The development of the timpani in the nineteenth century and their impact on the

period’s music.

It is acknowledged that while the timpani reinforce the harmony of a piece, they also are
responsible for the dynamics in the piece as well. In the 19th century, the timpani underwent
significant improvements in order to more effectively serve the music they played. Berlioz’
“Symphonie Fantastique” and Tchaikovsky’s “Symphony No. 9 in B minor, Op. 74” contain
writing for the timpani that would have been impossible if older drums were used. The ability
to change the pitch of the drums in quick succession, as well as the ability to express
different dynamics and timbres on the drums became very important and led to a change in
approach to composition and construction of the drums themselves.

In the early 19th century, timpanists needed a new palate of sound to make the instrument
speak differently for different purposes, and as timpanists in funeral processions had used
covered sticks for many years in contrast to the traditional wooden stick, covered sticks
began making their way into the orchestra.1 Many composers ignored this, and left the
choice of stick up to the player. However, Berlioz was noted to have said that many
timpanists only or primarily used wooden or leather covered sticks in the orchestra and that
this was “a great pity” as they sound much more warm and velvety with a sponge covering
and that the pianissimo dynamic particularly benefits from a sponge stick.2 Berlioz had very
specific requirements for timpani; he desired a range of pitches and sounds of the drums
throughout his works.3 “Symphonie Fantastique”, which he composed in 1830, has written in
instructions for the timpanist, as Berlioz was a stout believer in the idea and its effectiveness
to convey his music more directly and even felt negatively towards composers that didn’t do
the same.4 Throughout the piece there are clear instructions that say use of “sticks of wood”,
“sticks of wood with skin covering” and even “sticks of sponge”, which are seen in examples
1, 2 and 3 respectively below. The extent of his instruction to the timpanist goes to the point
that at the beginning of the 4th movement he states that the timpanist must play the first note
in each set of sextuplets with both sticks and then the rest of them with the right stick only,
seen in Example 4 below.

Berlioz had intention in instructing the use of these implements for different purposes as
wooden sticks are very bright and make the timpani sound more present, skin covered sticks
make them sound dry whilst still having attack, and sponge-covered sticks make rolls and
crescendoed passages sound smoother and give more fundamental tone to forte notes and
passages.5 Another thing to note is that the hardness of the material on the stick has
different volumes at the same velocity.
Because of this, across the piece there is a clear trend in the way that Berlioz integrated the
different materials of stick. Although there are exceptions, the way that they are used is as
follows: wooden sticks are used when the timpani is doubling the string section as seen in
Example 6, skin-covered sticks are used when the timpani is doubling the woodwinds and/or
brass section as seen in Examples 5 and 7 respectively, and the sponge sticks are used
when the timpani are playing contrasting ideas to the rest of the orchestra, as seen in
Example 8. The obvious intention in writing it this way is that the timpani are always heard
but don’t overpower, but as mentioned, there are exceptions.
In Symphonie Fantastique, Berlioz wrote for an absurd amount of timpanists. In the 3rd
movement there are four timpani parts written, with each player assigned a pair of drums, as

1
Edmund A. Bowles, “The Double, Double, Double Beat of the Thundering Drum: The Timpani in Early Music.”
Early Music 19, no. 3 (1991): 424.
2
James Blades, Percussion Instruments and Their History. New and rev. ed. (London: Faber & Faber, 1975),
283.
3
Bowles, “The Double, Double, Double Beat of the Thundering Drum,” 425.
4
Refer to footnote 2.
5
Refer to footnote 2.
seen in Example 9. However, when attention is paid to the way these parts are laid out, it is
clear that the timpani assigned to specific notes only play when the harmony requires them;
he just wanted a range of notes available for key modulations. The practise of assigning a
pair of drums each for four players only kept up until orchestral timpanists began playing
sets of three and four timpani later in the century, in which case the parts were rearranged
so that two drummers could cover all of the parts on four drums each and is the way that
audiences today experience the performance.6 As well as this, in specific parts as seen
below in Examples 10.1 and 10.2, he wrote in tuning changes, very small ones that could be
performed on hand-tuned timpani. However, Berlioz really was the only composer to write for
so many timpanists in his own time, and it became more common as time went on for only
two timpanists to be written in, but on four drums each, Mahler’s symphonies make great
use of this.
From the innovations in stick choice and the orchestration of the timpani parts, the
development of the timpani in the early 19th century into instruments of varied colour and
tonal quality came into fruition.

In order to compete with the rest of the orchestra at the time, the timpani used for
Tchaikovsky’s 6th Symphony firstly would have been much larger than the instruments
Berlioz wrote for as Adrian Bending states in relation to Verdi’s Requiem (first performed
1874) which was composed prior to Tchaikovsky’s Symphony (composed 1893).7 This would
have allowed the sound to cut through the orchestra, as even though pieces had been
composed beforehand that contained multiple timpani parts (such as the aforementioned
Berlioz), these parts were not composed because of the composer’s desire for more volume
but for more choice of notes, and drums were beginning to not be able to compete with the
growing size of the Romantic Orchestra. In fact, it would only be in future compositions in
which the timpani were already so big that multiple timpanists playing similar parts would be
composer. In the short two bars shown in Example 11, the sheer volume played by the many
musicians orchestrated in the part have to be competed with by the timpani which, had
drums that were played on in Symphonie Fantastique’s time been used, would have been
smothered completely. The large “Romantic-era” sized timpani that are most commonly used
today would have been the only option to project such volume.
More importantly however, a concept that had changed by the time Tchaikovsky’s 6th
symphony was composed was the idea of having multiple timpani parts in one piece to serve
as options for more notes, as mentioned prior.
The timpani part in the 6th symphony has quick changes in pitch between the drums, which
would have been too difficult to perform with only hand tuned drums, and having only one
timpanist, they would have required instead the use of newly developed pedal timpani.8 As
well as this, it became more common in orchestras to provide timpanists with more than two
timpani, as Tchaikovsky has written for 3 timpani. As seen in Example 12, at Letter H the
timpanist must retune all 3 timpani in the span of 18 bars “Allegro Vivo” speed, and then
retune all of them again at letter K in the span of 46 bars. On hand-tuned timpani, where the
timpanist needs to take time and care in making sure each screw is tensioned evenly,
otherwise the tone of the drum is at stake. On drums that have been tuned evenly already
and on which the pitch is adjusted by using a pedal that evenly pushes the skin tighter on the
drum, the quick changes required by this piece are possible.
The growth in timpani require to compete with the orchestra as well as the difficult pitch
changes now written into pieces are further proof of the development of the timpani later into
the 19th century.
6
James Blades, Percussion Instruments and Their History. New and rev. ed. (London: Faber & Faber, 1975),
282-283.
7
Adrian Bending, Why Timpani Kept Growing (Two Pint Timpani) | Evolution of Timpani Part 2 (London:
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, 2022).
8
Edmund A. Bowles, "The Timpani and Their Performance (Fifteenth to Twentieth Centuries): an Overview.”
Performance Practice Review 10, no. 2 (1997): 206.
Through the examples shown in Berlioz’ “Symphony Fantastique” and Tchaikovsky’s
“Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Op 74”, the need for new instruments as well as a new
approach to the instruments was became clear in the case of the timpani. With the decision
to clear indicate the variety of sticks he wanted the timpanist to use, as well as the ridiculous
amount of notes the timpani needed to cover, Berlioz contributed to the development of
implements used on the timpani and brought forward the issue of the lack of ability for one
player to cover many notes. Tchaikovsky’s writing clearly shows the solution to the
aforementioned issue in the way that he casually writes large changes for the timpanist that
would only have been possible with pedal timpani, and also shows the growth that timpani
needed to undergo through the number of instruments combined with their volume that are
orchestrated in the piece.
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(London: Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, 2022).
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Notation:

Example 1

Example 2

Translation: Sticks of wood covered in skin (presumably leather)

Example 3
Example 4

Instruction on playing of sextuplets seen at the bottom of page.

Example 5

The timpanist is using skin-covered sticks at this point.

Example 6
Example 7

Translation: Sticks of wood covered with skin.

Example 8
Example 9

Example 10.1
Example 10.2

Example 11
Example 12