Adrian Bending
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Beethoven’s 5th Symphony World premiere timpani part

After the first performance in 1808 a first edition and parts were made, but these did not contain some things in the original orchestral parts.

The original set of parts was hardly known about and was found in the Lobkowicz archive in Nelahozeves, Czechia in 1988.  This resulted in some errors in the first edition and subsequent editions being researched and rectified.

I have typeset the timpani part as closely as I am able to the original and you can download it here.

sample pages

Screenshot

Bach Magnificat in Cambridge

Classical timpani film – Part 3 of ‘The Evolution of Timpani’

photos and videos

‘A whole lot of fuss about nothing?’ – the final bar of Beethoven’s 5th

 

    

Belshazzar’s Feast – new arrangement coming soon!

Belshazzar's Feast by Sir William Walton
choir, organ and percussion (2 players) by David Briggs and Adrian Bending.

Following the World Premiere in March 2024 this new arrangement is to be published soon!

Beethoven’s 5th Symphony World premiere timpani part

After the first performance in 1808 a first edition and parts were made.  But these did not contain some things in the original orchestral parts.

This set of parts was hardly known about and was found in the Lobkowicz archive in Nelehozeves, Czechia.  This resulted in some errors in the first edition and subsequent editions being researched and rectified.

I have typeset the part as closely as I am able to the original.  You can download it here.

Here is a video about this original timpani part.

Bending Bach’s Basslines

Welcome to my book!  It is a collection of Bach chorales with their basslines specially adapted to be played on timpani.  You can play along to the accompanying CD of professional recordings.

The book contains 28 Bach chorales, the timpani parts from Bohemian Rhapsody (from We Will Rock You) and No Change by All Bluff and Porterage, and some chapters on general timpani playing.

Look inside: Page 8  Page 9    german flag    japanese flag  You can now purchase Bending Bach's Basslines from:   Southern Percussion for United Kingdom   Brandt Percussion logo Brandt Percussion for mainland Europe

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Steve Weiss Music for USA & Canada

download

Optimum Percussion for Australia & Asia

For each chorale I have written three or four different versions of increasing difficulty, ranging from a few downbeats and cadences to playing the full bassline throughout. For an explanation of the notation have a look at the 'look inside' feature above.

This easy example has just a few pedal changes (indicated by crossed note-heads). Although the notation shows you how to play the  chorales on four timpani with 'wedge-notes' as the outer drums, most of them, such as this one, are easily playable on two or three drums.

W HGI 11 T1w hr narrow - Full Score The last example of each chorale closely replicates the full Bach bassline.  Some are easier than this, and some are a bit harder. Later examples don't have crossed note-heads because there would be so many. W HGI 11 T4w hr - Full Score Faster chorales like this one have an additional slower track on the CD to play along to. Click on one of the buttons below to hear the slow and professional recordings of this chorale.   All proceeds from sales of this book are being donated to Cancer Research UK CRUK-logo-with-extra-border-grey-background

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Berlioz ‘Grande Messe des Morts’ – 2011

Concert and recording, Wroclaw, 2011

‘Classical Music’ magazine, August 2021

https://www.classical-music.com/news/largest-collection-of-historical-timpani-in-uk-showcased-by-percussionist-adrian-bending/

 

videos

 

Links

gallery

Data of timpani used for projects

 

 

 

 

 

videos

Leonore is 1 !

Trailer

Sign up here to join my session on Sunday for tips and tricks for the tambourine for all ability levels!

 

 

Edinburgh University Instrument Museum

Pete Woods and I visited Edinburgh University Instrument Museum.  They have an enormous collection, including some weird and wonderful timpani and percussion instruments, the like of which we had never seen before.  We are very grateful to the Curator, Dr Jenny Nex, for showing us around.  Both drums below were made by George Potter, we estimate at the end of the 1800s.  We suspect that their tuning mechanisms, although beautifully engineered and manufactured, actually weren't that successful due to the difficulty of spreading the tension evenly all the way around the drum.  Hence these types of designs fell out of fashion quite quickly.

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Dimensions

Cases for large hand-tuned / belt timpani

3 sizes are available:

Large: 104cm x 104cm x 80cm, for timpani up to 29"/30" including Lefima 29" belt timpani
Medium: 98cm x 98cm x 74cm, for timpani up to 26"/27" including Lefima 26" belt timpani
Small: 96cm x 95cm x 72cm, for timpani up to 23"/24" including Lefima 23" belt timpani

 

Hardcase bass drum cases for timpani

3 sizes are available:

HN26B, here in red, is 95cm x 45cm, weight 31kg, for timpani 25″ – 27.5″.
HN24B, here in green, 88cm x 45cmweight 30kg, for timpani 23″ – 25″
HN22B, not shown, is 79cm x 45cmweight 28kg, for timpani 20″-23″

Some of the cases have 4 extra wheels. All of them have two built in wheels

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Stands can be transported in lightweight Le Blond boxes.  This one, for up to three stands, has dimensions of 97cm long x 40 wide x 13 deep and weighs around 15kg.

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Why build a cargo bike for timpani?

I'd experimented with taking timpani on the train.  And although accessibility on public transport has become much better, I still needed a vehicle to get the drums from my home to the station.  After that it definitely worked but it seemed to be a lot of lugging around of heavy things when there was a better solution awaiting....

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Making the drone shot

      

Elgar ‘The Dream of Gerontius’ – July 2023

Elgar - The Dream of Gerontius, Gabrieli Roar 2023, concerts and recording, July 2023.
Diary clashes meant I was very happy to play percussion and the timpani part was excellently navigated by the fabulous Jude Carlton 👏👏👏👏👏 of Royal Northern Sinfonia.
It is interesting to think about the writing and development for timpani at the turn of the 20th Century. Our instruments developed slower in Britain at the time and Elgar (1900) was clearly writing for hand-tuned timpani. Compare this to 'Salome' (1905) and Mahler symphonies (1901-10).
Elgar I would suggest seems to be writing for the whole orchestra in a way that meant his music could be performed by regional, youth and amateur orchestras who probably didn't have state-of-the-art instruments. Strauss on the other hand must have known that some of his harder operas with unusual instruments could only be performed by a handful of elite companies in major cities.
Although german timpani started to come into Britain at this time, this was rare and didn't happen quickly and the most elite orchestras would have used timpani like this for the hardest and newest repertoire for some time to come.
The timpani part of Gerontius is taxing but cleverly written. It seems to assume that 3 timpani is normal (because he specifically mentions using a 4th drum), but we would always use 4 in any case to try to reduce the amount of quick changes. Frequent and relentless changes can be frustrating and tiring as it is hard to get the drums to settle, because as soon as they do, they frequently need to be changed again...
This was compounded this week as one day of rehearsals had to be moved to an outside venue. Anyone who has played timpani outdoors will agree it presents a whole new set of difficulties but here Jude got through this most difficult of situations very impressively indeed.
As I had time to watch quite a bit of the culmination of 'The Ashes' cricket, I was able to muse on the interesting parallels between cricket and outdoor timpani playing; both requiring a high level of attention to the weather, how this is completely beyond one's control yet can drasticallty affect how your day is probably going to go!
The percussion instruments are; British bass drum, 30" (date unknown), Dresden snare drum (early 20th Century), modern Premier glockenspiel, Istanbul 17" cymbals, Wuhan 30" tam tam, Sabian triangle and sleigh bells.
The bass drum is probably early 20th Century.  It is 30" in diameter, a modern one would be approx 36-40".  This sort of drum was made for amateur orchestras and wind and brass bands but would also have been used by professional symphony orchestras.  The main difference from a modern drum is the tensioning.  On this drum the tensioning is done by ropes.  And with the leather sliders we can tune the drum - this is mostly to do with getting a suitable sound from it and the tension of the skin changes dramatically with the weather!
The side drum is a german drum made in Dresden and it is probably about 100 years old.  Modern drums are the same proportions as this.  Modern drums tend to have plastic heads (which now are quite a close sound to natural heads) but many modern players are going back to using natural heads.
Metal instruments don't tend to last very well. Metal fatigue means they can crack or deterioate and just lose their good sound.  And so the cymbals, triangle, glockenspiel, tam tam and sleigh bells are all modern instruments, but were chosen for their sound as to what we think would have been used in Elgar's time.  It is dangerous to generalise but today's players often choose louder percussion instruments because they need to project across modern orchestras which tend to be louder than those using old instruments.  We don't need to worry so much about this.  For example the cymbals are only 17" in diameter and quite thick and therefore have shorter and more percussive clash sound.  Modern orchestras would tend to use thinner and so louder perhaps 19"-21" cymbals for this piece.
Sticks and heads - we try to use sticks that are identical or similar to those of the period, since hardly any originals survive.  We use calf-skin drum heads that we believe are as similar as possible to what Elgar would have heard.  Skins definitely do not survive 100 years! And so the choice of sticks goes hand in hand with the heads and pursuing the eventual sound, as true as possible as far as we can guess!, governs our choices.
Players (L-R); Jon French, Becky McChrystal, me, Luke Taylor, Nick Cowling and Jude Carlton
My timpani and percussion score part of this piece will be available soon.

   

Saint Saens concert January 2023

with our extra timpanists for 'Phaeton' Florie Fazio and Tom Hunter

 

And the debut of my strohfiedel!

 

Gilbert & Sullivan ‘Princess Ida’ – June 2023

Performances 7-8 June 2023 at Queen Elizabeth Hall, London.

Gilbert & Sullivan's 'Princess Ida' with Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment performed here less than half a mile from where it was first performed in 1884 at The Savoy Theatre.
The timpani are 24", 24" & 27" Hawkes with thick English calf heads (range is low G up to E). Percussion includes a Dresdner snare drum, early C20 (?) English bass drum, Istanbul cymbals.
Since this part is definitely written for only one player (perhaps a space issue?) the percussion contribution cannot be as involved or interesting as in other G&S works.
Other works premiered around this time include 'Carmen', Brahms 4, Dvorak 7, 'Parsifal' and 'Manfred' Symphony.

Lefima hand-tuned timpani – SOLD

THESE DRUMS ARE NOW SOLD

A pair of Lefima hand-tuned timpani. Sizes 23" & 25".  Lefima wooden trestles included

These drums were previously owned by Janos Keszei

Offers in the region of £4000

Contact Dan Gresson +44 (0)7973 120165

Located in Ashtead, Surrey

‘Leonore’ the timpani bike

Translation work

Cheap storage unit for rent – must be sorted by the end of March 2023

Shurgard, Purley Way, Croydon (oppostie IKEA)

Ground floor. 160 square feet. £200/month (inc. £10k insurance). Access hours 0600-2300

contact Miranda Allen mirandasallen17@gmail.com

Yamaha marimba

Yamaha 4.5 Octave Intermediate Acoustalon Multi-Frame II Marimba

Practice instrument so hardly ever dismantled hence in immaculate condition

Offers in the region of £3000

Contact Tom Pritchard +31643813134 or Sarah Heartfield +44 (0)7876 345872

Located in Manchester or Yorkshire

Sheet music for orchestral excerpts

Turn of the Screw page 1

 

Turn of the Screw page 2

 

 

Fidelio

 

Figaro Overture

 

Janacek 'Intrada'

 

Nocturne p1

 

Nocturne p2

Ludwig Universal timpani – SOLD

25" & 28" Ludwig Universal timpani

With discs and covers

Offers in the region of £2200

Contact Liz Barker liz_thebiz@hotmail.com

Located in Hook, Hampshire

 

 

Kolberg Rossmann timpani sticks

These sticks are all 'as new'.  Please contact Adrian Bending mail@adrianbending.com.  Try before you buy if near London, otherwise postage charges apply.  Each pair is £100 inc. VAT.

8H

 

20H4

 

28H3

 

24H4

 

26H4

 

26H3

 

24H3

 

22H3

 

24H2

Ludwig Black Beauty snare drum

14" x 5.5".  Immaculate condition.  Grover snare mechanism added. Silk and wire snares.

Contact Adrian Bending mail@adrianbending.com

 

Timpani stands

Timpani stands.  Length approx 90cm.  These stands are capable of huge height differences and are therefore suitable for seated or standing playing with all kinds of timpani.  Sapele wood with rubber covering.

£100 each. Contact Adrian Bending mail@adrianbending.com

Le Blond cases for 2, 3 or 4 stands are in stock, from £50.  Please contact me for options and prices.

 

Short Lefima timpani stands

Short Lefima timpani stands.  Suitable for seated playing only. Some usage marks on the wood.  £150 inc VAT

Contact Adrian Bending mail@adrianbending.com

 

Bags for timpani stands.  £25 inc VAT.

Kolberg stick rake

As new.  Holder for 10 pairs of sticks.  Also fixes to any standard cymbal stand.  £120 inc. VAT.  Contact Adrian Bending mail@adrianbending.com

 

expert strohfiedel players

How I made a strohfiedel

Huge thanks are due to Pete Woods of www.henrypotter.co.uk for his advice and guidance with this project. Without this I am sure mistakes would have been made resulting in a less successful instrument!

 

I salvaged some notes from an old Leedy xylophone where the frame had broken beyond repair. We believe the notes are Honduras Rosewood.  This wood could be 150 years old.  The xylophone was probably made before 1930 and the wood would likely have been stored for many decades before it was decided what to make with it.

 

The first job is to establish which notes go in which rows.

 

 

The positions are marked for the eyelets that take the string.

 

It is very important that the notes are kept parallel and equally spaced.

 

At this point the beech strips that the notes rest on can be fixed in position. Thanks to www.timbersource.co.uk for supplying this excellent beech crucially cut precisely to size.

 

Originally the notes would have been laid on straw, but we figured rubber tubing would work just as well and be much easier to work with. The tubing is not mounted in a straight line because the holes drilled in the notes do not line up with each other. This is because the holes were drilled for mounting the notes in the modern piano keyboard layout and so they are not in the ideal positions for mounting the notes in this way.

 

Finally cutting the board to a more manageable size.

 

Sanding the edges and rounding the corners a little.

 

A couple of coats of varnish.

 

Cleaning the notes with white spirit. Water would soak into the wood and could cause problems.

 

Putting a tiny bit of wax on the notes helps this beautiful wood really shine!

 

The most time consuming and fiddly job; putting felt piano washers between all the notes and eyelets and stringing the entire instrument.

 

My strohfiedel is not a true copy because the instrument should have a few duplicate notes (see below). This is so that these important notes are available for both the left and right hands to play. A set of modern keyboard xylophone notes only has one of each note.

 

 

Strohfiedel debut at the Royal Festival Hall

Matt Dickinson in rehearsal at Blackheath.

with timpanists Florie Fazio and Tom Hunter who joined us for 'Phaeton'.

Mozart Cosi fan tutte – Act II Finale

Cosi fan Tutte - the Act II Finale...

This excerpt is a very good example of quick re-tuning.  Yes, it must be done quickly but, with a bit of knowledge of the music it is perfectly possible as there are some very helpful pointers along the way.  Of course, using your own instruments or ones you have practised on is vastly preferable, but this method, for this excerpt, is completely un-reliant on knowing the drums.  This is why I set it for exams and auditions.  You can practise it all you like, but you can only do it on the day, if you can hear the notes and tune them.  Obviously it is harder on hand-tuned timpani.  But even on pedal drums, it still tests quick and accurate tuning using pitches from the orchestra.  So it is a very fair and revealing test of someone's ability to tune in a real-life situation.

Cosi fan Tutte 3 with help - Timpani-1   Cosi fan Tutte 3 with help - Timpani-2

Some general tips:

1  When you are doing a quick re-tune, my motto is to get pretty close to the new note, very quickly.  You don't want to be going round the drum making small adjustments over and over again.  This wastes time and increases the chances of putting the drum out of tune with itself.

2 Decide that you are only going to tune one drum at a time.  Get the first one right.  Don't panic and don't move on to the second drum too quickly.

3  Always always always have a few reference points of pitch in the orchestra during an excerpt like this.  It is disastrous if you re-tune both drums incorrectly but then cannot identify the correct note for either of them!

4 If you are doing an exam or audition on strange drums, use your warm up time to work out how much you have to turn the taps for a given tuning.  For example, know that on the top drum, tuning up a tone requires a quarter turn.

5 When tuning upwards, it is vastly preferable not to tune too sharp and then have to tune down again.  This takes time and the sound quality of the new note is worse.

With this excerpt, it is vital to be calm and clear how you are going to tackle the tuning.  Immediately you stop playing the section in C (bar 36), put down both your sticks and clear your head - you aren't going to tune anything for four bars.  I suggest tuning the B flat first.  Yes it might be strange to tune the dominant first but here's why;  In bar 40, the music changes into the key of F, a perfect key for finding your B flat.  Use the F and the sympathetic resonance to find the B flat.  Looking at the music above, tune only the B flat in the bars that are in red.

Now, when you have your B flat, you may as well check it against the C you still have. When the music goes back into C (the blue section beginning at bar 51) it is relatively easy to sing (in your head) an E flat -  a minor third above the key note.  You can keep tweaking the E flat until the very last minute.  Take one, not two, sticks and hold the tap nearest to you.  At the instant you strike that first E flat you can bend the note to be in tune.  You only have one B flat in this opening phrase and so it is far less important than the clearly audible E flat.

 

O-tymp-ic Games

Pfundt – The Timpani, a new translation in English

Buy the book here

24 pages (in the original German), 9000 words and over 80 original illustrations and musical examples.

With an introduction by Sally Basker and a chapter by me reflecting on Pfundt's influence and legacy.

sample section;

 

Who was Pfundt?

Hector Berlioz said that Pfundt was one of only three people in Europe worthy of the title “timpanist”

Richard Wagner – “for every instrument there seems to be from time to time a most singular talent, and on the timpani that is in the fullest sense Musicus Pfundt in Leipzig. He handles his instrument beautifully – so important for an orchestra – his highly unique achievements caught our eye repeatedly….”

Robert Schumann – (on bestowing a wreath of honour upon the 40 or 50 members of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchester.)  “I would like to award one leaf in particular to the orchestra’s timpanist, Herr Pfundt, who is always alert and ready, like thunder and lightning: he plays splendidly”.

The lineage from Ernst Pfundt to Saul Goodman;
Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchester: Pfundt (35 years) > Uebe (10) > Seeleman (12) > Schmidt (30) - taught Friese > Friese (Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, New York) – taught Goodman (who was also taught by Oscar Schwar; who trained in Dresden, Philadephia Orchestra 1903-46)

Purcell Percussion Project

We’re very excited to announce that our new book Purcell Percussion Project is now available from Southern Percussion

From our earliest ideas while working together at the Royal College of Music to recently completing this book and recording the promotional videos it’s always a huge pleasure to collaborate with one of Britain’s most exciting young timpanists Louise Goodwin.

This book is a collection of 11 dances and orchestral pieces from Purcell's opera 'The Fairy Queen'.  We haven't had to adapt much to make this music fit on to four mallet percussion instruments. For most our arrangements instruments can be shared and the line up is flexible. We indicate the difficulty of each part and there are some very easy parts that virtual beginners can master. In addition to the mallet percussion quartet there is an optional 5th player; playing improvised un-pitched percussion.  Usually we have provided two guide versions of this again allowing very inexperienced players to be part of an ensemble.
For high ability players this book is useful as it gives them a chance to play some wonderful music in a style that we do not normally get to play as percussionists.  Rather than focusing on highly technical or taxing parts as is often the case in percussion ensembles, this relatively simple music allows us far more headspace to focus on phrasing and musical aspects and develop a true insight into playing in this historic and important style.
We very much hope that you enjoy playing Purcell's wonderful music!
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