Almost all cultures, and all musical genres and styles, contain some sort of percussion instrument, especially in the form of a drum. Drums can be considered as one of the world’s oldest and most common instrument. Looking back at its history, drums play a special role whether musically, culturally or militarily.
On the evening of May 13th, the Drum Circle club hosted their “Incitant” 2013 spring concert at the Multi-Purpose Hall of the PKU Centennial Hall. The concert attracted 280 audiences, who are captivated by the stunning display of drum performance put by the members.
According to Yang Min, a junior student from the School of Economics and President of Drum Circle, the performance serves to provide a platform for the members to showcase their talent. It also provides an avenue for the club to promote itself and to attract more students to share their interest in drumming.
More importantly, she hoped that the performance will “consolidate the past effort put in by the members, strengthen the bond between them and lay the foundation for the development of the club”.
The Drum Circle club of Peking University was formed in April 2009 by PKU students passionate in drums. It aims at providing students who are interested in drum playing a circle for learning, interaction and performance. It consists of 4 different sectors, namely the African hand drum sector, jazz drum sector, Chinese Dagu (Large Drum) and the Latin percussion group.
As part of their outreach, the club also offers lessons in the basics of drumming, and in-depth learning of the performing of various drums. In addition, the club also conducts regular gathering of drummers (known as guju 鼓聚), and performances showcasing the talents of their members.
On the difficulties faced by the club, Yang Min ranked the location as the biggest problem. “Our requirements for a space to practice are rather high. We not only need somewhere where we can store drums, but also one where we will not disturb other students when practicing. Our main location is at the basement carpark of the No.2 Classroom building, but it does get too cold during winter, plus there is lack of security for storage of our equipment, and that there is a chance of us disturbing classes in progress.”
While the lack of practice space remains as a pertinent problem faced by the club, it has nonetheless tried its very best to organize practises, and the fruits of their perseverance clearly show during the performance.
Collision and Fusion seem to be the best words to describe the performance put up by the club. With four different sections focusing on different kinds of drums, the performance provides an opportunity for all of them to come together on the same stage, and Drum Circle makes an effort to show its unity and creativity.
The climax of the night’s performance was an original performance put together by the Latin percussion section and the African hand drum section. Titled “When African hand drum meets Latin drum,” the item focused on the harmony when the two different drums, each with different tone and tempo, meet. The display provided the audience with a unique experience and left them wanting for more.
Putting up 16 items in the 2-hour-long performance demonstrated what the club have achieved with its relatively short history of four years. The experiment of combining different drum sections proved to be a resounding success.
Looking ahead, Yang Min hopes to continue spreading the passion of drumming to more students, and providing members with better learning conditions for them to further improve their skill levels. The club is also planning to work with other similar clubs of other tertiary institutions in Beijing to organize a “Beijing College Students Percussion Cultural Festival.” She hopes that “through public performances, lectures, and other unique activities, we can get more students to join experience the passion of drumming.”
Written by Heng Kang Wei
