on Sep 25, 2011, at 09:16 , Daniel J. Matyola wrote: > http://blogs.delphiforums.com/n/blogs/blog.aspx?nav=main&webtag=djm1963&entry=141 > > Comments and criticisms are invited.
Nice shot, Dan. Blur in the mallets, sharp everywhere else. The title is OK if you're going for abstract, but in the trade, they are known as percussionists, which actually refers to any musician who is practiced in the art of whacking things with hand or sticks. Those instruments in your photograph are called Timpani, a plural noun, though kettledrums have always been in use in many languages. Even the dictionary uses kettledrums in it's definition. And one who specializes in playing the Timpani is a Timpanist. Sort of like calling a Marine a Jarhead though, ya know. When I was a percussionist in various bands and orchestras, I was often the timpanist in the orchestra. But I was tone deaf, so any change of pitch that I had to do during a performance saw me with a pitch pipe in one hand, my ear inches from the head, lightly tapping with my mallet, or finger, until they seemed to match. Usually I played a peddle timpani, though not all of the drums in front of me were peddle tuned. Those that had to be pre-tuned with 8 or 12 tuning pegs were used at the ends of the series in front of the player. Depending on the demands of the score, even those had to be bumped up or down during a lull in the work. Again, more than most wanted to know, for the few that do. [Mark!] Joseph McAllister [email protected] -- “If I could tell the story in words, I wouldn’t need to lug a camera.” –Lewis Hine -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
