Dictionary of Music - Birding America

420 tabletableAnother word for BELLY.tabor (tā′bər). A small SNARE DRUM playedtogether with a pipe to accompany dancing. (Seealso PIPE, def. 2.)tacet (tach′it) Latin: “be silent.” A word used inorchestral and vocal scores to direct a particularinstrument or voice to remain silent during a particularpassage or section, usually one of considerablelength (such as a whole movement).taiko (tī′kô) Japanese. A generic term for drum inJapanese; also, a new genre called kumi daiko,“group drumming,” performed by an ensemble ofdrummers on different sizes of drum. Taiko drumsare made of cowhide stretched over a single piece ofwood. Traditionally keyaki, a blond hardwood foundin the north of Japan, is used, but today manygroups, especially in North America, refashionthirty-gallon wine barrels into taikos as a cost-savingmeasure. The size varies, from a diameter of 1.5feet on a snare-drum-sized instrument to the largestone, some 40 inches in diameter and even longer.The drumsticks used are fairly large; 16.5 incheslong and 1 inch in diameter is typical, and the drummerusually stands while playing. In Japan taikosserve as a supporting role to dance, drama, or othermelodic instruments, played at Shinto and Buddhistshrines, special festivals, and theatrical performancessuch as GAGAKU, NOH, and kabuki. In thelate 1960s taiko was brought to the United States,where it soon became popular, at first in Californiaand later in other parts of the country. Taikos can beused for solo performance as well, to play compositionssuch as virtuoso drummer Eitetsu Hayashi’sThe Wings of Flightless Birds, inspired by an eighteenth-centuryJapanese painting.Takemitsu (tä′′ke mit′soo — ), Toru (tô′roo — ),1930–1996. One of the first Japanese composerswhose music became known in the West, partlybecause he was championed by Igor Stravinsky andAaron Copland. Largely self-taught, in the late1940s and early 1950s he wrote freely atonal music,following the lead of experimental Western composersof that era. Such works include UndisturbedRest (1952) for piano. Also from this period isRequiem for string orchestra (1957), an almostneoromantic work. Later works were increasinglyinspired by poetry and nature, especially the beautyof Japanese gardens, as in Coral Island (1962), GardenRain (1974), and Rain Coming (1982). He alsobecame interested in traditional Japanese instruments.The shakuhachi and biwa were used inNovember Steps, a kind of double concerto composedfor the New York Philharmonic in 1967, andDistance (1973) features counterpoint between thesho and the Western oboe. In addition to orchestralworks and many chamber pieces, Takemitsu wrotenearly 100 film scores for Japanese New Wave cinema.Outstanding among the latter are Woman of theDunes (1964), Ran (1985), Black Rain (1989), andDream Window (1992), the last a documentary onJapanese gardens.tala (däl) Hindi.See under RAGA.talking drum Originally, a West African meansof nonverbal communication, in which either a twoheadeddrum or two separate drums sounding differentpitches, corresponding to the low- and highpitchedvowels of the local language, is used totransmit a message. In recent years, as African performersbrought their music to Europe and America,such drums have sometimes been incorporated inensembles with other instruments, where they generallysupply a rhythmic lead.Tallis (tal′əs), Thomas, c. 1505–1585. An Englishcomposer and organist who is remembered for hisoutstanding church music. One of the first to writesacred music to English texts (after the Anglicanchurch broke away from the Roman), Tallis wroteanthems, as well as Latin Masses, Magnificats,motets, and madrigals. Together with WilliamBYRD, he was given a monopoly by Queen ElizabethI on printing and selling music, and in 1575 the twomen together published a collection of their motets,Cantiones sacres (“Sacred Songs”). A master ofcounterpoint, Tallis also wrote keyboard and lutepieces, some of them secular (nonreligious), but it ismainly for his church music that he is consideredone of the finest composers of his time.