CYCLE THIRTY-ONE

1. PERCUSSION AND DRUMS. To distinguish, in music, between the 'noumenal percussion' of hand-percussion instruments and the 'phenomenal percussion' of drums. Thus to distinguish, in effect, between the Superheathen essence, for example, of claypots, tambourines, and bongos on the one hand, and the Heathen essence of drum kits on the other hand, the former more absolutist with regard to the use of hands, the latter comparatively relativistic by dint of their reliance on drumsticks, which confirm, it seems to me, a phenomenal status, in keeping with the greater bulk and complexity of drums. By and large, the distinction between percussion and drums is one of just such a noumenal/phenomenal order.

2. SUPERHEATHEN PERCUSSION. In regard to the Superheathen context of 'noumenal percussion', I would like to advance the theory that whereas instruments like claypots are affiliated to Hinduism/Buddhism by dint of the vacuous nature of their hollow interiors, tambourines, castanets, and other sun-like percussion instruments are affiliated, by contrast, to Judaism, if not to Satanism, while bongos and other such enclosed percussion instruments would seem closer, in their more subjective character, to Mohammedanism. Thus from the objective selflessness of claypots to the subjective selfishness of bongos via the objective selfishness of tambourines.

3. HEATHEN PERCUSSION. As regards the Heathen context of 'phenomenal percussion', viz. drums, I incline to the theory that, considered in ethnic terms, drum kits are effectively Protestant phenomena which can therefore be subdivided into Puritan, Presbyterian, and Anglican affiliations, with, so I shall contend, cymbals affiliated to Puritanism, side or snare drums affiliated to Presbyterianism, and bass drums to Anglicanism. My reason for advancing this theory is that I believe that cymbals exist at an almost watery aloofness, analogous to the intellect, from drums in general, pretty much like Rugby Union from Rugby League and/or Association Football, and that they therefore qualify for a parallel with the Son, not least of all on account of the subjective selflessness which is especially suggested by the use of brushes with cymbals, surely the most appropriate means of playing them? On the other hand, snare drums are more usually and, as it were, correctly played with drumsticks, given their greater impact, which would suggest not an intellectual but an emotional appeal ... such that correlates, in its objective selflessness, with the Father, thereby confirming a Presbyterian bias. Finally, the use of foot pedals with bass drums is arguably less emotional than wilful or instinctual, given the physical demands they make upon the drummer, and therefore something that would stand closer, in its objective selfishness, to the Mother, thereby confirming an Anglican affiliation that, in drumming terms, would be of the World per se, as against either the purgatorial Overworld (of cymbals) or the purgatorial Netherworld (of snare drums, etc). Thus if my theory is as cogent as I happen to believe, drum kits are manifestly not Christian (and Catholic), but Heathen (and Protestant), and therefore quite amenable, as it were, to being supplemented, if not dominated, by a variety of hand-percussion instruments which, in general terms, would stand to drums as the Devil to woman, or fundamentalism to liberalism.