Word: tympanists
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Since Kraft also happens to be Mehta's principal tympanist, it was not surprising that he made extra use of such percussion esoterica as roto-toms (a set of small tuned drums), muted gongs, anvils and Chinese wind chimes. What was unusual and effective, however, was the relaxed, jazzy undercoating that showed that even an age of turmoil and anxiety can have fun. But Contextures mainly had to do with fierce tensions and dissonances in which various sections of the orchestra played frenetically against each other. "I suppose this is a belligerent work," says Kraft. "But that...
...balance: their performance of the Second Symphony was robust and remarkably successful. Mr. Senturia's tempos were well chosen, his dynamics well modulated, his orchestra's tone large and rich. And if the winds sometimes seemed a bit lost, the strings were at their best, and behold, the tympanist was wonderfully good...
...Oompah! Oom-pah!" muttered the tympanist as he lashed about in a semicircle, flailing out a solo on his five kettledrums. Then he took a cue from Conductor Howard Mitchell, launched a new flight that moved him to rumble out a profound "Ye-e-a-ah!" For all its appearance of a tribal dance the occasion was a regular concert of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington. The piece, entitled Concerto for Five Kettledrums and Orchestra, was an answer to a tympanist's dream: being liberated from his exile at the rear of the orchestra and placed out front...
...concerto is the handiwork of Philadelphia-born Composer Robert Parris, 33. who got the idea from his old pal and fellow student (at the Juilliard School of Music), Fred Begun, 29, currently the regular tympanist for the National Symphony. "I suggested five drums jestingly," says Begun (four drums is the usual orchestral maximum). Composer Parris. who has turned out a sizable quantity of chamber music, took the jest in earnest, sat down to write a piece which would test the "untapped melodic resources" of the drums. The technical problems, he discovered, were sizable. Examples: how to pass rapidly from...
...statement of the theme by four drums and orchestra in the third movement. Because Composer Parris used comparatively little bass, the music in certain spots gave the impression of a billowing cloud of strings floating aimlessly over the deep thunder of the drums. The crowd was so fascinated by Tympanist Begun's tortured gyrations that they had some difficulty tuning their ears to the music, nevertheless saluted the performance with a thumping ovation. Said Begun: "This could send me to an osteopath...