music supporting norms of instrumental balance and clarity.

Timpanist
Cloyd Duff, principal timpanist of the Cleveland Orchestra under George
Szell, once told the author a story of how Szell pulled him aside early in
Duffs career and asked him to play his drums with a variety of sticks, in
a variety of ways. After Duffs demonstration, Szell told Duff what sound
he preferred. While not all conductors have the penetrating, orchestral vi-
sion of Szell, this case demonstrates how factors external to timpanist
preference can affect the choice of timpani, playing style, and stick con-
struction.
The choice of timpani both frees and challenges the timpanist. On the
one hand, the timpani liberate timpanists to create the sticks and to de-
velop the tone-technique that help them play the part in a meaningful way.
As described below, each brand of timpani has an inherent, natural color.
That color is brought out by the proper sticks and playing technique.
Through experimentation and critical listening, the timpanist quickly
learns what type of stick best elicits the color and articulation of their tim-
pani. Some sticks stie the tone, restrict the projection of sound, or pro-
duce a poorly focused fundamental: in short, the mallets dont sound good!
Adopting the appropriate sticks liberates the natural sound of the timpani
and frees the timpanist to explore the tone-techniques needed to meet the
demands of the music. On the other hand, a particular brand of timpani
provides some challenges. Drums that have a translucent sound do not
lend themselves easily to playing particularly dark passages requiring awe-
inspiring presence. Therefore, the timpanist must nesse the part by using
darker sticks or by playing in a heavier manner. The opposite is true for
drums that have a fundamentally dark color: additional effort must be ex-
ercised in lightening up the color of a dark sound when a brighter sound
is demanded. But generally speaking, a naturally darker drum will pro-
duce a darker tone than is possible with a drum that has a brighter and
transparent sound, and conversely, a brighter drum will produce a
brighter sound than is possible with a naturally darker drum. Timpanists
are challenged to build sticks that will (1) bring out the natural color of the
timpani, (2) give them a palette of tone color that they can draw upon in
shading their parts, and (3) provide the needed articulation.

Acoustics of the Timpani

In the last quarter of the twentieth century, considerable advances have

been made in understanding the acoustics of the timpani. Thomas Rossing
and his associates analysis of musical acoustics of the timpani build on the
scholarship of Robert Lundin in his Objective Psychology of Music (1953)
and Lord Rayleighs The Theory of Sound (1929). Rossing and his associ-
ates map the harmonics of the timpani and in so doing give timpanists a
greater understanding of timpani acoustics (Rossing 1982). While his
studies do not specically address the impact that different size and
weights of mallets have on timpani tone color, Rossing demonstrates that

Theory and Practice of Timpani Tone Production 5