Richard Holmes was backstage with timpani mallets in hand,
constantly flicking his wrists as if he were playing the
skin of the air. Special Ops Forces
Commando Maggie Bailey sashayed by with a newly delivered package for Richard,
a long cardboard tube. He appeared very pleased but made me wait patiently
before he told me what was in it.
"Drum heads." "What are they
made of?" "Cattle skins." "Where are they
from?" "Ireland."
Richard told me that when the
stockyards were still in Chicago,
the best drum heads came from there. Then when the
major slaughterhouses moved to Texas,
he says, the quality dropped off.
Nobody could get the process right,
Richard told me. He illustrated with his fingers how the
crosshatching of the skins out of Texas were too wide, so the heads would tear and break easily.
Then, he said, Dublin
started producing drum heads of high quality. He doesn't know if Irish cattle
somehow have a more tightly woven skin, but somehow they're
much more resilient and long lasting. Expensive though, but you'll know you'll
be hearing the best, out of Ireland, with
Russian accents for Shostakovich this week.
