Drone (music) - The Drone Effect in Musical Compositions

The Drone Effect 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:

• Haydn, Symphony No. 104, "London", opening of finale, accompanying a folk melody
• Beethoven, Symphony No. 6, "Pastoral", opening and trio section of scherzo
• Berlioz, Harold in Italy, accompanying oboes as they imitate the pifferi of Italian peasants
• Bartók, in his adaptations for piano of Hungarian and other folk music
• Mahler, Symphony No. 1, introduction; a seven-octave drone on A evokes "the awakening of nature at the earliest dawn"

However, drones are less often used in common practice classical music, because equal temperament causes slight mistunings, which become more apparent over a drone, especially when also sustained. On the other hand, drones may be purposely dissonant, as often found in the music of Phill Niblock. The best-known drone piece in the concert repertory is the Prelude to Wagner's Das Rheingold (1854) wherein the bass instruments sustain an Eb throughout the entire movement (Erickson 1975, p. 94). Later drone pieces include Loren Rush's Hard Music (1970), Folke Rabe's Was?? (1968), and Robert Erickson's Down at Piraeus.

Contemporary folk music uses the drone effect extensively. In much of Bob Dylan's early work he uses this effect with a retuned guitar, for instance Masters of War and Mr Tambourine Man.

Contemporary classical musicians who make prominent use of drones, often with just or other non-equal tempered tunings, include La Monte Young and many of his students, 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. 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.

Drone was virtually absent in original Rock'n'Roll music, but gained popularity after The Beatles used drone in a few popular compositions (for example, "Blackbird" has a drone in the middle of a texture throughout the whole song, "Tomorrow Never Knows" has a drone in the bass). They also used high drone for the dramatic effect in some sections of several of their compositions (like the last verses of "Yesterday" and "Eleanor Rigby"). The rock ensemble U2 uses drones in their compositions particularly widely. Also the avant-garde guitarist Glenn Branca uses drones extensively.

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.