The rototom is a shell-less drum developed by Al Payson and Michael Colgrass that is able to change pitch by rotating its drumhead around a threaded metal ring.
Description
Tuning
Rototoms can be tuned quickly by rotating the drumhead, which sits in a threaded metal ring. Rotation raises or lowers the tension hoop relative to the rim, which increases or decreases the pitch of the drum by increasing or decreasing the tension of the drumhead.
Sizes
Drum company
Remo has historically offered rototoms in seven diameters: , , , , , , and . However, as of 2023, Remo only offers rototoms ranging from a 6 to 10 inch diameter as part of a set that includes a mounting rail and stand. All other sizes have been discontinued. Each one is tunable over an octave's range or more, although the company notes that the practical range is approximately a sixth.
Applications
Rototoms can replace more specialized drums such as tenor timpani owing to their clear, pitched nature.
Jazz, rock and studio performers use rototoms both as a solo voice and as conventional tom-toms; they can be rapidly tuned to produce
glissando effects and can be arrayed for a virtual percussion keyboard. For
concert band and
marching band programs, rototoms combine rapid tuning with portability and sound quality, working both as concert tom-toms and as practice timpani. For stage bands and
jazz band,
are fitted out with batter heads. When tuned to the mid-range, they have an indefinite pitch with fewer harmonic overtones than conventional tom-toms; tuned to the high range, they produce a sound not unlike
timbales.
Rototoms can assist students in ear training and in developing their timpani techniques and— because of their portability, storability and relatively low cost— are often used by professional performers as practice instruments. They are also used as definite-pitched instruments in elementary music programs, such as Orff Schulwerk, where their sound quality, pitch stability and musical tuning are assets.[ Remo RotoToms, Remo Inc., 1981. Accessed 11 December 2018.]
Repertoire
English composer
Michael Tippett used a total of 38 rototoms— tuned chromatically, spanning across three octaves— in his last large-scale orchestral work,
The Rose Lake (1993), based on a lake he spotted suddenly transforming from light green to translucent pink while on holiday in Senegal.
In 1979, percussionist
William Kraft published
Encounters VI, a concertino for rototoms and percussion quartet.
External links
