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