Carmina Burana: O Fortuna - Timpani Moments 

Not true. Only if you're an amateur or a bad percussionist 🙄

@@ArturoEscorza me

I had to sight read this in high school, and the quarter note section honestly made me stop entirely for 2 reasons; 1. That's a neat pattern that I want to get right, and 2. I didn't think anyone actually composed music for timpani up that high.

@@ArturoEscorza lmao the singer is gonna come tell us how easy timpani is

​@@ArturoEscorza unnecessary

Do both! :-) Once you’ve learnt timps, you’ll have a great understanding of what’s possible.

For the love of Christ, if you write a timpani concerto, put the thematic development IN THE TIMPANI PART, not in the accompaniment like 95% of the others out there! All that does is relegate the timpani part to a glorified ostinato part in front of the orchestra instead of in the back.

@@tomshriver8647 Way ahead of you! I’ve been dissatisfied with so many concertos where the soloist is invisible or just marginally featured.

If you want to go even crazier, you can use tenor timpani: These are little timpani that go up to one octave above middle C. William Kraft used them in his Timpani Concerto no2.

Estan fuera de rango !!! Necesita un timbal piccolo 20” un 23” no da un la ni de milagro 😖

As I’ve always been told, people hear with their eyes. That was exactly the right thing to do.

That is hilarious lmao

Good story! I have something that would be off-topic under most circumstances, but it follows your story nicely. One summer, ages ago when I was in the Wisconsin School Music Association's Junior session of their Summer Music Clinic, I was in the #1 band and one tune we played was "John Henry", based on the folk song. In that tune, I played anvil to symbolize John Henry's mighty hammer blows (google the story if you don't know it). We played our concert in an ancient cattle-exhibition hall at the University of Wisconsin, which turned out to be a fortunate thing. The equipment crew somehow delivered all the percussion instruments in our total kit except for the anvil, which they probably had not even realized was something we needed and not some extraneous item that just happened to be with everything else they had been told to transport. Our whole percussion section panicked when there was no anvil or hammer to be found, and we told the conductor. The conductor was a quick-thinking man and he had an idea. The percussion section was right against the edge of the show floor of the exhibition hall, and with bleachers around the entire periphery of the show floor, the steel railing at the base of the bleachers was right there next to the percussion section. The conductor thought that railing might be a passable substitute for an anvil, if only we could find something similar to a hammer to strike it with. The conductor told me to follow him, and I followed him to a parking lot where he opened up the trunk of his car and took out a lug wrench that was heavy and almost two feet long. We went back, tried striking that steel railing with the lug wrench, and by gosh the sound was awesome. Problem solved. After the concert was over, I learned that I had been the star of the show because the whole audience just loved it when that skinny kid in the percussion section was slamming that big lug wrench against the railing while everything else about the performance seemed so standard. I'm sure a lot of audience members realized it was a very unique thing to hammer on something that's literally a part of the stage, rather than to bring some special item for that purpose.

Probably a hard part to play too!

It’s interesting isn’t it! :-) In terms of the accents - the bass drum sometimes joins in on the fifth and first crotchets, which makes it sound like some notes are more accented than others.

@@londonphilharmonicorchestra Ah, that makes sense (re: the bass drum)!

I was thinking the exact same thing as I watched this!

@@JonathanGilmer Right? Makes no sense

@@FreakieFan If you counted each bar as 1 trip let, 2 triplet, etc. It would make sense as a 4/4 pattern or you could also think of it as 6/4 or 3/4. The composer probably wanted to emphasize the shorter 2 bar phrase “123, 223” that the choir and many other parts follow. And if counted that way it could also be read in 6/8 (1 la li 2 la li) but would give it a lilt and would be kinda awkward. I would think he had a specific reason for writing in 3/2... definitely interesting to think about, I’m sure looking at the score would give some insight...a great piece of music nonetheless.

Thanks Samuel. Great idea - we made a video about Walton 1 a few years ago, ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-MtCxIxpgOME.html - but it could do with a timpani video, as it’s a great part. Yes please, send any requests or suggestions our way. :-)

Oooh - that’s an excellent suggestion!

Not from IMSLP. Orff died in 1982, so his music will not come into Public Domain before 2052. Many scores, including Carmina Burana are published by Schott.

sorry if this is a dumb question, i play clarinet.

Orff might have intended for the timpani to play louder than the orchestra in the quieter passages, or maybe to play with added emphasis on what exactly he wanted the timpanist to articulate? Just my two cents, I don't really know either.

A common misconception is that an accent simply means to play louder. That’s more of a byproduct of the actual intent, which is to add more front to the note. In this case, I’d use more velocity, with my wrist being the main muscle group behind the stroke. Mallet choice is certainly another factor, I’d go with something moderately-hard.

@@neonbeige1289 thanks for the clarification!

Historically, timpani rolls were notated with trills rather than the multi-stroke rolls notion of today

@@tommccanna251 I don't think he knows about breath marks...

boyyyyyy