Psychological Openness to the Music

Serious music, and especially orchestral music, has a unique ability to con-
vey deeper and more varied emotions than other musical forms (Bloom
1988, 6881). The canon of serious music reaching back to ancient Greece
is lled with emotion. To most composers, the musical pallet gives them
the means to express various emotions. Anger is ferociously released in the
opening lines of Beethovens Symphony No. 9 and pathos in the second
movement of his Symphony No. 7. Utter hopelessness lls the beginning
measures of the fourth movement of Tchaikovskys Symphony No. 6. Joy
animates the strains of the chorale in Sibeliuss Finlandia. While tim-
panists might disagree with the specic emotion that the composer is try-
ing to convey, there is little doubt that much serious music attempts to
convey the feelings, often nuanced, that are part of the human spirit.
The timpanists challenge is to open his or her soul to the music, to be
moved by it, and to use timpani technique to shape the part to convey the
emotional meaning of the piece. The timpanist must rst be open fully to
the music and then the timpanist must fully submit to it. Opening oneself
to the music involves (1) clearing ones emotional state of all contending
emotions or feelings, and (2) allowing the music to excite the timpanists
emotions. Clearing the emotional pallet involves purging the musicians
soul of all emotions that may prevent him or her from feeling the music.
For example, all of us have at one time or another felt feelings of anxiety
or nervousness. The presence of anxiety is a major impediment to emo-
tionally capturing the spirit of the music. Sublimating anxiety, that is,
pushing it into the unconscious, can be useful if emotions are not entirely
purged. However, sublimated emotions often creep into the timpanists
sound: for example, the timpanist may unconsciously grasp the mallet too
tight. Percussionist John Beck takes these ideas a step further. If the tim-
panist is angry, fearful, or passive, the timpanist is likely to play barba-
rously, timidly, and insensitively. Playing well requires the timpanist to be
condent, alert, and sympathetic to the music (Papastefan 1978, 87). Thus,
clearing ones emotional pallet allows the music to penetrate the musi-
cians soul. The soul is opened, and the timpanist is relaxed and observant.
Once the emotional pallet has been cleared. then the music can seep into
the soul and stir the soul in ways that help the musician understand the
music and effectively play the part.
Once the timpanist has opened his or her soul to the music, the
timpanist must submit to the music. In submitting to the music, I simply
mean that the timpanist should develop an understanding of the meaning
of the music the composer wishes to convey and then nd the techniques
that will permit the musician to express the composers intentions. Study-
ing the score, listening as the conductor crafts the sound of the orchestra,
listening to recordings, appreciating the performance practices of the pe-
riod in which the music was written, and understanding the composers
style can help the timpanist develop a meaningful vision of the music. This
is not to say that the musician slavishly replicates some abstract notion of

Theory and Practice of Timpani Tone Production 31