Tenor Evolution
Catagory: history
Has anyone else noticed that marching percussion hasn’t changed much in the last 15 years? Of course music is harder, pits larger, drums lighter, but as for field lines… it’s all really the same. Everyone has snares, tenors, bass drums, and a few cymbals. Where is the imagination?
It wasn’t always this way. Let us take a little trip through marching percussion history.
Marching percussion dates back to at least 1332, where the first recorded fife and drum guild existed in over in little old Switzerland. Non-military bands began to emerge in the late nineteenth century. Some other stuff happened between then and the 1950’s but it really wasn’t all that exciting…. we won’t bore you with all that today. Just be happy to know that up until the 1950’s, drumlines had lots of snares, a bass drum or two and a pair of cymbals.
...up until the 1950’s, drumlines had lots of snares, a bass drum or two and a pair of cymbals.
So, along come the 1950’s and POOF things change… well, no, not exactly…. Changes in marching percussion began slowly in the late 50’s, then picked up speed in the 60’s, right on into the 70’s and 80’s and then stopped.
What was pushing the changes back in the 60’s? Simple – DRUM CORPS. It was during this time period that drum and bugle corps began to out do each other by trying new, sometimes crazy, ideas in field percussion.
Ok, imagine the year is 1961: You’re attending a drum corps show and are lucky enough to see a corps known as the the Hawthorne Caballeros’. What’s so special about the Caballeros’?
Timbales! Oh yes, the HC marched timbales on field! In 1961, this would have been a frick’n amazing event. One that would have made you mess your pants (maybe not that amazing, but you get the idea). It is important to keep in mind that at this point on the drumline timeline, pits didn’t really exist. They wouldn’t show up on the scene until the 1980’s.
The Caballeros were one of the leading corps in the evolution of drumline. In latter years they would introduce bongos and congas to their line. This corps paved the path for the use of multiple drums on the field so that by 1967, most corps were using timp-toms, trios and duos.
By the 1970’s corps and marching bands alike were using the drums known as timp-toms (so named because of the sound they made – much like a cheap broken timpani). Timp-toms typically came in sizes of 10“x14”, 10“x16”, 10“x18”. The problems with these drums were 1) size and 2) projection. Problems like that lead to solutions and it was drum manufacturer Slingerland that came through . Slingerland developed the Cut-A-Way tenors, cutting the bottom of the drum’s shell at a slant. Something that is common place with all of today’s tenors.
Another little twist grew out of the tenor development – the “high” pitch sound. The popular sound of the day was becoming higher in pitch – the sound we associate with tenor lines today. Smaller size drums were becoming more and more common on the competition field. Smaller drums lead to more drums so that by the the 1980’s tenor lines looked much as they do now with drum sizes of 6” to 14”.