 | Timpani: Encyclopedia II - Timpani - History
Timpani - History
Timpani - Pre-orchestral history
The nakers from Arabic origin were found in medieval Europe. These developed into the European kettledrums, or timpani.
Timpani were brought to 13th century Europe by Crusaders and Saracens. These drums, which were small (around 20–22 cm or 8–8½ in in diameter) and mounted to the player's belt, were used primarily for military ceremonies. This form of timpani remained in use until the 16th century.
In 1457, a Hungarian legation sent by King Ladislaus V carried larger timpani mounted on horseback to the court of King Charles VII in France. This variety of timpani had been used in the Middle East since the 12th century. These drums evolved together with trumpets to be the primary instruments of the cavalry. This practice continues to this day in sections of the British Army, and timpani continued to be paired with trumpets when they entered the classical orchestra.
Over the next two centuries, a number of technical improvements were made to timpani. Originally, the head was nailed directly to the shell of the drum. In the 15th century, heads began to be attached and tensioned by a counterhoop that was tied directly to the shell. In the early 16th century, the bindings were replaced by screws. This allowed timpani to become tunable instruments of definite pitch.
Timpani - Timpani in the orchestra
Jean-Baptiste Lully is the first known composer to score for timpani, which he included in the orchestra for his 1675 opera Thésée. Other 17th century composers soon followed suit. In music of this time, timpani are almost always tuned to the tonic and dominant notes of the piece – a perfect fourth apart. Interestingly, timpani are often treated as transposing instruments in the music of this period: the notes were written as C and G with the actual pitches indicated at the top of the score.
Ludwig van Beethoven revolutionized timpani music in the early 19th century. He not only wrote for drums tuned to intervals other than a fourth or fifth, but he gave a prominence to the instrument as an independent voice. For example, his Violin Concerto opens with five timpani strokes, and the scherzo of his Ninth Symphony pitches the timpani against the orchestra in a sort of call and response.
The next major innovator was Hector Berlioz. He was the first composer to indicate the exact sticks that should be used – felt-covered, wooden, etc. In several of his works, including Symphonie fantastique, he demanded the use of several timpanists at once.
Until the late 19th century, timpani were hand-tuned; that is, there was a sequence of screws with T-shaped handles, called taps, which altered the tension in the head when turned by players. Thus, tuning was a relatively slow operation, and composers had to allow a reasonable amount of time for players to change notes if they wanted to be sure of a true note. The first pedal timpani originated in Dresden in the 1870s and are called Dresden timpani for this reason. However, since vellum was used for the heads of the drums, automated solutions were difficult to implement since the tension would vary unpredictably across the drum. This could be compensated for by hand-tuning, but not easily by a pedal drum. Mechanisms continued to improve in the early 20th century.
Despite these problems, composers eagerly exploited the opportunities the new mechanism had to offer. By 1915, Carl Nielsen was demanding glissandos on timpani in his Fourth Symphony – impossible on the old hand-tuned drums. However, it took Béla Bartók to more fully realize the flexibility the new mechanism had to offer. Many of his timpani parts require such a range of notes that it would be unthinkable to attempt them without pedal drums.
From 1960, plastic heads have been available. These are much more reliable than the traditional vellum or calfskin heads since they do not vary much with temperature and humidity. Plastic skins also give a greater range of pitches since they will take higher tensions. However, detractors say that the tone they produce is less rounded and certainly less authentic when playing period music. In recent years, manufacturers have started producing heads made from traditional materials for use on modern pedal timpani in an attempt to recapture an authentic sound.
Timpani - Timpani outside the orchestra
Later, timpani were adopted into other classical music ensembles such as concert bands. In the 1970s, marching bands and drum and bugle corps, which evolved both from traditional marching bands and concert bands, began to include marching timpani. Each player carried a single drum, which was tuned by a hand crank. Marching timpani were heavy and awkward to play, as the drumhead was almost at the player's chest. Often, during intricate passages, all the timpani players would put their drums on the ground, and they would be played more like conventional timpani. In the early 1980s, Drum Corps International, a drum corps governing body, allowed timpani and other percussion instruments to be grounded. This was the beginning of the end for marching timpani: Eventually, standard concert timpani found their way onto the football field as part of the marching band's front ensemble, and marching timpani fell out of common usage.
As rock and roll bands started seeking to diversify their sound, timpani found their way into the studio. In 1964, Ringo Starr played timpani on the song "Every Little Thing" from The Beatles album Beatles for Sale. Beginning in 1969, John Bonham employed timpani both in the studio and onstage with the release of the debut Led Zeppelin album Led Zeppelin 1. Early in the next decade, progressive rock bands began utilizing all sorts of percussion instruments, including timpani. Mike Oldfield's 1973 album Tubular Bells featured timpani along with other percussion instruments that were traditionally part of the orchestra.
Jazz musicians also experimented with timpani. In 1964, Elvin Jones incorporated timpani into his drum kit on John Coltrane's four-part composition A Love Supreme.
As of 2005, Jonathan Haas is one of the few timpanists who is solely a soloist – he does not hold a regular seat with an ensemble. Haas, who began his career as a solo timpanist in 1980, is notable for performing music from many genres including jazz, rock, and classical. In fact, he released an album with a rather unconventional jazz band called Johnny H. and the Prisoners of Swing.
Other related archives"Enigma" Variations, 1, 12th century, 13th century, 1457, 15th century, 1675, 16th century, 17th century, 1870s, 18th century, 1915, 1960, 1964, 1969, 1970s, 1973, 1980, 1980s, 19th century, 2, 2000, 20th century, 3, 6, 8, 9, A Love Supreme, American, An American in Paris, As of 2005, Austrian, Baroque music, Beatles for Sale, Benjamin Britten, Brahms, British Army, Béla Bartók, Carl Nielsen, Crusaders, Darius Milhaud, Dresden, Drum Corps International, Dvorak, Edward Elgar, Elliot Carter, Elvin Jones, English, Europe, Evelyn Glennie, France, George Gershwin, Gerard Schwarz, German, Gustav Holst, Gustav Mahler, Hector Berlioz, Hungarian, Igor Stravinsky, Italian, Jazz, Jean-Baptiste Lully, John Bonham, John Coltrane, King Charles VII, King Ladislaus V, Latin, Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin 1, Leonard Bernstein, List of timpani manufacturers, Ludwig, Ludwig van Beethoven, Middle East, Mike Oldfield, Mylar, Ninth Symphony, North American, Overture to Candide, Philip Glass, Portamento, Requiem, Ringo Starr, Robert W. Smith's, Romantic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Samuel Barber, Saracens, Symphonie fantastique, Symphony, The Beatles, The Planets, The Rite of Spring, Tubular Bells, Violin Concerto, West Side Story, absolute pitch, aluminum, ballet, bamboo, bands, bass clef, bicycle, birch, calfskin, call and response, cavalry, centimeters, ceremonies, cherry, chords, classical, composer, concert, concert bands, copper, cork, cymbal, definite pitch, diameter, dominant, drum, drum and bugle corps, drum stick, drumheads, drumstick, dynamic levels, felt, fiberglass, front ensemble, glissando, glissandos, graphite, head, hemispheric, hickory, horseback, inches, leather, legation, maple, maracas, marching, marching bands, marimbist, military, musical ensembles, musical instruments, musical intervals, musician, nakers, octave, opera, orchestra, parabolic, percussion, perfect fifth, perfect fourth, pitch pipe, plastic, progressive rock, ratchet, relative pitch, rock, rock and roll, roll, roller chain, rototoms, rubber, scherzo, score, screws, sixteenth notes, skin, snare drum, symphony, timbre, tonic, transposing instruments, treble clef, trumpets, tuning fork, university, vellum, wood
 Adapted from the Wikipedia article "History", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki |
