Drummers March to a Speedy Beat

When touring musicians complain of being on the run, they are,of course, speaking figuratively. But the 13 members of Japan’s Ondekoza troupe, also known as the “demon drummers,” are literally running across virtually the entire United States on a three-year tour.

On Tuesday, 10 of Ondekoza’s athletic young musicians ran from La Mesa into Seaport Village, where they set up their drums in a small plaza for a short al fresco concert. Sunday at 7 p.m. in UC San Diego’s Mandeville Auditorium, Ondekoza (pronounced on-deh-koh-ZAH) will perform a full concert of their taiko drumming, a traditional activity associated with Shinto religious rites and classical Kabuki plays.

“This drumming can be heard in all-night regional nature festivals held throughout Japan,” explained Marco Lienhard, a 29-year-old Swiss member of the troupe. Lienhard, who has been with Ondekoza 10 years, is currently its only non-Japanese member. As the group’s only member fluent in English, he also serves as its spokesman.

“The idea is that in each drum there is a God who is wakened by the beating of the drum. It is believed that the summoned God will then exert a favorable influence on the crops.”

Connections between music and religion are customary, but athletics and music are not typical associations in Western minds. Lienhard said he and his colleagues run 20 miles every day and resort to other modes of transportation only when the distances between engagements are too great. But each member has his own explanation of how running affects his playing.

“Running and sweating teaches you to enjoy the simple pleasures such as drinking cool water and eating a meal,” Lienhard said. “It also helps build up stamina. Running a marathon prepares you to build up energy to complete the end of a concert, when everything builds to an exhausting climax.”

Taiko drumming is much more vigorous and its motions more stylized than Western percussion playing. Some drums are more than six feet tall and weigh up to 700 pounds. The largest drums are placed sideways on stands, so that a drummer on either side can hit the drumhead full force at chest level. Some taiko drummers use balletic jumps to add force to their drum strokes, and certain mallets are more like wooden paddles than typical drum sticks.

Lienhard explained that this music is taught by rote and is learned first as a song that encodes the drummer’s instructions.

“There is a different sound for each beat and different sounds for each hand.”

Drums are not Ondekoza’s sole instruments. Among the non-percussion instruments are simple wooden transverse flutes, three-string guitar-like instruments called shamisens , and the shakuhachi , a wooden flute that resembles the Western Renaissance recorder. Each member plays another instrument in addition to drums, and the performance regimen requires the musicians to change instruments regularly.

Ondekoza was founded in 1970 by Tagayasu Den, who gathered his drumming commune on Sado Island in the Japan Sea 170 miles from Tokyo. Den left after a decade to form a new troupe with the same name, near Nagoya, but the group on Sado Island continues and tours as Kodo. At first, membership in Ondekoza was limited to men, but Den changed that policy. On the current tour, the troupe includes three women.

Ondekoza’s U.S. tour began Nov. 15, 1990, when they ran the New York City marathon and played a Carnegie Hall concert. The troupe then made its way down the Eastern seaboard to Florida, then ran westward through the South and Southwest. A large truck with the troupe’s name emblazoned on the side carries the drums and other company equipment.

Lienhard said the extreme summer heat they encountered over the last month traveling through New Mexico and the California desert--they recently performed in El Centro--did not prevent their running, but they had to forgo some of their daily musical practice.

“We usually set up in a park to practice, but some days it was just too hot to play outside.”

After playing San Diego, Ondekoza will follow the coast to Seattle and then begin the trek back to New York, where they will end the tour with a Carnegie Hall concert in November, 1993. They will then embark on a two-year European tour.

Lienhard said that the reasons for touring embrace both musical and political goals.

“Of course a tour allows us to bring this aspect of Japanese culture to different countries. But it also allows us to give Japanese culture a human face, as opposed to the stereotypes about Japan that are projected in Western media.”

Lienhard first encountered Ondekoza as an exchange student. Out of mere curiosity he visited the Ondekoza commune, but the requirements of his exchange program limited that stay to a week. On his second visit he started to practice drums and, since he had studied flute in Switzerland, he decided to take up the shakuhachi .

“I was attracted by its natural, woody sound. Once I started, I could not stop. It has been 10 years since I joined.”

Living with his Japanese colleagues has not made him an expert on Japanese culture, however.

“More and more it is harder to see differences between nationalities. The real differences are between individual personalities. The more time I spend in Japan, the harder it has become to explain what Japan is about. After I had been there a week, I felt I could write a book. Now I wouldn’t know where to start.”

Ondekoza will perform Sunday at 7 p.m. in UC San Diego’s Mandeville Auditorium. For ticket information, call 434-4559.