The timpani Viennese

No Viennese timpano can replace a pedal timpano. Rather it serves to interpret the works of the Viennese classical period with the stylistically highest authenticity.

Enclosed you find a short SUMMARY of the publication

Der Wiener Klangstil

being based on the extensive research project with timpani produced by Wolfgang Schuster:

The Timpani Viennese A documentation of the acoustic and timbral features. Joint research project of the international orchestra institute Attergau and the institute of Viennese sound style of the university for music and performing arts Vienna in collaboration with the technical museum of Vienna. Realization: Acoustic Research Team. Direction: Dr. Matthias Bertsch. Vienna, in 1999/2000.

Both complete publications can be requested in both German and English language at the institute for Viennese Sound Style of the university for music and performing arts Vienna. 

No Viennese timpano can replace a pedal timpano. Rather it serves to interpret the works of the Viennese classical period with the stylistically highest authenticity. 

The Viennese Sound Style

What are the main differences between the Viennese model with goat skin and the internationally used model with a plastic (“Mylar”) membrane?

1. The sound spectrum of the Viennese instrument contains more "tonal components", the international instrument sounds more "noisy".

The following figure shows a 3-dimensional soundanalysis of a drumbeat. Horizontal axis: frequency, vertical axis: amplitude, the time runs from behind to the front. A partial of the sound (connected with a mode) can be identified in this figure as a "ridge of a mountain" with a decreasing height (=amplitude) from back to the front.

The fundamental (mode 11) is marked black, the Fifth (mode 21) is marked blue and the oktave (mode 31) is marked red.

It can be seen that the sound of the Viennese instrument is dominated by the radial harmonic modes, whereas the sound spectrum of the international timpany contains a lot of inharmonic partials (circular modes), partly superposed and producing beats wich increases the noisy character.

		Table left: Comparison of the amplitude of the fundamental (mode 11) measured with the Laser System and an artificial excitation signal (loudspeaker). Red: Viennese, blue: international. In general the sound of the Viennese Timpany is more multifaceted compared with that of the mylar equipped instrument. The reason is the higher sensibility of the goat scin on different types of drumsticks and head materials.
Download: Wiener Klangstil.pdf (1 MB)		© 2000 Matthias Bertsch

« back