Word: timpani
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Psalms, like its predecessor, is a choral work in Hebrew and is scored for a prodigious cavalcade of instruments including a glockenspiel, xylophone, a pair of cymbals, a suspended cymbal, tambourine, triangle, rasps, whip, wood block, three temple blocks, timpani, snare drum, bass drum and three bongo drums. Conductor-Composer Bernstein made the most of them; he went through his entire ballet routine on the podium and had the Philharmonic Orchestra playing like gods, and the Camerata Singers sounding like angels...
...takes leave of her parental home. Finally there is the wedding feast: an obliging married couple warms up the bridal bed into which the shy, self-conscious newlyweds are then tossed by the drinking, brawling guests. Through it all the four soloists and the chorus wail, lament, cry, shout. Timpani boom, cymbals clang, bells ring...
...Soon the timpani appeared for the first time. The kitchen staff walked into the dining room with dinner. Phil opened the window to let out the smell of chow mein and knocked Don Alfonso's sword off the window. One of the singers started and flubbed her line. Archie Epps hissed slightly...
...oratorio than a symphony, with speaker (Bernstein's wife, Actress Felicia Montealegre), soprano (Jennie Tourel), the New England Conservatory Chorus, the Columbus Boychoir and a drastically altered orchestra: 17 string players were crowded off the platform to make way for a percussion section that had to man five timpani, three side drums, a bass drum, four kinds of cymbals, a tam-tam, three bongos, three temple blocks, a wood block, sandpaper blocks, rasp, whip, ratchet, triangle, maracas, claves, tambourine, chimes, glockenspiel, xylophone, vibraphone, celesta, piano and harp. Charles Munch, God bless him, conducted...
...taken care with his lighting, and Motley's costumes are always appropriate. A special word of praise must go to Conrad Susa for his incidental music. Harpsichord and woodwind gently back up the garden scenes, but most of the time the moods are skilfully underlined by tart wind and timpani. The music is modern, but occasionally incorporates such an authentic medieval device as the Landini cadence...