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p93

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3.3.

Importance of sustained timpani rolls

œ œ œ œ bœ bœ œ œ œ œ œ œœ
Trumpet in D 1 & c Œ ‰ J

œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œœ
Trumpet in D 2 & c Œ ‰ Jœ œ

Trumpet in D 3 & c Œ ‰ œjœ ‰ ‰ œ œ ‰ ‰ j‰ Œ


œœ
Ÿ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
? # # c Œ ‰ j˙ ˙. Œ
Timpani
œ

# œ ˙ ˙ œ œœ
Flute 1 & # c œœœ

# j
Flute 2 & # c œ œ œ œ œ œ ‰ œj œ ‰ œ œ ‰ Jœ

# œ ˙ ˙ œ œœ
Violin I & # c œœœ

daddy stroke would dampen the head to some degree. To produce a sus-
tained sound on less than ideal heads, the timpanist would use gauze or
wool-covered sticks. Would a double stroke roll produce enough sound for
a mid-eighteenth-century orchestra? Yes, these orchestras were small by
today’s standards. Indeed, it was not unusual for Bach to be playing with
eighteen or twenty musicians (Terry 1932, 9). With an orchestra this size
or even somewhat larger, a double stroke roll would most likely produce
the sound that Bach needed.
In the latter part of the eighteenth century and in the nineteenth cen-
tury, timpanists became adept at playing single stroke as well as double
stroke rolls. This raises the question, “how would composers notate the
score to specify whether the roll was a single or double stroke?” We don’t
know the answer to this question, but let me suggest a probable story.

A long time ago timpanists belonged to a secret society. They learned


how to beat the drums, how to put skins on them, and how to put the
drums in tune. They developed the most intricate practice of playing
these drums: flinging their arms into the air and crossing their hands
over one another in ways that were truly miraculous. They learned to
make one note last a measure or two by rapidly striking the drum twice
with one hand, twice with the other, and so on and so forth. This they

76 Timpani Tone and the Interpretation of Baroque and Classical Music

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