For the percussion group named for this composition, seeTambuco.
Tambuco is apercussion-ensemble work for six players, written by the Mexican composerCarlos Chávez in 1964. The score is dedicated toClare Boothe Luce, and a performance of it lasts approximately thirteen minutes.
The impulse to composeTambuco came about in an unusual way. In 1950, Clare Boothe Luce had commissioned Chávez'sThird Symphony, completed in 1954. Their unlikely friendship continued for nearly three decades and, after Luce began working inmosaics in 1963, they agreed to exchange commissions for works from each other. For Chávez, Luce created a 4' x 5' mosaic titledGolden Tiger, which he hung in hisLomas de Chapultepec studio in Mexico City. In return, he createdTambuco.[1][2]
The premiere took place on 11 October 1965 in the Leo S. Bing Theater at theLos Angeles County Museum of Art, performed by the Los Angeles Percussion Ensemble conducted byWilliam Kraft.[3] Both Chávez and Luce were in the audience.[1]
Each of the six performers plays a battery of at least six different instruments.Pitched percussion is found in each of the players' groups, which also each include wood, metal, and membrane instruments.[4] The total array is:
Percussion I:
Small rasping stick
Small water gourd
Glockenspiel
Small claves
Very small bongo set
Medium bongo set
Percussion II:
Large rasping stick
Large water gourd
Large suspended cymbal
Swiss brass bells
Wood block
Group of drums:
Small snare drum
Medium snare drum
Tenor drum
Percussion III:
Metal rattle (or shaken tambourine)
Maraca
Triangle
Tubular chimes
Large claves
Four timpani
Percussion IV:
Clay (or hard cardboard) rattle
Soft rattle (soft cardboard or straw)
Maraca
Very large crash cymbals
Marimba
Extra-large claves
Group of drums:
Small tom tom
Large tom tom
Conga
Percussion V:
Small güiro
Large güiro (shared with Percussion VI)
Extra-large ratchet
Tap-a-tap (two rectangular pieces of thin wood with handles)
Celesta
Extra-large gong
Group of drums:
Small snare drum
Medium snare drum
Tenor drum
Xylophone (shared with Percussion VI)
Percussion VI:
Sand blocks (two sets, with rough and fine sandpaper)
Instead of the conventional procedures of thematicrepetition anddevelopment,Tambuco unfolds in what the composer describes as "a constant process of consequent evolution. That is to say, an initial idea serves as an 'antecedent' to a 'consequent', which in turn immediately becomes an antecedent to a new consequent, and so on until the end of the piece".[5] Chávez elsewhere characterizes such a procedure as being "like a spiral".[6]
The work falls into three main sections, each characterized by the predominance of certain instruments:
Rasps, rattles, and blocks (b. 1–158)
Definite-pitched instruments (glockenspiel, celesta, vibraphone, chimes, and marimba, b. 159–207), ending with a xylophone transition passage (b. 208–15)
Timpani, bongos, conga, and bass drums (b. 216–283).
This main structure is followed by acoda (beginning in b. 284) in which the definite-pitched instruments gradually re-enter, leading to an abrupt ending.[7]
‹See TfM›Anon. 1965. "Monday Concerts Bow with Works Composed in the 60s".Los Angeles Times (10 October): B24.
‹See TfM›Bernheimer, Martin. 1965. "Inventive New Works Mark First Music Society Concert".Los Angeles Times (13 October): D13.
‹See TfM›Chávez, Carlos. 1961.Musical Thought. The Charles Eliot Norton Lectures, 1958–1959. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Spanish translation, asEl pensamiento musical. Sección de obras de arte. México: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1979.ISBN968-16-0082-7.
‹See TfM›Chávez, Carlos. 1967.Tambuco, for Six Percussion Players (score). Miami: CPP Belwin, Inc.
‹See TfM›Hall, John Richard. 2008. "Development of the Percussion Ensemble through the Contributions of the Latin American Composers Amadeo Roldán, José Ardévol, Carlos Chávez, and Alberto Ginastera". DMA diss. Columbus: The Ohio State University.
‹See TfM›Parker, Robert L. 1984. "Clare Booth Luce, Carlos Chávez, and Sinfonía No. 3".Latin American Music Review/Revista de Música Latinoamericana 5, no. 1 (Spring–Summer): 48–65.
‹See TfM›Peterman, Timothy James. 1986. "An Examination of Two Sextets of Carlos Chávez:Toccata for Percussion Instruments andTambuco for Six Percussion Players". DMA diss. Denton: University of North Texas.
‹See TfM›Stevenson, Robert. 1973. "Latin America". InMusic in the Modern Age, edited by Frederick William Sternfeld, 407–32. A History of Western Music 5. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson; New York: Praeger Publishers.ISBN978-0297995616.
