org/, and subscribe to the PAS YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/user/PercArts).”

We all know Prokofiev´s “Lieutenant Kijé” and its overly famous snare drum part, but the tambourine one in the fourth number, “Troika”, tends to go unnoticed. Prokofiev wrote a circle above the first quarter-note of each bar: This is the same notation that Glazunov had already used in “Rhapsodie Orientale” and in the “Polovtsian Dances” (please check this article: https://groverpro.com/prince-igors-tambourine-mystery-part-1). Prokofiev studied at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, where Glazunov was a composition professor, and there was where he learned this technique and notation. The A. Gutheil (S&N Koussevitzky) edition of “Lieutenant Kijé” gives these very clear instructions in the tambourine part: Les notes munies du signe ‘o’ doivent ètre frappes. AIlleurs secouer l´instrument (“The notes with the symbol ‘o’ must...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_MZ5a--Jc4

by David Valdés In the previous article we got to know the tambourine part of the “Polovtsian Dances” was written by Glazunov and not by Borodin. We now can pull the thread to try to figure out the meaning of that notation and the technique it entails. Neither the 1888 Belaieff´s score (or any subsequent reprints -Kalmus, Edition Musicus New York…-) nor the particella of “Prince Igor” indicate the meaning of that special notation in the “Polovtsian Dances”. The same happens with the 1890 Belaieff´s score (the only existing edition, now long out of print) and the particella of “Rapsodie Orientale” (the other work by Glazunov featuring that particular notation for tambourine). The latter two neither indicate the meaning of...

THE PROVENCAL DRUM Today we´ll talk about a traditional instrument that has made its way into the symphony orchestra. The drum we are refering to is many centuries old and common to quite a few countries, but its French name (and its similarity to an English term) has made percussionists around the globe miss their instrument selection for decades... It´s the tambourin provençale (Provencal drum, drum from Provence) the drum this article will deal with. The Provencal drum (also tambourin, tambourin provençale, tambourin de Provençe, tambour provençale or tambour de Provençe) is a very antique type of drum, already in use in medieval times. It was described by Marin Mersenne in the Seventh Book of his "Harmonie Universelle" (1636). Its...