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Instrument: Kettle Drum |
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 Historically, kettle drums have been used throughout many Islamic and Middle Eastern nations; carved images of these instruments from Mesopotamia date back to at least the 4000 B.C., while instructions for building them have been found on ancient Babylonian tablets. They have also played a significant role in European music since the 13th century. First brought to the west by soldiers during the Crusades, kettle drums were traditionally associated with with military bands and campaigns. These and other instruments were used to mark time, to signal attack and strike fear in one's opponents.
Detail from painting at the the University of Michigan Museum of Art; click on image to see full illustration.
What makes them unique?
Kettle drums have been made from pottery, metal and even turtle shells. In western orchestras, sets of kettle drums (or timpani) are usually made from copper; they have plastic or calfskin drum heads. In Africa, similar instruments are built out of carved wood |
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or hollowed tree trunks and drum heads made from carefully prepared animal hide. Amidst this tremendous variety, all kettle drums have several features in common: their basic, bowl-like shape and the capacity to have their drum heads tuned and adjusted to a relatively specific pitch.
All kettle drums have a resonating bowl or cauldron shaped body with one stretched head attached to the top of the bowl; the size and materials of this body determine the overall sound of the drum. These instruments are also tunable; you can raise or lower the pitch by tightening or loosening the drum head. Sometimes this is achieved by adjusting metal screws that fastening the drum head. In India, tabla, (drum pairs essential for accompanying almost all Indian classical music) have adjustable laced thongs to create tension in the drum head.
For contemporary western orchestras, pairs of two or more kettledrums (or timpani) have become an essential part of the percussion section. In Hector Berlioz's "Requiem", for example, 8 pairs of kettledrums are tuned to produce distinct chords. Throughout the nineteenth century, composers' demands for more rapid changes of pitch encouraged new mechanical tuning mechanisms to replace metal screws; now, pitch changes are controlled by a foot pedal.
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