The timpani are among a symphony orchestra’s most exciting instruments. There’s nothing quite like a musician pounding away on wide kettledrums made from copper. But aside from the occasional dramatic ...

She didn’t skip a beat when the cannonball – fortunately a lightweight prop – bounced onto one of the timpani behind her, ...

Before the timpani became an orchestral instrument, during the Civil War, people used to play on the horseback. This type of drum has a skin which is called head and it is stretched on a large bowl ...

The technical aspects of this release run the risk of overwhelming its musical qualities: this version of Dvořák’s "New World" symphony is spread over six 45rpm LP sides and is, remarkably, a wholly ...

Kurt-Hans Goedicke was born on February 17 1935 in Berlin, where after a miserable wartime childhood he studied music at the Universität der Kunste (University of the Arts). He left Germany after ...