Four Grotesques for Timpani’ expands the range of sound produced by four timpani (playing with four marimba mallets, playing on cymbals and crotales inverted on the drums) in music that is rhythmically challenging and melodically interesting. Besides, how many timpani pieces parody Mozart’s ‘Eine Kleine Nachtsmusik’? When was the last time you played a tone poem (however small) about monsters that grow out of that moldy yogurt in the back of your fridge?
