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Timpani
Drums
The drums are the most ancient
instruments in history. By stretching skins
of animals on a wooden frame, different peoples created various drums.
In African tribes,
you can still notice the importance they keep to this very day, in festivities,
dancing, rituals and even communication, delivering messages over a big
distance. Similarly, in every other civilization on the face of the earth,
the drum is always a member in folk music.
In
the orchestra, the drums play the role of underlining the rhythm and backing
the orchestra in sections of music charged in energy and atmosphere.
- The timpani, the big kettledrums
(shaped as large kettles - the source of their name), allow
tuning in accordance to the piece performed,
and they were introduced to the orchestra by Lully.
Handel
used no less than 16 of them, along with 12
side drums,
in his "Water Music",
performed outdoors. Berlioz
expanded the possibilities of combining them
in orchestration
and their notation system, and in fact made them equal partners.
The foot pedal installed in them,
enables altering sound pitch in the course of playing.
Richard Strauss
uses the timpanies as a declaration in the opening to his symphonic
poem
"Also Sprach Zarathustra".
Prokofiev
emphasizes the hunters' gunshots in "Peter
and the Wolf" with their help.
The timpani is struck with big
drumsticks wrapped in felt. The kettledrum is defined as a percussion instrument
that produces a definite pitch, and in this sense it is different from
the other instruments in this group.
Snare
Drum
Big
Drum
- The Grand drum
is the bass drum, producing an unpitched sound,
and it intensifies atmosphere in the orchestra: a strong, echoing sound,
produced by a strong hammering, and mysterious gloom in the light beat.
- The side drum
is the parade drum, and the scattering sound
of its drumsticks is its characteristic sound. In Ravel's
"Bolero",
it plays the rhythm throughout the entire piece. Rossini
opens his overture to "The
Thieving Magpie" ("La Gazza Ladra")
with this instrument.
- The Tambourine
is smaller than orchestral drums. At the sides
of the rim, on which the leather is stretched, are metal jingles, providing
its unique ringing sound.
Tambourine
Drums in different cultures
Drummers in Japan
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Drummers in Africa
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Composers
Lully
Handel
Rossini
Berlioz
Ravel
Strauss, Richard
Prokofiev
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