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Rockin' Pauken
In Rockin’ Pauken, Darin Kamstra explores a variety of timbres and rhythms on timpani that emulate the sound of rock drumset and bass. The words in the title are a play on the near rhyme between the slang Rockin’ and the German term for timpani–Pauken.
The work also presents several technical challenges for the developing timpanist including cross-stickings, playing with different implements simultaneously, playing in different beating spots, tuning changes, and most unusually for the timpani, double strokes.
Performed by Darin Kamstra
Use of this product is governed by the license terms outlined here.
Timpani solos are interesting because many times timpani solos aren’t actually timpani solos; a number of them are more like multi-percussion solos that just happen to use timpani because very little is idiomatic about the use of the timpani. Rockin’ Pauken fits this bill due to the fact that there is such minimal actual idiomatic timpani performance in the piece.
Clocking in at around five minutes, Rockin’ Pauken is a medium difficulty solo that the composer states tries to “emulate the sound of rock drumset and bass.” This is achieved through a few staples of rock music such as the use of a backbeat and the separation of low and high textures through the use of different implements while creating characteristic drumset grooves. Many sections are repeated as well, giving the piece a very pop-song feel.
Performers will need a pair of hard mallets as well as a single wire brush, and there are indications to perform in the center of the drum as well as the normal timpani beating spots. Much of the piece revolves around sections where one hand plays an ostinato underneath the other hand’s execution of a melody.
The only thing truly idiomatic of timpani in this solo is the tuning that occurs on the highest drum between an E and an F. This occurs a number of times, but only on that single drum and for those specific pitches. Otherwise there is little in this piece that truly makes it feel like a timpani solo, outside of maybe the opening single-measure roll (the only roll in the piece).
My argument as to whether or not Rockin’ Pauken is a timpani solo does not reflect on the quality of the piece. For a middle school or high school percussionist this could work well for a solo piece. However, as a piece that actually shows a performer’s facility on the timpani, other works or even excerpts from timpani method books would work better.
—Brian Nozny
Percussive Notes
Vol. 54, No. 5, November 2016
In Rockin’ Pauken, Darin Kamstra explores a variety of timbres and rhythms on timpani that emulate the sound of rock drumset and bass. The words in the title are a play on the near rhyme between the slang Rockin’ and the German term for timpani–Pauken.
The work also presents several technical challenges for the developing timpanist including cross-stickings, playing with different implements simultaneously, playing in different beating spots, tuning changes, and most unusually for the timpani, double strokes.
Performed by Darin Kamstra
Use of this product is governed by the license terms outlined here.
Timpani solos are interesting because many times timpani solos aren’t actually timpani solos; a number of them are more like multi-percussion solos that just happen to use timpani because very little is idiomatic about the use of the timpani. Rockin’ Pauken fits this bill due to the fact that there is such minimal actual idiomatic timpani performance in the piece.
Clocking in at around five minutes, Rockin’ Pauken is a medium difficulty solo that the composer states tries to “emulate the sound of rock drumset and bass.” This is achieved through a few staples of rock music such as the use of a backbeat and the separation of low and high textures through the use of different implements while creating characteristic drumset grooves. Many sections are repeated as well, giving the piece a very pop-song feel.
Performers will need a pair of hard mallets as well as a single wire brush, and there are indications to perform in the center of the drum as well as the normal timpani beating spots. Much of the piece revolves around sections where one hand plays an ostinato underneath the other hand’s execution of a melody.
The only thing truly idiomatic of timpani in this solo is the tuning that occurs on the highest drum between an E and an F. This occurs a number of times, but only on that single drum and for those specific pitches. Otherwise there is little in this piece that truly makes it feel like a timpani solo, outside of maybe the opening single-measure roll (the only roll in the piece).
My argument as to whether or not Rockin’ Pauken is a timpani solo does not reflect on the quality of the piece. For a middle school or high school percussionist this could work well for a solo piece. However, as a piece that actually shows a performer’s facility on the timpani, other works or even excerpts from timpani method books would work better.
—Brian Nozny
Percussive Notes
Vol. 54, No. 5, November 2016
