From the Remo website: some advice on how to tune timpani by Jonathan Haas.
In Language, music, syntax and the brain, Patel argues that, from a syntactical point of view, language and music share a specific point of convergence when it comes to neural processing. Seen from the Dependency Locality Theory (linguistics) and Tonal Pitch Space Theory (music), both language and music share certain concepts in processing (proximity and activation) that apply to domain specific syntactic representations.
Available from his website. Which doesn't show too well in Internet Explorer.
This FAQ provides information on basic and advanced repertoire and timpani score editing and revision.
Seen on October 27th in Groningen, with Mark Voermans and Raymond Curfs on timpani.
Definitely on my wishlist: Stuart Marrs not only performing, but also analysing Carter's '8 Pieces for timpani'. While I understand that worldwide interest in drumming and world percussion justifies the huge amounts of information widely available on these subjects, I'm still quite disappointed by the almost complete absence of any pedagogic or analytical information on timpani. This DVD is a welcome exception!
Played my first timpani part ever, at the Premierefestival, and thoroughly enjoyed it. No major mistakes, and no nerves. Great added bonus: instead of our own, rather battered Ludwigs, I got a chance to play on a set of four Adams Professionals that looked brand new. Cool!
In Timpanist, musician or technician?, Cloyd Duff made a case for playing timpani with an emphasis on tonal quality, rather than just focussing on the rhymthmical part of timpani playing.
Prosodic processes in language and music is the dissertation of Maartje Schreuder. Her abstract:
This dissertation makes a comparison of language and music. As composer Lerdahl and linguist Jackendoff show in their ‘Generative Theory of Tonal Music’, these two cognitive behaviors share aspects, such as hierarchical structure, in which prominent elements are separated from non-prominent elements by means of preference rules and rhythmic and phrasing phenomena. Recent constraint-based approaches to phonology, such as Optimality Theory, show that the similarities are even more striking for phonological and musical analyses.
This dissertation shows that music theory may help to solve linguistic issues with which linguistic theory alone finds it hard to deal. Three such issues are investigated experimentally. The first issue is whether speech is just shortened and compressed when people speak faster, with the same rhythmic structure, or whether the speech rhythm changes. The second issue is the question whether recursion can be found in phonology. Are phrasing phenomena such as early accent placement applied repeatedly in embedded phonological phrases? The third issue is major and minor modality in intonation contours of cheerful and sad speech.
One of the main findings is that listeners appear sometimes to base their perception on auditory illusions, not always on the sound signal as it is. Listeners hear what they expect to hear. As in music, rhythm is perceived as more regular than it is in reality. The results of this research confirm the assumption that speech and music share many features. Both are ‘made of’ sound, and both kinds of sound signal are structured by the listener in a similar way.
The Grammar of Carnatic Music -
This book argues that Carnatic music as it is practiced today can be traced to the musical practices of early/mid eighteenth century. Earlier varieties or 'incarnations' of Indian music elaborately described in many musical treatises are only of historical relevance today as the music described is quite different from current practices. It is argued that earlier varieties may not have survived because they failed to meet the three crucial requirements for a language-like organism to survive i.e., a robust community of practitioners/listeners which the author calls the Carnatic Music Fraternity, a sizeable body of musical texts and a felt communicative need. In fact, the central thesis of the book is that Carnatic music, like language, survived and evolved from early/mid eighteenth century when these three requirements were met for the first time in the history of Indian music.The volume includes a foreword by Paul Kiparsky.
Website of John Tafoya, former principal timpanist of the National Symphony Orchestra, with loads of information, online lessons, audio and video excerpts.
Heard this piece at the Raadhuisconcert as well. Incredibly beautiful, out of this world.
Heard this one in the Hilversum Raadhuis. Interesting piece, even more interesting reaction from the audience!
