Drone (sound)

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"Skye Boat Song"
An adaptation of "The Skye Boat Song" for Great Highland bagpipes played by the Clan Stewart Pipe Band. A drone on the dominant (B♭) is heard throughout.
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For the genre, see Drone music.

In

note or chord is continuously sounded throughout most or all of a piece. A drone may also be any part of a musical instrument used to produce this effect; an archaic term for this is burden (bourdon or burdon)[1][2] such as a "drone [pipe] of a bagpipe",[3][4] the pedal point in an organ, or the lowest course of a lute. Α burden is also part of a song that is repeated at the end of each stanza, such as the chorus or refrain.[5]

Musical effect

"Of all harmonic devices, it [a drone] is not only the simplest, but probably also the most fertile."[6]

A drone effect can be achieved through a

sustained sound or through repetition of a note. It most often establishes a tonality upon which the rest of the piece is built. A drone can be instrumental, vocal or both. Drone (both instrumental and vocal) can be placed in different ranges of the polyphonic texture: in the lowest part, in the highest part, or in the middle. The drone is most often placed upon the tonic or dominant (play "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" with a drone on the tonicⓘ, on the dominantⓘ, or on bothⓘ. Compare with changing chordsⓘ
.). A drone on the same pitch as a melodic note tends to both hide that note and to bring attention to it by increasing its importance.

A drone differs from a pedal tone or point in degree or quality. A pedal point may be a form of nonchord tone and thus required to resolve unlike a drone, or a pedal point may simply be considered a shorter drone, a drone being a longer pedal point.

History and distribution

A Lady Playing the Tanpura, ca. 1735.

The systematic use of drones originated in instrumental music of

shankh (conch shell). Most of the types of bagpipes that exist worldwide have up to three drones, making this one of the first instruments that comes to mind when speaking of drone music. In America, most forms of the African-influenced banjo contain a drone string. Since the 1960s, the drone has become a prominent feature in drone music and other forms of avant-garde music
.

In vocal music drone is particularly widespread in traditional musical cultures, particularly in Europe, Polynesia and Melanesia. It is also present in some isolated regions of Asia (like among Pearl-divers in the Persian Gulf, some national minorities of South-West China, Taiwan, Vietnam, and Afghanistan).[8][page needed]

Part(s) of a musical instrument

Highland bagpipes, with drone pipes over the pipers' left shoulders

Drone is also the term for the part of a

frets down the neck of the instrument; this string is usually tuned to the same note as that which the first string produces when played at the fifth fret. The bass strings of the Slovenian drone zither also freely resonate as a drone. The Welsh Crwth
also features two drone strings.

Melody to "Yankee Doodle" without and with drone notes as played on the banjo[9] Play withoutⓘ and with droneⓘ.

Use in musical compositions

Composers of

Western classical music occasionally used a drone (especially one on open fifths) to evoke a rustic or archaic atmosphere, perhaps echoing that of Scottish or other early or folk music
. Examples include the following:

The best-known drone piece in the concert repertory is the Prelude to Wagner's Das Rheingold (1854) wherein low horns and bass instruments sustain an E♭ throughout the entire movement.[10] The atmospheric ostinato effect that opens Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, which inspired similar gestures in the opening of all the symphonies of Anton Bruckner, represents a gesture derivative of drones.

One consideration for composers of common practice keyboard music was equal temperament. The adjustments lead to slight mistunings as heard against a sustained drone. Even so, drones have often been used to spotlight dissonance purposefully.

Modern concert musicians make frequent use of drones, often with just or other non-equal tempered tunings. Drones are a regular feature in the music of composers indebted to the chant tradition, such as Arvo Pärt, Sofia Gubaidulina, and John Tavener. The single-tones that provided the impetus for minimalism through the music of La Monte Young and many of his students qualify as drones. David First, the band Coil, the early experimental compilations of John Cale (Sun Blindness Music, Dream Interpretation, and Stainless Gamelan), Pauline Oliveros and Stuart Dempster, Alvin Lucier (Music On A Long Thin Wire), Ellen Fullman, Lawrence Chandler and Arnold Dreyblatt all make notable use of drones. The music of Italian composer Giacinto Scelsi is essentially drone-based. Shorter drones or the general concept of a continuous element are often used by many other composers. Other composers whose music is entirely based on drones include Charlemagne Palestine and Phill Niblock. The Immovable Do by Percy Grainger contains a sustained high C (heard in the upper woodwinds) that lasts for the entirety of the piece. Drone pieces also include Loren Rush's Hard Music (1970) [11] and Folke Rabe's Was?? (1968),[12] as well as Robert Erickson's Down at Piraeus.[13] The avant-garde guitarist Glenn Branca also used drones extensively. French singer Camille uses a continuous B throughout her album Le_Fil.

Drones continue to be characteristic of folk music. Early songs by Bob Dylan employ the effect with a retuned guitar in "Masters of War" and "Mr. Tambourine Man".[citation needed] The song "You Will Be My Ain True Love", written by Sting for the 2003 movie Cold Mountain and performed by Alison Krauss and Sting, uses drone bass.[citation needed]

Drones are used widely in the

In The Light", a keyboard drone is used throughout the song, mostly in the intro.[citation needed
]

Use for musical training

See also: Ear training

Drones are used by a number of music education programs for ear training and pitch awareness, as well as a way to improvise ensemble music.

common practice expectations of harmony and melody.[17][verification needed
]

See also

References

  1. ^ Gove, Philip Babcock (1961). Webster's Third New International Dictionary, [page needed]. Riverside Press. [ISBN unspecified].
  2. ^ Brown, John (1816). Encyclopaedia Perthensis; Or Universal Dictionary of the Arts, Sciences, Literature, &c. Intended to Supersede the Use of Other Books of Reference, Volume 4, p.487. 2nd edition. [ISBN unspecified].
  3. ^ Lloyd, Edward (1896). Lloyd's Encyclopaedic Dictionary: A New and Original Work of Reference to the Words in the English Language, Volume 1, p.743. [ISBN unspecified].
  4. ISBN 9785874642921
    .
  5. ^ Brabner, John H F., ed. (1884). The national encyclopædia, Vol. V, p.99. Libr. ed. William McKenzie. [ISBN unspecified].
  6. ISBN 0-19-316121-4
    .
  7. ^ van der Merwe (1989), p.11.
  8. ISBN 99940-31-81-3
    .
  9. ISBN 1-883206-44-8
    .
  10. ISBN 0-520-02376-5
    .
  11. ^ Erickson 1976, p. 104.
  12. ^ Erickson 1976, p. 95 & 104.
  13. ^ Erickson 1976, p. 97.
  14. ISBN 9781476816036
    .
  15. ^ "Everybody Loves the Sunshine: A Critical Analysis of Covers". Nextbop. 2014-03-10. Retrieved 2022-07-07.
  16. ^ Oshinsky, James (January 2008). Return to Child - Music for People's Guide to Improvising Music and Authentic Group Leadership (Second ed.).
  17. ^ Clint Goss (2011). "Reference Drones". Flutopedia. Retrieved 2011-11-08.

Public Domain This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chambers, Ephraim, ed. (1728). "Burden". Cyclopædia, or an Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences (1st ed.). James and John Knapton, et al.

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