I currently work at an historic fort that was built by the French in 1726. The French controlled the fort and region until the French & Indian War when the British besieged and captured the fort in 1759.
Note the boxy drum (wider and shallow) and the high playing position.
Jean-Antoine Watteau; Three Views of a Military Drummer (1713) – Frick Collection
When I first had to portray a French musician for work, I felt very out of my element. I had never heard any of this music before. A lot of it was written in time signatures I wasn’t familiar with. There were rudiments and sticking patterns that felt uncomfortable to play.
That initial discomfort actually compelled me to dive into research and learn as much as I could about French military music and French rudiments.
As I started to really look around and ask questions, I realized a few things:
1. There’s no English resource for French rudiments.
2. Very few French resources have been translated into English.
3. Almost no original French marches / cadences still exist.
4. Some of the music for French duty calls commonly accessible to F&I re-enactors isn’t correct.
5. Much of the beatings performed by F&I re-enactors (for lack of French music) is just English or modern beatings.
If that seems like a long list of grievances – it was!
I was very frustrated when I initially began researching because there was almost nothing to jump off of. I felt like a pioneer wading into a new frontier of rudimental drumming.
And I’m so excited that I have!
Part of my website is dedicated to publicizing most of the research I have conducted on French music. In my ‘Drum Rudiments & Their Histories’, you can find out all about the different French rudiments, with music to show you how to perform them correctly.
This section will focus on performing French music:
‘Performing French Duty Calls’ will focus on discussing the original notation in the 1754 Ordonnance and how to locate French rudiments in these beatings to make the sticking and style feel more natural.
‘Performing Philidor’s Drum Beatings’ will highlight a handful of beatings out of the Philidor Collection to demonstrate how early French drum beatings functioned.
‘Virtuosic French Drumming’ will discuss more advanced elements of French performance. French drum music, much like most of 18th century music, was based on Theme and Variation. We see great evidence of how French drummers could build on certain rudiments to make them harder and harder, inventing unique and challenging drum beatings.
These sections should offer the aspiring French drummer a huge wealth of knowledge and a good start at forming their French impression.
If you want even more French music and information about French performance, check out my book ‘Philidor’s Drum Beatings’.