Royal Hartigan (b. 1947) is a percussionist, pianist, and tap dancer who has studied and performed the musics of Asia, Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and the Americas, including indigenous West African drumming, dance, song, and highlife; Turkish bendir frame drum; Japanese taiko drumming; Philippine kulintang gong and drum ensemble; Chinese Beijing, Cantonese, and Kunqu opera percussion; South Indian solkattu rhythms; Korean Nong ak drum and gong ensemble; Javanese and Sumatran gamelan; Gaelic bodhran; Native American drumming; Dominican merengue; Brazilian samba; Cambodian sampho drums and Vietnamese clapper percussion, European symphony; and African American blues, gospel, funk, hip-hop, and jazz traditions.
He was awarded an AB in Philosophy from St. Michael's College in 1968, specializing in medieval metaphysics and the existentialism of Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre. He received a BA degree in African American music at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 1981, studying with Roland Wiggins, Frederick Tillis, Reggie Workman, Archie Shepp, Max Roach, and Clifford Jarvis. royal earned his MA and Ph.D. degrees in world music at Wesleyan University in 1983 and 1986, studying intensively with ethnomusicologist David McAllester and Bill Lowe, Bill Barron, Ed Blackwell, Freeman Donkor, Abraham Adzenyah, and other master artists from Java, India, and Ghana, West Africa.
He has taught ethnomusicology, African drumming, and world music ensemble at the New School University in New York and the Graduate Liberal Studies Program at Wesleyan University. royal helped develop a global curriculum and taught graduate and undergraduate courses in world music, large and small jazz ensembles, experimental music ensemble, Asian music ensembles, African American music history, and West African drumming and dance at San Jose State University (CA) before assuming a position as Professor in world music at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, where he taught Music Theory and Fundamentals, Western Music history, and Introduction to World Music, later followed by music of the African Diaspora, African Music and Dance, Jazz ensembles, and World Music. He has served on the music department curriculum development, the CVPA lecture series, and the University Cultural Diversity committees, including helping to develop the only music curriculum of its kind in the U. S., mandating for all music majors, in addition to traditional courses in European music, a year each of Music Technology, African American traditions, and World Music.
Royal travels to West Africa most summers to teach, perform, and conduct research, collaborating with master artists and the people of various villages, including the Dagbe Cultural Centre at Kopeyia Village, Volta Region, Ghana, the Dagara Music Centre in Midie, Ghana, and Mampong, Asante Region, Ghana. He was a Visiting Professor and J. William Fulbright artist/scholar at the Centre for Culture and African Studies, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumase, Ghana, in 2013-15. This work has resulted in a double CD, time changes (2019) and documentary film directed by Sara Pettinella with executive producer Martin Adi-Dako, entitled We Are One, whose theme is connections among global traditions, African music, and jazz.
His publications include Blood Drum Spirit: Drum languages of West Africa, African America, Native America, Central Java, and South Indian, a 1700-page analysis of world drumming traditions (Percussive Arts Society Online Archives); articles in Percussive Notes, World of Music, Annual Review of Jazz Studies, and The African American Review. Other publications include four books with CD/DVD, West African Rhythms for Drumset (Manhattan Music/Warner Brothers/Alfred, named one of the top 25 drumset books in the history of drum publications, by Modern Drummer Magazine, December 2012); Dancin’ on the Time, (Tapspace, 2006),West African Eʋe Rhythms for Drumset (2009); and a new work on West African philosophy expressed in tonal drum language adapted for drumset. He has given lectures and clinics on world music and jazz in Africa, the Philippines, China, Europe, and North America. His current focus also includes composing and playing in asymmetric time cycles, parallel to the capu tala of India, adapted into the African American tradition known as jazz.
Royal has received many awards for global research, performance, and teaching. These include Healey and Whiting Award (2010), Asian Cultural Council Research Grant for the Philippines (2009), a J. William Fulbright Lecture/Research Award for the Philippines (2006) and Ghana, West Africa (2014-15), a New School University (NY) Dean’s Resident Master Artist Award (2005-06), and a Korean Foundation Fellowship (2001). He is an endorsee for Vic Firth Sticks and Mallets, Istanbul Cymbals, and Remo drumheads.
His current focus also includes composing and playing in asymmetric time cycles, parallel to the capu tala of India, adapted into the African American tradition known as jazz.
Tapspace teams up with consummate musician and drumset artist Royal Hartigan to produce a highly comprehensive coordination development book for drumset players based on applying rudiments and patterns around the kit. The difficulty level goes from simple to very challenging and included a special supplemental DVD containing over 3 hours of footage.
Level: Medium to Advanced
Personnel: 1 player
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