As part of the Kennedy Center’s Celebrate Mexico 2010, Tambuco performs traditional and contemporary music inspired by the popular and folk music of Mexico. Using a variety of percussion instruments from bongos to vibraphones, Tambuco’s musicians demonstrate the unique sounds of their instruments, discuss the culture and traditions of Mexico as expressed through music, and perform in traditional costumes.
Tambuco is a percussion quartet founded in 1993 by four Mexican musicians—Alfred Bringas, Ricardo Gallardo (Artistic Director), Miguel Gonzales, and Raul Tudon. Playing drums, cymbals, bells, xylophones, and other rhythm instruments, Tambuco performs concerts around the world. The group has won numerous awards and prizes and has recorded four highly praised CDs. Tambuco’s Ritmicas was selected by Audiophile Audition as one of the best CDs recorded in 1997.
Tambuco’s performances weave music, instruments, and playing techniques from all over the world into a colorful tapestry of sounds, some familiar and some completely new. Most of the music performed by Tambuco was composed in the twentieth century, some of it as early as 1930. The quartet also performs music composed in recent years.
Since 1993, Tambuco has collected more than one hundred percussion instruments from a wide variety of cultures. From West Africa come two powerful drums—the deep sounding djun-djun and the higher-pitched djembe. From the Middle East comes the goblet-shaped drum that has been played there for 3000 years—the darabuca.
When collaborating with composers in the creation of new music, Tambuco encourages them to experiment with these and other instruments in new and unusual ways. The performers delight in presenting audiences with the resulting music: vibrant, exciting new sounds which are both fascinating and emotionally powerful.
Percussion Music
Percussion music, perhaps more than any other, is music of touch. Percussionists use bare hands, sticks, and mallets to strike, scrape, rub, slap, and tap surfaces of metal, skin, wood, or plastic. With great physical force they can make sounds of earsplitting intensity: Cymbals crash, big drums pound and boom! Or with the gentlest delicacy, percussionists can make barely-detectable sounds: Bells tinkle, rattles rustle, and whisper.
Percussion music is also music of the heartbeat. From the moment of birth, all people on earth depend upon the steady beats of their hearts to keep them alive. A simple, steady beat on a drum is reminiscent of a heartbeat. Percussionists can extend and embellish that simple heartbeat into complexities of rhythm.
Marching band drummers in sharp uniforms, casual groups of drummers in a city park, and hip-hop drummers on the radio all keep people listening and moving to their beat.
Percussion music is also old music. Throughout history people have created percussion music for personal expression, public ceremony, and pure pleasure. From log drums in Africa’s rainforests to tribal drums on Native America’s Great Plains to bronze gongs in ancient Southeast Asia, people made rhythms that enriched their lives. Many of these beats still go on today.
Be Percussionists
Find objects in your classroom that can serve as percussion instruments. For example, a pencil can serve as a drumstick which produces different timbres depending upon which part of the pencil is used to strike another object’s surface. A desktop, paperback book, or even another pencil can serve as an idiophone, an instrument made of solid, resonant material. When you have found an “instrument” you like, pair with another student and improvise (make up) a stream of rhythm. When you and your partner are happy with the result, form a quartet with another pair. See how large an ensemble you can create before keeping together in time becomes too difficult. If your whole class can play together successfully, congratulations!
Producer
Kenny Neal
Published
September 11, 2019
Travel through the diverse cultures of Latin America, as represented by artists from Ecuador, Cuba, Bolivia, El Salvador, Spain, Venezuela, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Texas and California. Enjoy art rich in both tradition and innovation.
The vibrant, energetic music of the Andes region of South America is performed in its most authentic form by Andes Manta, professional musicians and natives of the Ecuadorian Andes.
Eric Friedman
Director, Digital Learning
Kenny Neal
Manager, Digital Education Resources
Tiffany A. Bryant
Manager, Operations and Audience Engagement
JoDee Scissors
Content Specialist, Digital Learning
Generous support for educational programs at the Kennedy Center is provided by the U.S. Department of Education.
Gifts and grants to educational programs at the Kennedy Center are provided by The Paul M. Angell Family Foundation; Bank of America; Capital One; The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation; Carnegie Corporation of New York; The Ednah Root Foundation; Harman Family Foundation; William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust; the Kimsey Endowment; The Kiplinger Foundation; Laird Norton Family Foundation; Lois and Richard England Family Foundation; Dr. Gary Mather and Ms. Christina Co Mather; The Markow Totevy Foundation; Dr. Gerald and Paula McNichols Foundation; The Morningstar Foundation; Myra and Leura Younker Endowment Fund; The Irene Pollin Audience Development and Community Engagement Initiatives;
Prince Charitable Trusts; Dr. Deborah Rose and Dr. Jan A. J. Stolwijk; Rosemary Kennedy Education Fund; The Embassy of the United Arab Emirates; The Victory Foundation; The Volgenau Foundation; Volkswagen Group of America; Jackie Washington; GRoW @ Annenberg and Gregory Annenberg Weingarten and Family; Wells Fargo; and generous contributors to the Abe Fortas Memorial Fund and by a major gift to the fund from the late Carolyn E. Agger, widow of Abe Fortas. Additional support is provided by the National Committee for the Performing Arts..
The content of these programs may have been developed under a grant from the U.S. Department of Education but does not necessarily represent the policy of the U.S. Department of Education. You should not assume endorsement by the federal government.
