The Alan Abel memorial section
So when I first presented the ASP Xylophone Wood Mallets series to him, he was quite excited and immediately decided to use them in his teaching studio. They quickly became his go-to xylophone mallets for many standard excerpts and for the various performing and acoustic situations that he always tried to prepare his students for.
He’d always think 10 steps ahead: - whether the hall was large or small, dry or wet sounding, whether you were to play an audition with the committee on stage or far away in the hall, whether in a performance you were to be near the winds, or behind the brass, etc., each new situation presented countless parameters that needed different solutions.
When he decided to endorse the ASP mallets I was thrilled and humbled to receive such a nod from the Legend of orchestral percussion.
He displayed them on his teaching desk where he kept his preferred drumsticks, ready to grab a pair and spring into action to show a student one of his uniquely marvelous techniques or one of his classic Alan Abel “tricks”.
A real musician, a fantastic performer, an innovator, a teacher of teachers, and a great man who loved other people.
I was honored and privileged to have known him for over 20 years.
Alan Abel was the Associate Principal Percussionist of the Philadelphia Orchestra for nearly 40 years.
A revered teacher, author, and instrument innovator, his presence in the world of orchestral percussion was uniquely influential and still reverberates in universities across the country and around the world today, affecting how orchestral percussion continues to be taught.
Alan was a man with a gentle soul who had a genuine respect for music and a love for his art. He had the golden touch. A true artist who made the music come alive when he was performing, and yet he was able to translate the unquantifiable, ethereal wonder of music into technical, measurable terms for his students.
The inventor of the famous Abel Triangle he also created the first Floating Concert Bass Drum Stand which was to become the standard followed by many instrument manufacturers.
The bass drum mallet designs he used in the Philadelphia Orchestra for decades have the unique ability to produce powerful and booming overtones and they continue to be used in various forms in many American and international orchestras.
Mr. Abel was always looking for ways to produce a better sound and to give his students new and constantly improved tools to increase performance sensitivity and control.
ASP Mallets dedicated to Alan Abel which he proudly displayed in his percussion studio.
Listening intently
Sitting at the desk where generations of students, (going back to the 1960s), have seen him teach from.
At 91 he could hear things in your playing that most young players did not. Then he would get up and demonstrate, - and sound great.
He would often start clicking his sticks and become a live metronome for you or suggest a different mallet on the xylophone for a particular excerpt.
The desk where he taught, and his personal ASP wood mallet set.
Mr. Abel in the classic Philadelphia Orchestra section with Michael Bookspan and Anthony Orlando (1972)
With Mr. Abel at PASIC 2005