21-22 – General Ed – Week of 3/2 – 3/8
Meet The Instruments
The Percussion Family
The Timpani Drum
Timpani (/ˈtɪmpəni/;[2] Italian pronunciation: [ˈtimpani]) or kettledrums (also informally called timps)[2] are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum categorised as a hemispherical drum, they consist of a membrane called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionally made of copper. Thus timpani are an example of kettle drums, also known as vessel drums and semispherical drums, whose body is similar to a section of a sphere whose cut conforms the head. Most modern timpani are pedal timpani and can be tuned quickly and accurately to specific pitches by skilled players through the use of a movable foot-pedal. They are played by striking the head with a specialized drum stick called a timpani stick or timpani mallet. Timpani evolved from military drums to become a staple of the classical orchestra by the last third of the 18th century. Today, they are used in many types of ensembles, including concert bands, marching bands, orchestras, and even in some rock bands.
Timpani is an Italian plural, the singular of which is timpano. However, in English the term timpano is only widely in use by practitioners: several are more typically referred to collectively as kettledrums, timpani, temple drums, or timps. They are also often incorrectly termed timpanis. A musician who plays timpani is a timpanist.
TIMPANI SOLO, ETUDE #1 – SCHERZO BY TOM FREER
Michael Daugherty: “Raise the Roof”for Timpani and Symphonic Band
The Musical Fact Of The Week
Question
What is the most popular percussion instrument?
Answer
Among the most popular percussion instruments are drum kits and tambourine.
The drum kit is a complex musical instrument consisting of several different percussion instruments played by the drummer. The instruments surround the drummer, who plays while sitting down in a structure that allows simultaneous action of up to four percussions, using hands and feet.
A tambourine looks like small, portable drum formed by a membrane wrapped tightly on a metal plate, with attached metal jingles (zills)all around. The sound is obtained by striking the membrane gently, with your bare hand and agitating the tambourine through the air. It is used in many traditional, classic and modern music styles.
The Tambourine
Edoardo Giachino Mr Tambourine Man Tamburello Basco
Tambourine Solo / Demo – Advanced Techniques – Meinl Percussion – TMT1 Steel Jingles Tambourine
Riddle Of The Week
Question
I have a tail and a head, but no body. What am I?
Answer
A coin.
Composer Of The Week
Julia Perry
Life and education[edit]
Born in Lexington, Kentucky, as a child Perry moved with her family to Akron, Ohio.[3] She went on to study voice, piano, and composition at the Westminster Choir College 1943–48. It was there that she received her B.M. and M.M. She continued on to her graduate studies at Berkshire Music Center in Tanglewood, where she was a student of Luigi Dallapiccola, and then later studied at the Juilliard School of Music. Around this time she was awarded her first Guggenheim Fellowship.
In 1952, Perry began studying under Nadia Boulanger in Paris, during which time she was awarded the Boulanger Grand Prix for her Viola Sonata. Soon after she was awarded her second Guggenheim Fellowship,[4] which she used to return to Italy and continue her studies with Dallapiccola.
Perry also studied conducting at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena during the summers of 1956 and 1957, and in 1957 was sponsored by the U.S. Information Service to conduct a series of concerts in Europe.
After a total of five and a half years in Europe, Julia Perry returned to America and continued her work in composition. On return she also took up teaching at Tallahassee’s Florida Agricultural and Mechanical College in 1967 and was also a visiting artist at Atlanta College.
Perry is buried in Glendale Cemetery in Akron, Ohio; the birth year on her tombstone, 1927, is incorrect.[3]
Works and compositions[edit]
Some of Julia Perry’s early compositions are heavily influenced by African American music. In 1951 Free at Last and I’m a Poor Li’l Orphan were published, both of which showcased her incorporation of black spiritual music. She also composed Song of Our Savior for the Hampton Institute Choir, which used Dorian mode and a hummed ostinato with call and response phrases throughout the piece.[5]
In other works, Perry began branching out in her composition technique and experimenting with dissonance. One of her most notable works, Stabat Mater (1951), is composed for solo contralto and string orchestra.[6] It incorporates dissonance, but remains within the classification of tonal music. These pieces incorporate more modern compositional techniques, such as quartal harmony, which voices chords in fourths rather than thirds and fifths. It was recorded on CRI, by the Japan Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, William Strickland, conducting.[7][8]
Other instrumental works by Julia Perry include Requiem for Orchestra (also known as Homage to Vivaldi because of themes inspired by composer Antonio Vivaldi), a number of shorter orchestral works; several types of chamber music; a violin concerto; twelve symphonies; and two piano concertos. Her vocal works include a three-act opera and The Symplegades, which was based on the 17th century Salem witchcraft panic. The opera took more than ten years to write. She also composed an operatic ballet with her own libretto, based on Oscar Wilde’s fable The Selfish Giant, and in 1976 composed Five Quixotic Songs for bass baritone in and Bicentennial Reflections for tenor solo in ’77.[5]
Julia Perry’s early compositions focused mostly on works written for voice, however, she gradually began to write more instrumental compositions later in life. By the time she suffered from a stroke in 1971, she had written twelve symphonies.
Below is a non-comprehensive list of compositions.[9]