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Click here for information on The Historic Drummer's Heritage Concert DVD

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Click to view articles by Robin on The Field Drum, John Cage & Toru Takemitsu

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ROBIN ENGELMAN

General Background:

Robin Engelman is an Adjunct Professor of Music at the University of Toronto where he conducts and directs the Percussion Ensemble. He studied percussion and composition with Warren Benson at Ithaca College, Ithaca, New York. He has taught percussion at Ithaca College, the Eastman School of Music Preparatory Department and York University, Toronto. He is a founding member of Nexus and a member of the Percussive Arts Society Hall of Fame; a recipient of the Toronto Arts Award and the Banff School of Fine Arts Donald Cameron Medal.

Performance Career:

His career as a percussionist began in the North Carolina Symphony and continued in the New Hampshire Music Festival Orchestra, the Louisville Orchestra, the Milwaukee Symphony - where he met former Nexus member John Wyre - and the Rochester Philharmonic where he met Nexus members William Cahn and Bob Becker. In 1968, he became principal percussionist with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra under Seiji Ozawa and later, Karel Ancerl. During the 1980's and 90's, he was principal percussionist with the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra.

For more than fifteen years, Robin performed with New Music Concerts of Toronto. Founded by flutist Robert Aitken, its concerts featured the works of prominent contemporary composers who supervised the preparation of the music.

Conducting:

Robin has conducted contemporary music concerts and recordings for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, New Music Concerts of Toronto, Chamber Concerts Canada and faculty recitals at the University of Toronto. In 2003 Robin conducted a performance of Arnold Schoenberg's Ode to Napoleon with Toronto's Art of Time Ensemble in Glenn Gould Theatre that was so successful, it will be repeated this year.  In the new year he will conduct performances of Mauricio Kagel's Variete Concert-Spectacle again with Art of Time Ensemble in the Gould Theatre.For eight years Robin conducted and directed the Contemporary Music Ensemble at the University of Toronto and now conducts and directs the Faculty of Music Percussion Ensemble. The percussion Ensemble has released a CD titled Rondino* which features Bob Becker playing the drum solo in his composition Mudra and contains music by John Cage, First Construction in Metal and Forever and Sunsmell; Jo Kondo, Eight Categories; Terry Hulick, Rondino and John Beckwith, A Game of Bowls.

* Rondino may be obtained through the University of Toronto Faculty of Music.

Compositions:

Three of Robin's compositions, Bridge, for five percussion, Remembrance, for five percussion, Trumpet and two Trombones, and Lullaby for Esmé, for double lead (steel) pan solo and four percussion, are performed and have been recorded by Nexus.

His latest composition, She Dances (August 2003) was written at the request of the internationally known marimba soloist, She-e Wu and premiered by her in January 2004. Robin is at present working on a solo commissioned by Toronto percussionist Ray Dillard. Another work scheduled for completion in 2004-5, for piano. hackbrett, cello. violin, harp and flute, is a commission by Toronto's Ergo ensemble. In June of 2002 Robin completed Music for Soldiers, an arrangement for brass quintet and military field percussion of four historic songs associated with military history, The songs included are, Handel's See the Conqu'ring Hero Comes, van Hagen's Funeral Dirge on the Death of General Washington, the anonymous British folk song Pretty Girl Milking the Cow and Daniel Emmett's Dixie's Land. The Canadian Brass and Nexus premiered Music for Soldiers in the Glenn Gould Theatre. Songs for Soldiers was featured on the C.B.C. Television show Opening Night broadcast in February 2003.

Also completed during 2002 were arrangements for percussion quintet of four songs by Toru Takemitsu: Will Tomorrow, I Wonder, Be Cloudy or Clear?, Sakura (Cherry Blossoms), All That the Old Man Left Behind When He Died, and A Song of Circles and Triangles.

A fifth arrangement for percussion quintet was made of Handmade Proverbs, four short pop songs Takemitsu wrote for the six male voices of the King's Singers.

A recent composition is Dance Movements for Harp and Marimba (2000) written for the Toronto duo ArpaTambora - Sanya Eng and Ryan Scott - who commissioned the work. Dance Movements was written with funds provided by the Laidlaw Foundation of Toronto and premiered at the American Harp Society International Harp Convention in Cincinnati, Ohio by ArpaTambora. ArpaTambora has recorded Dance Movements and the CD is available at their web site.

Left to live on...(1999), a twenty five minute work for percussion and large choir, was commissioned by the Amadeus Choir of Toronto, and written in collaboration with its director Lydia Adams. Left to Live on... was premiered by Nexus and the Amadeus Choir in the George Weston Recital Hall in North York, Toronto. The subject of Left to live on... is the internment of Japanese - Canadians during the 2nd World War and the texts are from Japanese journals, Haiku, and the requiem mass.

NB - the compositions listed above are available from the composer.

A rudimental snare drum solo titled Clean it up... Please! was composed for A Nexus Portfolio of Drum Solos and is available from the publisher, HoneyRock Publishing Co. Clean it up... Please! is in the "Ancient" or open rudimental style.

Military Drumming:

During the 1970's, Robin became interested in the large rope tensioned field drums in use during the 16th and 19th centuries. He began collecting historic fife tunes and fife and drum tutors associated with armies of that period. He also began to read and collect books on the history of military duties, campaigns and tactics so as to better understand the development of the drum and the lives of drummers prior to the 20th century. He has arranged more than one hundred historical tunes for various instrumental combinations and is preparing a book that will trace in melody and song the history of the Field drum from Renaissance England to the end of the Civil War in the United States.

Robin was the artistic director of a critically acclaimed concert for the November 2002 Percussive Arts Society International Convention in Columbus, Ohio called The Drummer's Heritage. The concert was a survey of drumming styles and music from the Revolutionary War in the U.S. to the present and featured field drum artists from Scotland, Switzerland, Canada and the United States, along with university, college and elementary school marching units.

Workshops and Lectures:

Robin's interest in military history and field percussion, has led him to develop a performance workshop called Music for Drums and Fifes, and a lecture entitled A History of the Snare Drum. The workshop and lecture are accompanied by recordings of fife and drum tunes and slides and/or over head projections of historical manuscripts and prints. Another lecture, based on forty years experience performing contemporary music, gives a very personal view of how pedagogy, concepts and compositions have influenced percussion in the 20th century.

The Early percussion music of John Cage and the rehearsal and coaching of percussion ensemble music, are two other clinics available to teachers with high school and college level ensembles.

1 > The Music for Drums and Fifes workshop gives participants an opportunity to play and accompany some of the classic tunes that were adopted &endash; and adapted - by soldiers for their camp duties, marches and maneuvers. The music dates from the fourteenth to the nineteenth centuries and can be played on any treble instruments.

Replicas of sixteenth and eighteenth century rope tensioned field drums and an authentic rod tensioned field drum from the nineteenth century will be provided for participants and available at the time of the workshop.

2.> A History of the Snare Drum examines the physical and mechanical development of the drum, the history of its music notation from the earliest pictorial representations of drum sounds to a standardized notation and the invention of beats and rudiments for a utilitarian military music.

This lecture is accompanied by over head projections that illustrate the topics. Demonstrations on field drums will clarify aspects of notation and style.

3.> A History of Percussion in 20th Century North America is a lecture that surveys the development of percussion techniques, performance practices and compositions from the invention of the bass drum pedal in the late 19th century to the multi percussion set ups of today. It offers insights into and suggestions about the state of percussion in the 21st century. Some of the famous compositions and concepts that have shaped the life and times of percussionists will be examined and discussed. Composers and students of composition are welcomed to attend.

4> After 1943, Cage wrote few works for percussion alone, but in 1986 he said, "I remain a percussion composer whether I write for percusion or not. That is, my work is never based, structurally on frequency, but rather on duration considerations."

Perhaps more than any other composer, John Cage can be considered the father of the western percussion ensemble. His early percussion works form an essential core repertoire for percussionists and remain fresh and compelling today. The events and ideas that inspired his involvement in percussion in 1935 became central to Cage's entire philosophy of life and music.

The instruments he chose, the forms and structures he devised, the people he wrote for and the concepts he arrived at, continue to influence composers and performers.

This lecture/workshop is based on personal conversations with the composer and thirty years experience performing and conducting his works, occasionally under his supervision.

"If teachers and students wish to perform, they may prepare works from the following: Quartet for Percussion - instruments unspecified - any movement, Trio for Percussion, First Construction in Metal, Second Construction in Metal, Double Music, Credo in US for percussion Quartet, Forever and Sunsmell for Voice and Percussion Duo, Imaginary Landscape Nos. 2 and 3, and Amores.

5> The art of ensemble playing consists of interpretation, style, orchestration, and techniques of playing and listening. Examining these subjects in rehearsal develops skills that greatly improve the quality and experience of music for the players and their audiences. Ensemble playing is one of the greatest tools of the percussive arts.

This workshop and concert or master class is intended for high school, university - college student ensembles and presents ideas developed during more than thirty years of conducting and performing ensemble music at university and professional levels.

Scores and parts will be provided in advance according to skill level and may include, but not be limited to:

John Cage Trio, Quartet for Percussion, instruments unspecified, Credo in US, Forever and Sunsmell and But What About the Noise of Crumpling Paper. . ., First Construction in Metal, John Beckwith A Game of Bowls, Henry Cowell's Pulse, Lou Harrison Double Music, Suite for Percusion, Terry Hulick Rondino, Tim Ferchen Woodwork, Edgard Varese Ionization, Takemitsu Rain Tree, Bob Becker Mudra, Bruce Mather Clos d'Audinac etc.

Repertoire will be chosen in advance by consultations with the ensemble director. It is the desire of the clinician that compositions by student composers be given priority.

6> Residencies can include any or all of the workshops and lectures as well as instruction on and performance of any of the above compositions or arrangements and any of a mutually agreed upon percusion or chamber ensemble repertoire. The Fife music will be provided in advance and the field drums will be available at the time of the workshop.

All inquiries about residencies, workshops, clinics and masterclasses should be addressed to:

Additional Info on Robin's Workshops--->