Re: DrumStaff question

[Torsten Hämmerle]

Menu Jacques wrote
> A side question is (I’m no percussionist): how does one chose between
> DrumStaff and RythmicStaff?

That's how I handle it resp. what I've learned about it.
Off the cuff:

*Tuned Percussion*
Timpani, (and even glockenspiel, xylophone, marimba, vibraphone, tubular
bells…) are regarded as percussion instruments and are being played by the
percussionists. They have definite pitches and therefore get an ordinary
Staff with an appropriate clef (treble^8, treble, bass...).
Traditionally, they sometimes won't even get general key signatures but use
individual accidentals.

*Single rhythmic instruments*
Instruments like triangle, snare drum, bass drum, cymbals, tamtam, etc., may
get a RhythmicStaff with one single line (at least in the full score) just
so save space and there is no need to distinguish between different
pitches/instruments.

*Multi instruments*
In orchestral real life, however, it is quite common for percussionists to
play multiple instruments and often change instruments during a piece.
Therefore, even the aforementioned single instruments will be notated in a
five-line DrumStaff where the notehead positions don't refer to definite
pitches but to different instruments.
Or, even if (classically) played by individual percussionists, bass drum and
snare drum, for instance, will be combined in one single DrumStaff. This
also helps avoiding a large number of individual parts (mainly consisting of
rests ;)).
*Remark:* Even if several instruments will be combined in one part/stave,
they might get separate staves (even one-line RhythmicStaffs) in the full
score.
*Cue quotes:* A strong argument for using five-line staves even for single
percussion parts is the possibility of quoting other instruments.
Just imagine a triangle part mainly consisting of rests. It is a great help
for the performing musician to see quotes of other instruments for much
better orientation. "I'll have to ping after this and that trumpet signal…"

*"Intermediate" cases*
Some percussion instruments consisting of two or three "pitches" (not
deliberately tuned), such as congas, bongos, agogo bells, will get a two or
three line stave in order to be able to distinguish between the "low" and
the "high" pitches.
Note: "Since a percussionist is used to reading the five-line stave, a stave
of either four lines or more than five lines is difficult to read and should
not be used." [Gould]

*Drumset*
The drumset/drumkit used in rock/pop/jazz is a combination of different
percussion instruments and will definitely get a DrumStaff.


*Full scores*
Single line rhythmic staves (even if the parts use five-line staves) might
be preferable in full scores because they can be clearly distinguished from
melodic staves (representing actual pitches) of the surrounding instruments.
But, traditionally, I've seen five-line triangle staves in full scores 


All in all (just my opinion/understanding):
The reason that single-line percussion staves can mainly be found in
didactic literature is that in educational rhythmic "snippets", drum
rudiments, a combination of different instruments is not needed.
In the vast majority of performance material, one or the other reason mostly
ends up in using a five-line stave.

All the best,
Torsten




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