Drone'n

[eduardo_b]

With the caveat that music theory and calculous are equally outside my empirical knowledge, I'm curious about drones in music. As a fan of ambient music dominated by drones, I'm wondering how music theoriticans fit drones into music's rythym , melody and so on. I hear drones in bagpipes and I think in music from India, but how about some history, music in which drones are dominant and anything else interesting about them. Drones must be ancient in origin, long before Bob Moog was about to change the world of music and drones.

[shamann]

Accompaniment drones (like on pipes, hurdy gurdy, &c.) were traditionally all about harmony. In Indian classical music, there were/are no harmonic progressions, everything revolves around the changes in melody and rhythm, so an easy way to accompany that harmonically is to have a sustained tone.

Similarly, medieval vocal intoning was often accompanied by organ drones (partially because organs were really cumbersome and didn't initially make extensive use of the keyboard). While the old way of drones is on one hand about establishing a harmonic base, it's also about creating sonic filler (i.e. before electric amplification).

A lot of modern approaches to drones (like what Tony Conrad did in the 60s) are based on re-exploring the old ways of just intonation and perfect intervals and the like.

Bob Moog changed the world of drones?

[dystonia_ek]

No way dude, it was Sunn 0))) that invented drones in 2002.

[shamann]

[shamann]

I just went a-googling, struck upon this (which I don't think I'd read before as I don't have that Wire book. Thinking maybe I should get it now). Some interesting bits:

http://www.hungryghost.net/mb/drone.htm

[eduardo_b]

Bob Moog changed the world of drones?

Thanks for the concise but informative overview.

You don't think the synthesizer transformed the commonality and awareness of drones? It seems to me that a lot of people who wouldn't have known a drone from a buzz were exposed to these in prog rock and then rock. I don't recall drones being common before the 70s.

[JumpingJackFlash]

With the caveat that music theory and calculous are equally outside my empirical knowledge, I'm curious about drones in music. As a fan of ambient music dominated by drones, I'm wondering how music theoriticans fit drones into music's rythym , melody and so on. I hear drones in bagpipes and I think in music from India, but how about some history, music in which drones are dominant and anything else interesting about them. Drones must be ancient in origin, long before Bob Moog was about to change the world of music and drones.

I think the Wiki article covers drones quite well.
As well as bagpipes, drones have been produced by such instruments as the hurdy-gurdy, the Indian vina, and organ pedals.
The drone is a feature of the musette dance form (eg. Vaughan William's 1944 oboe concerto). There is also a notable drone in Schoenberg's 3rd piece from Five Pieces for Orchestra, 'Farben/Colours'.

Oh and, I genuinely do think that music theory (and calculus for that matter) is not a difficult concept once you get your head round the basics. (Although, please ignore this sentence rather than start another off-topic debate )

[shamann]

You don't think the synthesizer transformed the commonality and awareness of drones? It seems to me that a lot of people who wouldn't have known a drone from a buzz were exposed to these in prog rock and then rock. I don't recall drones being common before the 70s.

Were there a lot of drones in prog rock from the 70s? I don't recall much from the 70s (born in 74) but when I started retroactively searching the archives, I went looking for stuff in the 60s much more than in the 70s (Tony Conrad, Terry Riley, Lamonte Young, &c). If I think back, the most popularly visible period for drones would have been when the Beatles went all Mahavishnu, and suddenly ragas were played everywhere.

I think what synthesizers did for droning is: 1) they made alternate tunings easy and 2) they required little to no effort to make sustained tones. Beyond that, I'm not sure I see where they popularized droning.

[eduardo_b]

Were there a lot of drones in prog rock from the 70s? I don't recall much from the 70s (born in 74) but when I started retroactively searching the archives, I went looking for stuff in the 60s much more than in the 70s

Well, no wonder -- you were just a pup back then.

I think it does make a difference in perception when experiencing the music when it was new and popular because a lot of it sort of disappears with time. I saw Yes a couple of times when they were doing the albums they're best known for, and synth drones were very much more evident in concert than on recordings. Listen to one of the live Dire Straits albums and you'll hear drones in the background. Most of the time they weren't up front as the focus.

...I'm not sure I see where they popularized droning.

I'm not sure popularized is the best way to describe what I meant. Let's just say there were these cool sounds that were layered in the background and sometimes higher in the mix that were unlike other sounds. I don't think they were recognized as drones by most people, but the dark drones really added a whole new dimension to the music of the late 60s, through the 70s and into the 80s. Then they sort of went away to a large degree, but migrated to ambient albums that were largely unknown until the Internet made them accessible.

[shamann]

I was thinking a bit more on this on the commute home. I'm not sure if there is much more theory on drones to be written, seems most of what has been done in the last fifty years is more philosophical than theoretical.

Also, the idea of progressive drones is pretty funny.

[eduardo_b]

Also, the idea of progressive drones is pretty funny.

As is psychedelic trance.

[DWb]

Accompaniment drones (like on pipes, hurdy gurdy, &c.) were traditionally all about harmony. In Indian classical music, there were/are no harmonic progressions, everything revolves around the changes in melody and rhythm, so an easy way to accompany that harmonically is to have a sustained tone.

Similarly, medieval vocal intoning was often accompanied by organ drones (partially because organs were really cumbersome and didn't initially make extensive use of the keyboard).

Wasn't the idea of varying the drone note pretty much where harmony as we know it began?

[wrench45us]

I don't recall drones being common before the 70s.

two words
Velvet Underground

difficult to underestimate their influence
and John Cale's drones on that electric viola definitely made an impression on anyone that heard it

I think one might be able to include some early Syd Barret pieces as well like Astonomy Domine

but definitely not mainstream

[Peel]

The Indian Classical musicians I've heard on this topic seem to agree that the drone is basically there out of necessity -- ie, so the musicians have the reference tone to stay in tune. Of course, the sound of the drone instrument is now an established part of the music, but I really think the musicians themselves think of it as being there *primarily* for functional rather than aesthetic reasons. It's possible to play ICM with non-traditional drone instrument(I've even been to performances using those hideous "electronic tambouras") but playing without a drone at all is unthinkable (unless there's no melody). Note in most ICM recordings, the drone instrument is pretty far in the background -- less audible than it is for the audience in a live performance. That's because it's there *mainly* for the benefit of the musicians themselves rather than the listeners; the micing is oriented around the main instruments.
Note that the drone isn't static -- for example, in the case of the tamboura, a more-or less continual drone is generated by the sympathetic strings, but on the main strings, the player doesn't just repeatedly hit the strings on every beat; rather a pattern is played: octave-tonic-tonic-fifth-[rest]. The sequence of different notes, and the fact that the tamboura's pattern length doesn't match the metre of the piece (ie different number of beats), and probably the buzzy timbre, keeps your ears alert to the drone. To make an extreme comparison, imagine a constant sine wave played, instead of a tamboura pattern. Your mind quickly tunes it out (the cocktail party effect).
Anyway, I guess there's no underlying point to this, except maybe that while your average guy on the street tends to simply think, "ah, 'drone', yeah, it's a 'mood' thing," there's often more to it than that.