Baguettes de timbales

As Printed on a Score

Printed above a percussion part — often a cymbal, gong or bass drum — to ask for timpani sticks instead of that instrument’s usual beater; it lasts until another stick is named.

How Composers Use It

Asking for timpani sticks on another instrument is a precise colour request: on a suspended cymbal they give a soft, swelling roll without the clash of a crash; on a bass drum a more defined but still round attack. Name the instrument the sticks are for when one player covers several, and give time to pick them up.

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