Alvin Lucier - Music for Piano with One or More Snare Drums (1990)

Came across another interesting composer today: Alvin Lucier. His Kettles, a piece for five timpani and two oscillators, is performed at the 'Dag in de Branding' festival by Slagwerkgroep Den Haag on May 24.

I couldn't find a recording of that particular piece yet, but I found this one: Music for Piano with One or More Snare Drums, a very quiet and meditative piece where the snares are resonating along with the piano.

Apparently, he has written something for 'enormously amplified brainwaves'. WTF?

More info on his albums here.

Druschetzky: Concerto for Oboe, Eight Timpani and Orchestra

Funny isn't it, the things you remember, and the things you forget. Somewhere back in secondary school music class, I took a test with the question: "Which percussion instrument zou eventueel gebruikt kunnen worden to play a melody?" The italic part roughly translates as might in some cases be usable. Puzzled by the phrasing, I answered "timpani". Surely, a tunable drum could in some cases be used for melodic purposes? As long as you had enough of them!

It got marked incorrect. The teacher, appropriately called Mr. Sedee, the Dutch pronunciation for CD, insisted that timpani weren't remotely usable for playing melodies; the only correct answer was a mallet instrument, and preferrably xylophone.

I can still remember how indignant I felt at the gross injustice of this. No matter how I tried to explain that a mallet instrument is always used for melodies, not eventueel, and that timpani had definite pitch, he wouldn't budge.

This memory resurfaced when I found this early 18th century timpani concerto by Georg Druschetzky.

Mr. Sedee, eat your heart out :-)

Kraft - Timpani concerto

Randy Max


Oscar Salazar


Daniel Kirkpatrick

Yearly 'Leerlingenconcert' - to hell with sheet music

Last night at the yearly pupil concert, I played Announcement, a piece for snare, tom, cymbal and timpani. The timpani part is such fun to play; it's the only part that sounds remotely melodic, and it really gives a great drive to the rest of the piece.

But somewhere in the middle, there's a muffle, a pitch change and a roll, within the space of one beat. Rather a bit of a challenge for a beginner like me. I've practised this point so much, that my sheet music was covered in red notes on how to fit everything in the right place. I guess that having to cram so many comments into one beat left me with the idea that I had no time at all: the more I wrote down, the less I managed to actually play the part :-)

But then, last night, something really great happened: a second before we started playing, realisation hit me that I didn't need any of this. The piece was already there somewhere; I just needed to step out of the way and let it get out. And that gave me all the time in the world, time to look around, time to listen, and best: time to really enjoy myself!

Carter, Stravinsky, Goehr

As heard in the Concertgebouw this night:
E. Carter - Asko Concerto
Stravinsky - Movements
E. Carter - In the Distances of Sleep
A. Goehr - Little Symphony
E. Carter - Dialogues

I don't know what it is with Carter: I love his timpani pieces, but when I listen to other stuff, it gets on my nerves. Not because I don't like it, but rather because I don't know how to approach it. It's not music that goes straight to my heart or my stomach, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't touch me. I left feeling disturbed, disconcerted and even indignant, like someone did something really upsetting to me.

I suspect he's doing this on purpose. Just look at the way he grinned at me from the program notes all night:

Prokoviev - Fifth symphony

As heard in Utrecht, played by Bellitoni, an amateur orchestra from the Hague.

David Hockings - percussionist or timpanist?

Part of the wonderful Soundjunction website, David Hockings takes us through a wonderfully illustrated explanation of the difference between timpanists and percussionists.

Here's another example from the website. Another cool feature is that it offers many different ways to access the information that's there; you can either browse the information like on any regular website, but in addition, Soundjunction offers various learning trails that provide a structured guide through over 60 different themes, like 'The classical orchestra', 'Ideas for composing' and 'Music and the brain'.

Educational, entertaining and informative: why aren't there more websites like these?

Steve Reich - Piano phase (excerpt)

Went to listen to the marimba version of this piece last night in the Concertgebouw. Players: Wim de Vos and Peppie Wiersma. Cool detail: Peppie Wiersma played 'Curves' by Ron Ford, a piece for theremin. Cypher is currently building one; great to hear it live!

The Well Tempered Timpani

The Well Tempered Timpani gives a technical, but really interesting overview of the acoustic properties of timpani.

Contrary to wind and string instruments (and the voice), resonating membranes do not have a harmonic overtone series. In addition, the fundamental is not very resonant or pleasant-sounding. This is caused by the acoustic properties of a membrane: rather than vibrating in just one direction, a membrane can vibrate in various modes simultaneously. Most of these modes are non-harmonic.

Still, it's possible to get pitch and near-harmonic overtones from a timpano. This is possible mainly due to air loading: columns of air above and below the air that make the membrane act almost as if it's a single vibrating system. This has been the subject of various studies, some of which are discussed in this article.