Publisher's Synopsis
This volume, the third in a trilogy entitled The Timpani, represents a unique iconographical and documentary history of the timpani. Combining a wealth of pictorial material with extensive written sources, it offers a rich and comprehensive survey of the instrument's history from the Middle Ages to the present.
This series of books fills a gap of long standing in the published literature of kettledrums by providing a combination of visual and descriptive evidence. Presented here is a wide-ranging pictorial lode drawn from a variety of sources: paintings, baroque organ cases topped by angel-musicians, engravings from books describing court festivals, prints and drawings, wood carvings, and photographs. Written references reflect a wide and fascinating panoply of descriptions concerning the construction, musical contexts and performance techniques of the timpani-for example, eyewitness accounts chronicling the role of instruments at various historical events, archival documents dealing with payments to musicians or the make-up of instrumental ensembles, regulations concerning court musicians, and even patent specifications.
The Timpani Supplement II: Still More Pictures and Documents is another fascinating and most unusual book of interest not only to performing musicians, teachers and scholars alike, but one which provides the general reader or music-lover with a glimpse into the world of a hitherto neglected musical instrument.
