Music Chat: Have Gong Will Travel--My Life As A Utility Percussionist

[@KingOuf1er]

I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed this video, particularly as your experiences seem to mirror mine ever so closely. I hope you won’t mind if I recount one story from my 30 years playing with community orchestras around London, England. I was playing with an orchestra that was giving a concert in a church opposite the Barbican Centre in central London. One of the works being played was Debussy‘s La Mer, which as I’m sure you know has an excellent Tamtam part. In the church, we positioned the Tamtam in front of a glass cabinet which contained a lot of silver artefacts, and the rehearsal went off without incident. However, in the concert we reached the first loud Tamtam stroke and the result was a very loud burglar alarm going off in the church! We hadn’t realised that the glass cabinet was connected to an alarm due to the value of the items within. The conductor was surprised but continued conducting until the end of the first movement, at which point there was some discussion in the band about what could be done to turn off the alarm. What we didn’t realise was that the alarm also sounded in the vicar’s flat next door, where the vicar (a lady) was enjoying what she hoped would be a long, relaxing bath. A moment later, the door at the back of the church opened noisily and the vicar entered wearing nothing but a bath robe, a towel wrapped around her hair and a pair of flip-flops. She click-clacked noisily up the aisle, leaving a trail of water drops, and into the vestry behind the performing area where she deactivated the alarm. She then noisily walked back down the aisle to the exit door and left the church without saying a word. It was the last concert we ever gave at that venue!

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

That is absolutely fabulous! A true "community orchestra" moment, Thank you for sharing it.

[@adrianoseresi3525]

O yes yes yes! I love hearing your anecdotes about your life and career! Thanks for sharing.

[@Bachback]

Thank you for this. My impression is that you have led an interesting life. If you were to write a memoir, I would buy a copy.

[@barryguerrero7652]

I played the same concert with David where the organ got stuck and kept on playing at the end of the "Pines of Rome". He's not exaggerating! We all had a good laugh.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Ah, those were the days!

[@jamesong9408]

Very amusing chat. More, please.

[@Alex-ze2xt]

Hilarious video, gorgeous stories, thanks a lot, Dave - waiting for part 2 (hopefully).

[@davidblackburn3396]

"All of that noise was coming from YOU?" Delightful! Keep 'em coming, David, please.

[@jacobbump1282]

This is so great!! Couldn't stop laughing!! :-) Please tell more! :-) Great talk and your journey as a musician sounds so unique and interesting. (I loved the shirt button story!!)

[@JohnLRice]

Great stories, sir! You had my reflecting on my own time with orchestras and I relived some of the please and pain of those memories! ☺

[@dianelewis4774]

Thanks again. I loved your tales.

[@richardwilliams473]

Gosh.Your experience as a utility Percussionist is similar to mine. I cut my teeth as a timpanist in the California Youth Symphony in the late 60s under the conductor, Aaron Sten ,a very firery Russian. All our rehearsals were at Foothill Junior College. I then played with Nova Vista Symphony as well as the Los Gatos Saratoga Symphony. I did watch a few concerts given by the Stanford University Orchestra as I was living in Palo Alto,close to the University. Thanks David for the memories! Regards, Richard ( Timpanist )

[@barryguerrero7652]

I never played under Aaron Sten, but people have told me crazy stories (actually, I do have a story of a concert I ALMOST played under his direction). However, I played in Nova Vista under Nelson Tandoc, and the Stanford Orchestra under Andor Toth. That's going back to the '70s and '80s. My main instrument is tuba, but I've also done utility percussion - mostly with the Redwood Symphony (Can[y]ada College) and the U.C.S.F. Orchestra (now called the Parnassus Symphony).

[@richardwilliams473]

@@barryguerrero7652 Thanks Barry,for your comment. During a rehearsal that Sten was conducting, he actually threw his baton at one of the section violinist. He was always rather Dictatorial towards the musicians. I fortunately was in his good basket as a competent player.

[@fredcasden]

Wonderful!

[@carmenmegeath9057]

So funny…..,,thank you David Hurwitz for these community orchestra tales that every musician can relate to.

[@andrasvrolok9848]

I very much enjoyed hearing your stories and would welcome more. When I was young, as an undergraduate, I switched from a film school in Manhattan to studying composition at local community college in upstate New York. You were expected to perform, so I was placed in the chorus and madrigal groups as I had a decent baritone voice. But I also sat in with my friends playing in the wind band-the school didn't have a string orchestra-and since they had a closet full of percussion instruments, but no percussionist, I became their utility percussionist. And I taught myself enough technique to play tympani and could when the parts weren't beyond my abilities. The tam-tam they had was a battered small Chau that sounded like a hub cap being struck. That was a great reason to indulge myself in my passion for tam-tams, so I bought a 22 inch Feng from a music store in Manhattan which sounded much better. I had so much fun playing the percussion parts, as you say "making a racket," and I learned a great deal from my time with the school group as well as a small local amateur community orchestra for whom I did the same thing. And the school band played a piece I wrote for them which was a sort of small-scaled Mahlerian pastiche that began with a funeral march, had offstage vocalists and trumpet parts, and ended in triumph. Great days!

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

It sounds like it!

[@AlexMadorsky]

Cat sitting for the maestro really puts the “utility” into utility percussionist. Utility percussion always seemed like the most fun job in the orchestra when I was a kid watching the musicians wack away at their toys.

[@smurashige]

That was a treat! Thank you very much!

[@stradivariouspaul1232]

Not sure if it counts as a story,, but my late father used to talk of the times he was flight navigator for a while on passenger flights carrying the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra to concert venues in the 50's during Antal Dorati's tenure. He had memories of Dorati being very amiable, and felt very lucky to be able to hear them play, although he didn't take to Dorati's fondness for Bartok as he found him too new fangled (a belief I have inherited!)

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Sure it counts. Thanks for letting us hear about it.

[@jjquinn2004]

That’s a nice story about your father.

[@HassoBenSoba]

And Dorati's Minneapolis recording of Respighi's Church Windows during that time features a great, large/deep Tam-tam.

[@stradivariouspaul1232]

@@HassoBenSoba Thanks I'll look it up! The only recording I have with that coupling I think is the 1812 overture, those Metcury Living Presence revordings are fantastic for their age

[@stradivariouspaul1232]

@@DavesClassicalGuide David, on the subject of the timpani are you able to settle a question I have? I own a recording of Berlioz Funeral March from Hamlet by Colin Davis and the LSO, at the clomax there is a dreadful din depicting I guess utter desolation, can you tell me what makes it? From the sound I'd guess it's more than one piece of timpani but it's so raucous at first I wondered if it was a recording glitch (I have heard other versions that are a little less calamatous!

[@HassoBenSoba]

Enjoyed these tales from the life of an itinerant percussionist. Like you, I was a tam-tam freak from way back (mid 60's), and have acquired six, of all sizes, plus an actual 30" Gong. So many memories: a.) bashing my brains out for Jose Serebrier in the Cleveland Philharmonic (the extra Toscanini T.Tam in Tchaik's "Manfred", the Bass Drum in the Verdi Requiem), b.) assigning myself the Bass Drum in the Prokofiev 5th..telling the other players that I'd play the "low man" part, then watching them sizzle in rehearsal as they sat counting hundreds of measures while I was continually playing, c.) my "brilliant" decision when transporting a xylophone (for the Harris 3rd Symphony) to save time by only taking the "WHITE" [lower] keys..since the upper "BLACK" keys are not needed in the piece, then my panic in the dress rehearsal when I realized that it's Impossible to identify the correct "white" keys WITHOUT the "Black" keys also in place; d.) my discovery of a 5-foot (60") T.Tam in an old drum shop in Chicago which had a big "bend" in it, so they were using it as a bulletin board. I told them the instrument was ruined (it WASN'T), and carted it off for $600; I've since used it 2x in the Mahler 2nd, 1x in the Mahler 8th, and in Respighi's "Church Windows" (I conducted)...where it stole the show. Also played (finally!) the great T-Tam part in "Feste Romane" in a good community performance (2013) where they actually hired all 10 percussionists, organ and piano 4-hands. I still play occasionally, but it's basically past history. However, it's the musical activity that I've always enjoyed the MOST....not conducting, not composing, not singing....but playing percussion. LR

[@sclugstone]

OMG! Absolutely hilarious!😰

[@WagnerFurtwangler85]

Fun and beautiful. Thanks, David! All the best!

[@dennischiapello7243]

Great stories! A tam-tam destroying a Volkswagen is a jaw-dropper! BTW, with that Sabian tam-tam centered perfectly behind your head you remind me of either St. Jerome or Princess Turandot. Can't decide. :*)

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Neither can I.

[@davidaiken1061]

Please forgive a comment that has nothing to do with your career as a percussionist. I wanted to thank you profusely for plugging that recording of Kit Armstrong playing Byrd and Bull. I wasted no time in ordering it, and auditioned it yesterday. This was my first encounter with Armstrong, and I was totally blown away not only by his amazing virtuosity, but by his musicality and insight into repertoire that can seem esoteric to many. He brought these two composers' keyboard music vividly to life in a way I could not have imagined from any previous recording of this repertoire on period instruments. Armstrong even surpasses Gould's magnificent rendering of Byrd and Gibbons on modern piano. Anderson is clearly a musician of genious.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

So happy you enjoyed it too! Thanks for the update.

[@edwinbaumgartner5045]

Great! More of this stuff, please! You should write a book about this! „Tamtam strokes“!

[@colinerswell7490]

Thanks for sharing this with us, really enjoyed your musical history. As always very enjoyable. 🎶🎵🎻🎻😎

[@joncheskin]

Love your stories, as a cellist I have often wished I had more opportunities to play percussion and liven up my musical existence. My favorite gong note in the repertoire is the big blow at the end of the third movement of the Gershwin piano concerto, I wonder if you ever had a chance to do that one in performance.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

I sure have.

[@joncheskin]

@@DavesClassicalGuide Lucky!

[@irawong]

I’ve had a wonderful career as an extra percussionist for over 30 years. During that time, I’ve performed under the batons of Donald Johanos, Seiji Ozawa, Yoel Levi, JoAnn Falletta, Andrew Litton, Andre Previn, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, James DePriest, Leonard Slatkin, Michael Stern, Andreas Delfs, Zdenek Macal, Xian Zhang, etc., etc. It’s been the absolute best musical education ever!

[@richardwilliams473]

You played for the Honolulu Orchestra?

[@irawong]

@@richardwilliams473 -Yes. Formerly the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra, it’s now the Hawaii Symphony Orchestra.

[@dsammut8831]

Halfway through this as-ever entertaining Talk, makes me think of something related and not. I wonder, does anybody have a digital version of 1998 Michael Barkley's Private Passions Radio 3 show, where comedian John Sessions played 112-year-old Austrian percussionist Manfred Sturmer...? I'd be immensely grateful for a copy. Now back to the Talk...

[@leestamm3187]

Great chat, David. I'm one of those strange people who may listen multiple times while following the score. It helps me be aware of what I should be hearing from all parts of the orchestra, percussion included. As you noted, many recordings don't capture everything, although some come close. Once I hear some of those things, I really notice their absence.

[@williamwhittle216]

Enjoyed this!

[@ewaldsteyn469]

Thank you very much for sharing your stories. It was GREAT fun listening to it. What a privilege for you to live in a country where there are professional and community orchestras. Here where live in the small city of Kimberley, South Africa, my only option for listening to great music is: CD or MP3 - NO orchestra at all!

[@allthisuselessbeauty-kr7]

Thanks for this. Reminded me of my days of amateur music making (my primary instrument was piano but the secondary was the cello). I remember on one occasion having a violin bridge fly past my head from a nearby colleague and shudder when recollecting what brass players sometimes did when sitting behind you with their spit residue!

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

It's not spit. It's condensation.

[@allthisuselessbeauty-kr7]

True but still not pleasant

[@angusmcmillan8981]

Another great talk, thank you. Lucky community orchestras to get you plus all your stuff. In the Academy of St Martin in the Fields the percussion guy was phenomenally well paid because he owned the complete range of instruments and had a transport company, so as well as his performing fee the orchestra had to pay for hire of his instruments, transport, setting up before the concert and dismantling afterwards. Nice little earner!

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Very cool!

[@NealSchultz]

Hey Dave, a little off topic. I have been traversing through the 20th century Dutch composer Henk Badings. He is VERY interesting and seems to have an original voice. I have been very impressed so far. CPO is running through all 15 symphonies.

[@elizabethj8510]

From now on, performances of the Tchaikovsky 4th should require that the timpanist be bare-chested. That'll bring 'em in. And congratulations to you and Javier for remaining friends for all these years after your ad hoc percussion ensemble.

[@vincentd.1424]

Ah yes, community orchestras. Where I live they are everywhere. Every town you go to there is one.

[@carlconnor5173]

Very interesting and amusing. David, I’ve wondered if you have any interest in or an appreciation of Rock/Jazz drummers. For that matter timbale, etc. . Some of the most exciting concert experiences I’ve had were Santana concerts with that percussion ensemble playing with abandon. But they were very disciplined and in sync; a very powerful sound.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

They are fabulously talented. I don't make distinctions as to genre in that respect: talent is talent.

[@ahartify]

Thanks for that. Could you name some Mahler 1 recordings where you can actually hear the tam-tam? I had no idea the funeral march had the tam-tam.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Haitink's second one (in Amsterdam), Mackerras (Warner)--I'd have to go back and check for some others. It's pretty rare when you can actually hear it.

[@ahartify]

@@DavesClassicalGuide Thank you again. I have also found on KZbin Fabio Luisi and the Stastskapelle Dresden playing the Mahler 1 where they actually show the tam-tam being struck - 26.22 and 35.58. A missing dimension revealed!

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

@@ahartify The miracle of video!

[@samfrench840]

Great stories! I used to play in band and orchestra while I was in school but stopped for a number of years after that. When you started doing your videos during lockdown I was reminded just how much fun it was. Well, I just joined my local concert band a few weeks ago and we have our first concert at the end of the month! It’s a blast, so thank you for inspiring me to take it back up again.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

That's awesome!

[@duvidl]

As a "utility" percussionist myself, your stories really cracked me up! One of my favorite jobs in High School was in a little "pops" orchestra that got together at the Salem, Massachusetts YMCA every Sunday to entertain the mostly senior set in the neighborhood. We played a lot of Leroy Anderson - a percussionist's dream composer. Most people think of percussion as cymbals, snare drum, bass drum and timpani, with maybe a triangle thrown in every once in a while. But Anderson needed a clapper for the whip sound in "Sleigh Ride", two blocks covered with sandpaper for the "soft shoe" effect in "Sandpaper Ballet", and most fun of all - the slide whistle at the end of "Syncopated Clock". No tam tams, cowbells or hammerschlags in that little band - but what fun for a "utility" percussionist! (Unfortunately, we didn't have a typewriter.)

[@richardwilliams473]

Yes. I remember playing the specially made typewriter in the Leeroy Anderson piece