Martin Anderson raised the question of natural vs synthetic timpani heads:

>Having natural skins on the timps improves the penetrative power of the
>entire orchestra, with the result that this Nielsen 5 was gloriously
>strong.

I was also at that Prom and although I wasn't totally carried away by the
Nielsen 5, I would support Martin's observations on the contribution of
the timps to the overall effect.  Natural heads usually produce a warmer,
fuller sound - because they are not as uniform as plastic heads, they
generate a more complex set of waveforms and overtones - although much
depends on minute adjustments of tuning and a fraction of a turn here and
there around the drum.  Eric Nagamine is right to suggest that natural
heads are much more difficult to maintain and to keep in tune - they
are highly sensitive to changes in temperature and humidity and require
constant attention.  Tuning gauges - mechanical devices attached to the
mechanism of pedal timps - are highly effective and accurate with plastic
heads but are unreliable with natural ones, which is why you often see
natural-head players bent over their drums, ear within an inch or two of
the skin, checking and adjusting tuning even when there is no change of
note required.  Last night's Swedish timpanist did quite a lot of that.
Plastic heads have become the established norm partly because of easier
maintenance and tuning, and partly because a lot of 20th century music
requires rapid and frequent tuning changes that would be difficult if not
impossible with natural heads.  It's a case of swings and roundabouts,
really.

Eric also suggested that most audience members don't detect the difference
between the various sticks that timpanists use to vary tone colour and
projection.  He may well be right, but I think that a lot of the impact the
timps made last night was due to the use of very hard or even wooden sticks
- I was too far back to see exactly.

>I mentioned the subject tonight to a female friend at the Proms; her reaction
>suggested she thought it strange to get excited over something so esoteric.

Obviously not a percussionist!

You can't get away from the snare drum when talking about Nielsen 5, so
here goes:

The snare-drummer used two drums - one for the first appearance of the
"dum, diddle-de-dum, dum, dum" pattern and a slightly deeper one for the
improvised "stop the music!" passage - that shows a sensitivity on the
part of player or conductor to subtleties of sound from the percussion
department.  Both sounded to me as if they had gut snares not metal ones -
and quite possibly calf heads as well.  The final contribution by snare
drum at the very end of the first movement was taken by an offstage drum
high up in the Albert Hall's gallery.  Like the first appearance this
was very loud and gave, to my mind, a totally wrong effect.  The first
appearance should be a premonition of a threat to come, and the final
one is a memory of a battle now over (please note that this is an [ex-]
percussionist arguing that the drums should be quieter . . .  except in
the cadenza, of course!)

Back to the timps - I was also at the performance of Nielsen 4 a few days
ago.  As usual, the two timpanists were positioned far left and right at
the back of the orchestra.  I long to see and hear a performance with one
of them where Nielsen asked for him - as close to the audience as possible.
Or even both of them.

Ian Crisp
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 [Ahh, yes.  HIP Nielsen.  -Dave]