In Rockin’ Pauken, Darin Kamstra explores a variety of timbres and rhythms on timpani that emulate the sound of rock drumset and bass. The words in the title are a play on the near rhyme between the slang Rockin’ and the German term for timpani–Pauken.
The work also presents several technical challenges for the developing timpanist including cross-stickings, playing with different implements simultaneously, playing in different beating spots, tuning changes, and most unusually for the timpani, double strokes.