Timpani History
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Introduction type here
Medieval History
Middle Eastern Origins
We first see the ancestor of the kettle drum, the naker, first emerged circa 476 A.D., during the fall of the Roman Empire, when the German barbarian Odoacer overthrew Romulus, the last of the Roman Empire Leaders. This led to the collapse of countries that relied on the Empirical system for economic purposes, as well as safety and protection. This caused a spike in poverty, and a lack of an educational system in Western Europe. However, countries in the Middle East as well as the Far East were thriving. Arabia had adopted the single-headed, closed body drum from Egypt, and adapted it to become the early naker (present in the fall of the Roman Empire), which was called the naqqāra, or nacair. A pair of nacairs would be mounted on either side of a camel, and the musician would sit and play on the camel as well. These drums measured 24 inches and 18 inches in diameter. In 622 A.D., the Middle East saw the rise of Islam, and through more unified countries, Islamic countries were able to seize Constantinople in 673 A.D., thus introducing their mounted nacair drums to Western Europe.
The Naker
The term: naker, was adopted from the Middle/Far East to the Western European countries. Due to the eastern countries quick advancements of the time, it is likely that eastern nakers were used in pairs, but there is little evidence of this technique until the drums became adopted for use in the Crusades in the 11th Century, these drums were also used in pairs in Russia and Poland. King Louis the IX (1214-1270) was one of the first of the aristocracy to use small nakers, he adopted these instruments under his rule from the 13th Century onward. Around 100 years later during the 14th Century, the nakers became the official symbol for aristocracy, they were used in musical entertainment, encouragement in the tournament, as well as being played to increase the sounds of turmoil in battle. Many artists and sculptures have depicted nakers, where they were shown suspended in the front, around the waist. Another difference from the tabor was that the naker was played with two sticks rather than one. During this time, Kettle Drums had also started to develop out of the nakers, these were essentially bowls that would be laid on the ground, where you would either sit down and play them, or bend over. It’s difficult to tell how the head on a naker or kettle drum was attached, all solutions appeared to be problematic, but were still done anyway, they would either be: nailed, rope-tied, or necklaced. Drums were made of either wood, pottery, or even copper depending on what kind of craftsmen and resources which were prominent in the area, a woodsmen, potter, or metalsmith. There was a variety of playing sticks, they would be either light, heavy, or elaborately fashioned, some however were simply crude sticks.
The Early Kettle Drum
It was during this time of the tabor and the naker that the race to who will dominate the future percussion section of the orchestra was occurring. The naker held the upper hand due to its association with the aristocracy, as well as the use of two sticks to play, when using two sticks, the embellishments could be significantly more elaborate. During the 9th Century, the Hungarians began to spread throughout the surrounding countries with their large kettle drums mounted on horses. Other countries became envious of Hungary’s drums, and began to copy them. When the King of Hungary began to travel, he would be accompanied by the largest kettle drums of the time. In the 15th Century, true kettle drums , the precursor to the orchestral timpani began to appear, and spread throughout Western Europe. When the larger kettle drums were first introduced into Germany, a priest named Virdung wrote disapprovingly of the drums. Virdung was not impressed by the boominess of the drums, or the pomp and flourishes they provided, this further pushed the church to believe percussive drums as provocations of war. However, this didn’t stop the German aristocracy from adopting the drums from Hungary. Germany later sent an embassy accompanied by their new kettle drums to France, where the French royalty was so appalled by the bombastic instruments, that they ordered the drums to be “dashed to pieces”. The kettle drums then made their way into Britain, where there is a consistently referenced record of King Henry VIII (1491-1547) specifically asking the kettle drum makers in Vienna in 1542 to create a pair of large kettle drums for him, as well as to send men that would be able to play the drums skillfully. Just as the Hungarians had carried their kettle drums on horses, the English had constructed carriages that would be attached to horses, but would allow the kettle drums to sit with a kettle drummer in the back. The drums being carried on the backs of animals were integrated at the close of the 17th Century, and were adopted by Germany as well. This tradition was likely still being carried on in the Middle/Far East Germany continued to be the best in drum manufacturing, as well as now having beat Hungary in terms of having the best kettle drummers, Germany also then created the Imperial Guilds for the kettle drums by the 17th Century. Being of Imperial title, members would hold the same ranks as military officers, and being a closed group as well this allowed the secrets of Germany’s playing technique to be passed down safely through generations. When recruiting for new guild apprentices, officers in the guild would carefully select younger people from aristocratic, respectable families. The guilds were so well enforced in Germany, that they actually had the ability to impose penalties on people who were not part of the guild if they were caught owning, or playing kettle drums. Germany is not the only place where kettle drummers of the time were persons of high ranking importance, in 1606 Portugal, there is record of a kettle drummer for the aristocracy whose title read: William Pierson, Timpanist to Prince Henry. The word timpanist had actually developed when Italy was the largest cultural center of the time, every person that had travelled to study in Italy started calling kettle drums, timpani, and it stuck until around 1600 and wasn’t widely used again until the classical era when Italian opera would call for timpani. In 1624, a kettle drummer in England held the title of: Richard Thorne, King’s Drummer. After 1661, there are various references in England referring to men as ‘His Majesty’s Kettledrummer’.