give out a sound much more pleasant than if it were struck with a side-

drum stick” (as cited in Titcomb 1956, 60; Eisel, 1738, 66–67; Bowles 2002,
404–405). Shortening the sticks would have made them lighter, and lighter
sticks would have produced a more sonorous and less percussive tone
quality—all other things being equal—than heavier sticks. Lighter sticks
would have facilitated playing in a more delicate and musical manner that
brought out timpani tone.
Bowles provides images of timpani sticks from 1237 to the late 1980s.
While is it is not possible to describe material from which the mallet is
made, nor it exact length, it is possible to identify if mallet had a ball- or
cartwheel type head. Prior to the Baroque, all timpani sticks recorded by
Bowles were ball-type mallets or side drum sticks. Beginning in the early
Baroque, the cartwheel stick, which ended with the small rosette, made it
first appearance. In all drawings, prints, paintings, and woodcuts of the
Baroque and Classical period, all timpani sticks are cartwheel sticks. The
only time ball sticks make their appearance is in the hands of organ case
angels playing timpani (Bowles 183, 231, 235). One can only suspect that
cartwheel sticks produced a better sound than the ball stick; however, tim-
panists probably kept a ball stick in their stick bag and used them on the
proper occasion.
Improved mallet construction provided timpanists and composers an
opportunity to explore a wider variety of tonal shading. By 1738, Eisler
makes it clear that timpanists were using various materials to shape the
tone of their instruments. To deaden the ring of the drum, the timpanist
could drape the drums with cloth (Eisel 1738, 68–69). When the knobby,
wood-headed stick gave way to the wood covered stick, timpanists were
able to explore the nuances of timpani tone. Certainly by 1750, covered
sticks were more broadly used in orchestral settings. In 1738, Eisler notes
that timpanists were covering their sticks with leather, gauze, or wool.
These advances were made for one reason: to improve timpani tone and to
give timpanists the resources to rhythmically and tonally play their parts.
By 1802, Koch reports that chamois or wool mallets were a requirement
for timpanists (Bowles 2002, 69). However, Blades reports seeing a set of
Austrian mallets where “traces of softer covering (now almost gone) could
clearly be seen on several ends” (Blades 1970, 250).
At some time in the eighteenth or early nineteenth century, the cov-
ered cartwheel stick was created. A doughnut disk of differing diameters,
thickness, and materials was sandwiched between two disks of wood.
Made of different materials, such as wool, linen, or chamois, these sticks
provided greater tonal and rhythmic articulation (Bowles 2002, 69). As the
Baroque passed, timpanists employed a growing number of sticks capable
of producing a broader spectrum of timpani tone and articulation. It is
only reasonable to conclude that composers, like Bach and Handel, under-
stood the kind of tone color the timpani produced (Blades 1970, 249).
There is evidence that timpanists were familiar with the tonal char-
acteristics of the timpani head. Daniel Speer and Eisel describe the un-
usual echo of striking the drumhead near the counterhoop and then in the

Interpretation of Baroque Music 67