The rute (also spelled ruthe, from the German for 'rod' or 'switch'), also known as a multi-rod, is a

beater Beater may refer to: Clothes *Beater (weaving), a tool used to force woven yarn into place *A shortening of "wifebeater" (shirt), a colloquialism for particular style of sleeveless shirt Music *Any of various types of percussion mallets ** A r ...

for

drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a ...

s. Commercially made rutes are usually made of a bundle of thin birch dowels or thin canes attached to a

drum stick A drum stick (or drumstick) is a type of percussion mallet used particularly for playing snare drum, drum kit, and some other percussion instruments, and particularly for playing unpitched percussion. Specialized beaters used on some other p ...

handle. These often have a movable band to adjust how tightly the dowels are bound toward the tip. A rute may also be made of a bundle of twigs attached to a drum stick handle. These types of rutes are used for a variety of effects with various musical ensembles. A rute may also be a cylindrical bunch of pieces of cane or twigs, bound at one end, like a small

besom A besom () is a broom, a household implement used for sweeping. The term is now mostly reserved for a traditional broom constructed from a bundle of twigs tied to a stout pole. The twigs used could be broom (i.e. '' Genista'', from which comes ...

without a handle. The rute is used to play on the head of the

bass drum The bass drum is a large drum that produces a note of low definite or indefinite pitch. The instrument is typically cylindrical, with the drum's diameter much greater than the drum's depth, with a struck head at both ends of the cylinder. Th ...

."Anatomy of the Orchestra", Norman Del Mar Rute are also constructed from a solid rod thinly split partway down.

Etymology

The name of the instruments derives from German '' Rute'' (rod). The final ''e'' is pronounced, making the pronunciation 'ROOT-eh'.

Orchestral usage

In orchestral music, rute (or ruthe) first appeared in the music of

Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition r ...

, in his opera Die Entführung aus dem Serail, K. 384 (1782). The setting of the opera is Turkey, and rute were imported from Turkish Janissary music, the martial music of the Sultan's royal guard, very much in vogue at the time. ( James Blades, "Percussion Instruments and their History" 1992) The rute were played by the bass drum player, with a mallet striking on downbeats and rute being struck on offbeats. A typical pattern in this style would generally go, in 4/4 time, boom-tap-tap-tap boom-tap-tap-tap, the taps representing strikes of the rute. Mozart's contemporaries and immediate successors used the rute in a similar fashion for military effect. Mahler's use of the rute in the third movement of the Symphony No. 2 broke completely with traditional military writing for the instrument, focusing more on its coloristic possibilities than on the rhythmic role. This application was continued by Edgard Varese in his coloristic use of percussion.

Drum kit usage

Widespread usage of the rute in

kit drumming A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair of matching drumsticks ...

dates from US

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A ...

4535671, 20 August 1985, where

Pro-Mark Promark is a Houston, Texas-based American drum stick company. Since 2011, it is part of strings company D'Addario. Promark is a widely known stick company generally played in drum set, drum and bugle corps and concert bands. History Promark w ...

described their new ''Hot Rod'' rute-type drumstick intended for drum kit use. Variations such as ''Lightning Rods'' (seven canes, as opposed to nineteen for the Hot Rod), ''Thunder Rods'' (seven thicker canes giving the same weight as the Hot Rod) and ''Cool Rods'' (nineteen thin canes giving a similar weight to the Lightning Rod) soon followed from Pro-Mark. The rute stick for drum kit is now produced by most major drum stick manufacturers including also

Vic Firth Everett Joseph "Vic" Firth (June 2, 1930 – July 26, 2015) was an American musician and the founder of Vic Firth Company (formerly Vic Firth, Inc.), a company that makes percussion sticks and mallets. Biography Vic Firth was born June 2, ...

and Vater.

Grip techniques

The rute stick is held in the same way as a drum stick, and therefore is usually held either with a matched grip or a

traditional grip In percussion, grip refers to the manner in which the player holds the percussion mallet or mallets, whether drum sticks or other mallets. For some instruments, such as triangles and large gongs, only one mallet or beater is normally used, held ...

. The "handle" of the rute is the plastic area, as the drum or cymbal is struck with the wooden "rutes" or bundles of wooden stick.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rute (Music) Percussion instrument beaters