 The Shendai Ceremonial Drums are a
one-of-a-kind creation that evolved from a single wish... the quest for
a certain special instrumental sound and sense. It was a sound
that I had never before heard in any music.
After many rewarding years playing fine jazz using a standard "Traps"
Drum Set, I suddenly found myself longing for something else
musically - for some new or different form of musical expression -
perhaps an instrument that was "softer" or more melodic. I had
for some time been humming to myself certain melodic rhythmic patterns,
often based in unusual time signatures, and playing these patterns
would require an instrument or collection of instruments with definite
pitch. Thus the quest was begun.
The Original Shendai Set
After
auditioning many kinds of hand drums, ethnic instruments, and some
mallet percussion instruments like
Vibraphone and Marimba,
I was still dissatisfied. I was just not finding the sound and
character I was seeking in any existing instrument, and I eventually
decided that the only solution was to create my own.
The first attempt to do so centered around a set of three Orchestral
Timpani Drums (kettle drums) chosen mainly because they had great
range, and were easily tunable and re-tunable to specific
pitches. Because of the multiple-pitched patterns I wished to
play, I thought I would have to do some of this re-tuning between
takes, or even "on the fly", and the timpani would allow me to retune
quickly if needed. But to get the sound character I wanted, the
natural timbre of the heavy copper-bowled timpani would have to be
changed considerably.
I began constructing special mallets from various materials, and
experimenting with both organic and synthetic covering materials to
dampen or partially dampen the timpani heads, thereby altering their
harmonics and timbre, with varying degrees of success. The
picture above is from this period, showing me with an early version of
what eventually became the full Shendai Ceremonial Set.
Unfortunately, many later and more elaborate versions of the set went
unphotographed.
More Taiko-like
By
1995 several smaller single-headed drums had been added to provide higher
pitches, and after more work with various drum head materials and
mallets, I was finally able to produce a consistently desirable timbre
across the full range of all sizes of drums. Besides the extra
drums, LOTS of small brass percussion instruments had also been added
in the form of gongs, bells, chimes, cymbals, and "miscellaneous", even
including a brass crank doorbell!
At this point the full set stretched nearly twelve feet across and
looked like a veritable forest of stands on stage, and I was pressed to
develop some interesting new dance skills and special approaches to
music-making to accommodate this cluster of instruments, which then
numbered about 45 playing surfaces. At times the set also
included Midi
trigger devices, opening the door to the use of Electronic Percussion
and other synthesized sounds, but the Midi
Percussion Controllers of that era were resistant to being played
with my soft mallets, and made their own clicking sounds when struck -
not helpful when recording acoustically. In the end the
electronics proved too difficult to integrate smoothly and musically
with the acoustic drums, and were finally eliminated.
With the timpani as the basis of the set, traveling was a bit difficult
because of their bulk. By the time of the recording sessions for Tales
of Kings, I had developed a more compact, "studio" version of the
Ceremonial Set by setting aside the timpani and keeping only the other
core essentials and the best-sounding small components. Pictured below
at a more recent recording session, the current studio version uses
only eight single-headed drums ranging in size from 6 to 22 inches, and
about a dozen key brass instruments. This makes it much easier to
transport and manage physically, while still keeping enough pitches
available to allow a full range of musical expression. But all the
components of the full set, including the timpani, still wait in the
wings for their next grand performance opportunity.
Ceremonial Shendai
The name Shendai deserves some explanation. Sometime
after I had already constructed and perfected this instrument I became
acquainted with Japanese Taiko Drumming,
and only then realized that what I had unknowingly created was, in
essence , my own personal version of a Taiko drum set. The name
Shendai, a functional title, had been given to me as part of a
spiritual discipline that I was following some years earlier, and had
been kept secret for many years. But when this drum set made its
performance and recording debut in its more or less final form, it
seemed appropriate to give it a name, and Shendai fit perfectly from
both the aesthetic and symbolic perspectives. The term "Ceremonial"
arose because the drums were never designed or intended to create music
purely for entertainment, but rather to honor, in a special way, the
essence of that ethereal, mystical something we musicians constantly
seek to express more and more perfectly.
Steven Miller, March 2002
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