Re: Animal Skins
Luckett, Brian (blucke@lsumc.edu)
Mon, 22 Jan 1996 10:15:04 -0500
Christian Ramers asked the percussion academics on the list to reply as to
why animal skins are still used on many percussion instruments.
I certainly wouldn't tout myself as a percussion academic, but that won't keep
me from expressing my opinions (however unfounded in truth or logic).
Technology doesn't change unless it has to. I use the same method for peeling
potatoes as my grandmother did 60 years ago because, I believe, potatoes haven't
changed much in that time. Music, on the other hand, has changed. The lamb
skin heads that jazz musicians used until the 1950s (?) needed constant tuning
even durring a performance. And one risked breaking them to be heard over a
big band or amplified guitars. Film heads allowed more volume and less
maintenance. Colleges switched to plastic heads because they didn't need to be
replaced as often and because they were water proof (an advantage for marching
bands). Timbales took the same track as trap heads with the advent of
amplification, etc. I know many timpani use plastic heads but, do the best
symphonies use them?
So, my thinking is that skin heads are the default. It also appears that the
country of origin has some relationship in all this. Drums made in countries
where agriculture is a much larger proportion of the economy (we're talking
about a north/south thing here) tend to be made with skin heads, whereas drums
from industrialized countries are more likely to be made with plastic heads. It
has to do with the availability of materials. My thinking is that you have
the question a bit backwards here, Christian. Instead of asking, "Why animal
heads," I would ask, "Why plastic heads."
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