The Classroom Resource Timpani The Timpani · The Timpani What does timpani look like? Timpani look...
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The Timpani What does timpani look like? Timpani look like very large bowls on legs with sheets of material stretched over the top. For modern timpani the bowl is made of metal (usually copper) or sometimes of fibreglass. Different types of timpani have different shaped bowls to make a different quality of sounds. For instance you can have parabolic bowls (like a cone) and hemispheric bowls (like half a round ball). Timpani also range in size, from the largest which is about 84 centimetres in diameter to the smallest at 30 centimetres in diameter. The material stretched across the top of the bowl is called the drumhead, and it is made out of animal skin (usually calfskin or goatskin) or plastic. The modern timpani In the days of Beethoven and Berlioz (late 18th to mid 19th century) timpani would have been tuned by hand, using handles placed around the rim of the skin. This meant that tuning could take a long time and composers had to give the timpanist adequate preparation time if they wanted to change notes on the timpani. Nowadays timpani have a mechanism that allows them to be tuned using pedals. Skilled timpanists can now change notes extremely quickly and keep playing whilst they do it. The Timpani Classroom Resource NZSO Music for Schools - Rachel Hyde ©2011 nzso.co.nz/education Repertoire that features the timpani A few concertos have been composed for timpani and orchestra, including a work by Philip Glass that requires two solo timpanists each playing seven drums! It is only in recent times though, as timpanists and their instruments have become more advanced, that composers have really begun to explore the potential of the timpani. In 2005 the NZSO commissioned New Zealand composer John Psathas to compose a concerto for NZSO Principal Timpanist Laurence Reese. The result was Planet Damnation, which calls for incredible pedal and stick technique from the soloist. Timpani are set up in an arc around the timpanist. Traditionally, North American, British and French timpanists set their drums up with the lowest drum on the left and the highest on the right, while German, Austrian and Greek players set them up the opposite way. Can you work out which way round the NZSO timpanist sets up his timpani? FUN Fact greenfly
Transcript of The Classroom Resource Timpani The Timpani · The Timpani What does timpani look like? Timpani look...
TheTimpani
What does timpani look like?Timpani look like very large bowls on legs with sheets of material stretched over the top. For modern timpani the bowl is made of metal (usually copper) or sometimes of fibreglass. Different types of timpani have different shaped bowls to make a different quality of sounds. For instance you can have parabolic bowls (like a cone) and hemispheric bowls (like half a round ball). Timpani also range in size, from the largest which is about 84 centimetres in diameter to the smallest at 30 centimetres in diameter. The material stretched across the top of the bowl is called the drumhead, and it is made out of animal skin (usually calfskin or goatskin) or plastic.
The modern timpaniIn the days of Beethoven and Berlioz (late 18th to mid 19th century) timpani would have been tuned by hand, using handles placed around the rim of the skin. This meant that tuning could take a long time and composers had to give the timpanist adequate preparation time if they wanted to change notes on the timpani. Nowadays timpani have a mechanism that allows them to be tuned using pedals. Skilled timpanists can now change notes extremely quickly and keep playing whilst they do it.
The
Tim
pani
Clas
sroo
m R
esou
rce
NZSO Music for Schools - Rachel Hyde ©2011 nzso.co.nz/education
Repertoire that features the timpaniA few concertos have been composed for timpani and orchestra, including a work by Philip Glass that requires two solo timpanists each playing seven drums! It is only in recent times though, as timpanists and their instruments have become more advanced, that composers have really begun to explore the potential of the timpani. In 2005 the NZSO commissioned New Zealand composer John Psathas to compose a concerto for NZSO Principal Timpanist Laurence Reese. The result was Planet Damnation, which calls for incredible pedal and stick technique from the soloist.
Timpani are set up in an arc around the timpanist.
Traditionally, North American, British and French
timpanists set their drums up with the lowest drum
on the left and the highest on the right, while German, Austrian and Greek players
set them up the opposite way. Can you work out
which way round the NZSO timpanist sets up
his timpani?
FUN Fact
greenfly
The
Tim
pani
Clas
sroo
m R
esou
rce
NZSO Music for Schools - Rachel Hyde ©2011 nzso.co.nz/education
TheTimpani
Make a set of timpani. Collect together three or four bowl shaped containers, elastic bands, sheets of paper or plastic bags or anything else that you might be able to use as a drumhead. Stretch the paper or plastic bag over the bowl and secure it with the elastic band. Can you make a set of timpani with each drum playing a different note?
Classroom
Task...
Timpani set
The timpani in the orchestraThe first composer known to have written orchestral parts for timpani was Jean Baptiste Lully, in his opera Thesee of 1675. Beethoven revolutionized the use of timpani in the 18th century by giving the instrument an independent voice in the orchestra, but it was Berlioz who really put timpani on the musical map. In a number of his pieces he even asked for more than one timpani player. Berlioz was also the first composer to ask the timpanist to use particular types of timpani stick to hit vthe drum.
Jean Baptiste Lully
