The timpani are different because they can be tuned to a definite pitch. The timpani shell looks like a very large bowl made of copper. The head is stretched across the top of the bowl. The player is able to tune the timpani by pushing on a foot pedal attached to a tuning mechanism inside the drum. Since each timpani can only be tuned to four or five different pitches, the instruments are used in sets. As many as five drums of various sizes may be played by one drummer (timpanist). (More…)
Sep
27
One of the most fascinating families of instruments is found in the very last row of the orchestra—the percussion section. Any instrument whose sound is made by striking or used only for special sound effects, or is not a member of one of the other instrument families is naturally assigned to the percussion section. Since it contains instruments of many different shapes, sizes, and sounds, the percussion section has been given the nickname “kitchen of the orchestra“. (More…)
Sep
27
The bass drum stands vertically, the rim of the shallow wooden shell facing the audience. This was originally known as the Turkish drum. Sometimes it has two heads, sometimes only one, the former model producing somewhat greater clarity. It is beaten with upward — or downward — glancing blows with a soft stick, and sometimes brushed simultaneously on the other side with a switch of sorts. (More…)
Aug
14
The staves for the percussion instruments are massed in the middle of the score. Who plays what depends on manpower, availability and ability.
The glockenspiel and celesta are both metallophones, the first having a resemblance to a small xylophone and the second to a small piano.
`Glockenspiel‘ means ‘bell-play’ in German. The glockenspiel used in marching bands is a set of steel bars set in a lyre-shaped frame. Mozart specified an instrumento d’ acciaio (steel instrument) for the part of Papageno’s magic bells in Die Zauberflote; this may have been a set of small tuned bells played from a keyboard like a modern celesta. These bells were also used by carillon players for practice. (More…)
dodo
Drums, Electric Guitar, Multimedia, Music Box, Music Equipments, Percussion Instruments, Piano, Yamaha
14 Aug, 2008
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Aug
14
In England Purcell is believed to have been the first to use the kettle drums, in The Fairy Queen (1687). From this time and a good while afterwards the timpani were tuned in fifths. The limitation of their use in the orchestra was caused by limitations of tuning; only when these were overcome could more interesting music be composed for them.
The problems facing drum makers were manifold, even though the instrument consists of no more than a skin stretched over a bowl. The shape and dimensions of the bowl or shell in relation to the drum head are important, as is the choice and preparation of the skin. (More…)
Aug
9
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. (More…)
Aug
9
