Figure 3.

Spectrograph of a staccato mallet

and an ordered set of harmonic partials with a minimum nonharmonic

partials (see gure 4). This gives the c a sharp focused pitch and a resonant
sound. However, the G is less dened (see gure 5). The harmonic partials
above the fth are less well dened and as a result, it loses tonal clarity.
Clearly, playing on a tighter head brings with it greater pitch denition and
more color.
Timpanists know that mufing the timpani with a mute produces a
more staccato sound. In conducting an acoustical analysis, a 29-inch Wal-
ter Light Dresden timpano was dampened with a leather mute placed in
the center of the drum. The strokes on the dampened and unmufed tim-
pani were placed in a legato fashion using staccato mallets. The acoustical
characteristics of the muted and mufed drum are displayed in gures 6
and 7. The spectrograph of the unmuted drum (see gure 6) demonstrates
the characteristics of a typical brighter stick: a principle tone with a well-
ordered but brighter set of harmonic partials. The mufed drum provides

Figure 4. Spectrograph of a note played in a tight head

8 Timpani Tone and the Interpretation of Baroque and Classical Music