Title: Test for Timpanists
Composer: Søren Monrad
Instrument: Timpani
Genre: classical
Year of publication: 2007
Preview: PDF
Listen: MP3
Duration:5:30 min

"Test for Timpanists is based on famous excerpts from the classical timpani literature. The piece is basically meant for auditions, but is also appropriate for concert performance. I composed “bridges” between some of the excerpt in order to connect them".

Søren Monrad, principal timpanist, Royal Danish Orchestra

The excerpts are taken from:

Puccini: La Bohème, Act 4

Beethoven: Symphony No. 7

Dvorák: Symphony No. 9 "From the New World", scherzo

Nielsen: Symphony No. 3

Richard Strauss: Ariadne auf Naxos, first part

Mahler: Symphony No. 2, second timpani

Britten: Peter Grimes

Wagner: The Flying Dutchman, Act 2, Scene 6

Mozart: Cosí fan tutte, No. 8 chorus

Richard Strauss: Salome, final scene

Schostakovitj: Lady Macbeth

Puccini: theme from La Bohème, not the original timpani part except for the last two bars which are from the end of Act 2

Reviews:

Coming soon...

About the composer:


Søren Monrad was classically trained at the Royal Danish Conservatory of Music. In 1978 he became a percussionist with the Royal Danish Orchestra and in 1982 he won the chair as solo timpanist in the same orchestra. At the same time, he also held down jobs with the Collegium Musicum, Royal Danish Brass and others. Add to that a comprehensive international career as a solo percussionist, playing with among others the Royal Danish Orchestra and the Odense Symphony Orchestra.

He has also performed on several CD’s with the above mentioned ensembles on which composers such as Bartok, Crumb, Varese, Koppel and others are represented. Since 1985 he has been a lecturer at the Carl Nielsen Academy of Music in Odense, Denmark.