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Overture To Romeo and Juliet, The Timpanist Can Exaggerate The Dynamic Dif

1) Timpanists can use different techniques and grips to produce different tones from the timpani, from bright to dark. Moving between grips and varying how deeply the mallet strikes the head allows for a range of tones. 2) Playing closer to or further from the top of the head when striking notes allows the timpanist to make the tone brighter or darker to match the music. Rolls can also be made brighter or darker by where on the head they are started and finished. 3) Gripping mallets more or less tightly and playing more or less fluidly allows timpanists to produce more relaxed or intense tones respectively.

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18 views

Overture To Romeo and Juliet, The Timpanist Can Exaggerate The Dynamic Dif

1) Timpanists can use different techniques and grips to produce different tones from the timpani, from bright to dark. Moving between grips and varying how deeply the mallet strikes the head allows for a range of tones. 2) Playing closer to or further from the top of the head when striking notes allows the timpanist to make the tone brighter or darker to match the music. Rolls can also be made brighter or darker by where on the head they are started and finished. 3) Gripping mallets more or less tightly and playing more or less fluidly allows timpanists to produce more relaxed or intense tones respectively.

Uploaded by

FJRA
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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pano, employ a German grip (or a modied French grip), and let the stick

naturally rebound with the head (keeping the stick slightly longer on the
head). This same principle applies to single strokes. To produce a very dark
sound, one could use a German grip; employ a bounce stroke that thor-
oughly penetrates the timpano head; choose a heavy, soft, large-headed
mallet; use some arm; and be very relaxed when playing. Thus, augment-
ing any one technique with other techniques produces a sound that mark-
edly contrasts with that of a single technique.
Third, it may be important to support tonal contrasts in the orches-
tra. Often the timpanist wants to produce a sound that becomes darker or
becomes more intense, and to do so requires the musician to contrast the
strokes so the sound can become darker or more intense. If the music be-
comes progressively darker and if it appears that the timpani part should
become darker, it is possible to move from a brighter to a darker sound. If
there are a series of notes that become progressively darker, the timpanist
can play the earlier notes off the top of the head and progressively pene-
trate the head more and more to pick up the darker colors. As the mallet
head penetrates the drumhead with each successive stroke, timpanists can
(1) slowly move from a French to a German grip, (2) bounce the stroke
more and more, and (3) raise the butt of the stick with each successive
stroke. All these have the effect of producing darker sound. The same tech-
nique can be applied to a roll. Sometimes it is necessary to tonally taper a
roll from dark to light. In so doing, the timpanist begins the roll by play-
ing at the bottom of the head and allowing the sticks to follow the natural
rebound of the head. To make the roll brighter, the timpanist can progres-
sively roll toward the top of the head: lifting the roll from the bottom to the
head, as it were.
Fourth, timpanists can produce sounds that are more relaxed or
more intense. It is not uncommon to nd the nal notes in Romantic sym-
phonies becoming more and more intense until the harmonic tension is re-
solved. Greater intensity can be produced by progressively tightening up
on the grip of the stick. The effect is to produce a sound that progressively
sounds harsher to the timpanist, but to the audience is lled with greater
intensity. A relaxed sound can be produced by holding the mallet very
loosely and by playing very uidly.
Finally, dynamic contrasts are important in the timpanists art. If a
wide contrast is needed, such as the last crescendo roll in Tchaikovskys
Overture to Romeo and Juliet, the timpanist can exaggerate the dynamic dif-
ference to achieve the desired effect. A roll or series of notes can be exag-
gerated by beginning softer than required or becoming louder than is speci-
ed in the part. This is particularly true for rolls that begin at mezzo forte
and crescendo to forte. The dynamic difference is often not enough to pro-
duce the effect desired by the composer.
The theory of contrast is one way of providing a more dynamic
performance by augmenting a particular technique with other techniques
to achieve the proper tonal effect. It is helpful in giving timpanists a
broader pallet of colors from which they can paint the part.

Theory and Practice of Timpani Tone Production 33

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