After lunch, Werner Otten, principal timpanist of the Dutch Philharmonic Orchestra, took over with a timpani clinic.
Among the 40+ participants, two advanced music students were selected to play with Mr. Otten for about two hours, while the rest of us listened and learned - a lot!
Two technical learning points for me:
- When you play 3 ascending notes (on 3 timpani), try RRL. The other way round, when you play 3 descending notes, try LLR. This makes for a nice flow, and gives a sense of continuity.
- When you want to deepen and round the sound in a piano part, try hitting the skin at an angle (figure of eight), rather than hitting the skin in a straight vertical line.
Technique was one aspect of the clinic, but what I found most helpful was the great number of examples of different moods and characters that you can get out of timpani. Mr. Otten showed a lot of real-life examples from symphonic works, and what struck me is that he talked a lot about purpose, intention, phrasing, breathing and other concepts that I know from singing. Also, he showed a lot of 'just some strokes' vs. 'now this is making music' examples. Especially when he played piano parts, he produced sounds that were so un-timpani like, withdrawn, almost transparent.
At the end of the day, I left with a lot of new reference points and ideas for playing, plus a bag full of ridiculously cheap mallets.
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