The part for the timpani, or kettle drums, is written on a stave above that of the first stringed instrument, be it harp, violins, or that other percussion instrument, the piano. The notes to which the two or three drums are to be tuned are named at the beginning of the score, any alterations being indicated as they occur. Each drum has a compass of a fifth.

The art of the timpanist is infinitely more complex and subtle than would at first appear. There never have been infant prodigies and most master drummers are middle-aged, with a great depth of orchestral playing experience that gives them the authority and sensitivity essential to their successful contribution to the music.

The timpanist can spend as much time tuning as playing. He will arrive early on the platform and can he observed bending low over each of the metal kettles mounted on wheeled frames, tapping the skin and adjusting the tuning. There are two methods of tuning: one is by means of a number of T-handles around the rim, the other is by means of a foot pedal. The latter is for what is called the pedal or chromatic drum. The timpanist will be equipped with at least four different types of beaters or drum sticks ranging from soft to hard; the choice will be dictated by the score. Different beaters produce different sounds but so also do the points at which the drum head is struck. It is worth focussing attention on the timpanist throughout a concert in order to understand the nature of his responsibilities.

The correct English name for the bowl-shaped drums is kettle, but the word timpani is used in scores. The word timpani derives from a Greek word that means to strike, and this word was itself imported into Greece from Turkey where it referred to a drum used in orgiastic ceremonies connected with the worship of the earth mother Cybele.

European kettle drums have an honourable and a fairly well- defined history, at least as far back as the 13th century when the Crusaders took a great fancy to the naggarya, the bowl-shaped drums they saw mounted on the camels and horses of their Islamic adversaries. From the Middle East the naqqarya were then carried into and across Europe and a small version reached England by the end of the century; they were then called nakers.

In Islam before the 13th century where the drums were already an established symbol of grandeur and power for both military and peaceful occasions, they were often played in groups of hundreds, accompanied by hundreds of trumpets. This extravagant prestige did not immediately follow them to England. The merry and despised bands of wandering minstrels of the middle ages, ever out for the latest and greatest in gossip and music, adopted the nakers to accompany their own rumbustious forms of entertainment, as many an illuminated work of the period shows. In these illustrations the nakers are beaten with knobbed or curved sticks. Sometimes they are played on the ground, sometimes slung about the waist. In restoration performances of early music in this century the latter position has led to them being called knickers. (Future historians as well as American readers may find this musical joke confusing: ‘knickers’ is British slang for underpants, and sends school children into paroxysms of sniggers.)

The larger naqqarya have a more dignified history, having been introduced straight into polite society in 1542 by Henry VIII who ordered them, with the personnel to play them, from Vienna where they were already popular. Their prestige never faltered from that time and can be seen to be retained today at, for example, Trooping the Colour when the caparisoned drum horse leads the Household Cavalry in advance of the British Monarch.

By the end of the 16th century these large drums were called kettle drums, and were already used dismounted and placed on stands. They were first introduced into the orchestra by that arch-intriguer of the court of Louis XIV, Lully, who was in charge of the military music. Then, and for a period after, their principal role was to provide dramatic emphasis and extra volume.

In a way, pictorial evidence from 16th century Islam leads to the next stage in the use of the drum as well as the particular use of a number of other exotic percussion instruments. One painting of 1561 shows an orchestra of several pairs of fixed drums in the company of trumpets, castanets, cymbals and tambourines. This particular ensemble provided music for a wedding celebration. Another painting of 1592 shows a Turkish military band with twelve pairs of bowl-shaped drums accompanying rows of trumpets and shawms (precursors of the oboe). These types of ensembles were similar to those of the Janissaries, the infantry of the Ottoman Turks, and these had been heard on the further-flung frontiers of Europe and inspired the popular fashion for what was called Turkish music. This craze lasted well into the 19th century, when even pianos were furnished with an extra number of pedals which banged drums and bells and produced a reedy string tone in imitation of the shawms. Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven were all responsible for composing quasi-Turkish music with its characteristically strong beat.

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