Part 19

KETTLEDRUM[1] (Fr. _timbales_; Ger. _Pauken_; Ital. _timpani_; Sp. _timbal_), the only kind of drum (q.v.) having a definite musical pitch. The kettledrum consists of a hemispherical pan of copper, brass or silver, over which a piece of vellum is stretched tightly by means of screws working on an iron ring, which fits closely round the head of the drum. In the bottom of the pan is a small vent-hole, which prevents the head being rent by the concussion of air. The vellum head may thus be slackened or tightened at will to produce any one of the notes within its compass of half an octave. Each kettledrum gives but one note at a time, and as it takes some little time to alter all the screws, two or three kettledrums, sometimes more, each tuned to a different note, are used in an orchestra or band. For centuries kettledrums have been made and used in Europe in pairs, one large and one small; the relative proportions of the two instruments being well defined and invariable. Even when eight pairs of drums, all tuned to different notes, are used, as by Berlioz in his "Grand Requiem," there are still but the two sizes of drums to produce all the notes. Various mechanisms have been tried with the object of facilitating the change of pitch, but the simple old-fashioned model is still the most frequently used in England. Two sticks, of which there are several kinds, are employed to play the kettledrum; the best of these are made of whalebone for elasticity, and have a small wooden knob at one end, covered with a thin piece of fine sponge. Others have the button covered with felt or india-rubber. The kettledrum is struck at about a quarter of the diameter from the ring.

The compass of kettledrums collectively is not much more than an octave, between [music notes]; the larger instruments, which it is inadvisable to tune below F, take any one of the following notes:--

[Music notes].

and the smaller are tuned to one of the notes completing the chromatic and enharmonic scale from [music notes]. These limits comprise all the notes of artistic value that can be obtained from kettledrums. When there are but two drums--the term "drum" used by musicians always denotes the kettledrum--they are generally tuned to the tonic and dominant or to the tonic and subdominant, these notes entering into the composition of most of the harmonies of the key. Formerly the kettledrums used to be treated as transposing instruments, the notation, as for the horn, being in C, the key to which the kettledrums were to be tuned being indicated in the score. Now composers write the real notes.

The tone of a good kettledrum is sonorous, rich, and of great power. When noise rather than music is required uncovered sticks are used. The drums may be muffled or _covered_ by placing a piece of cloth or silk over the vellum to damp the sound, a device which produces a lugubrious, mysterious effect and is indicated in the score by the words _timpani coperti_, _timpani con sordini_, _timbales_ _couvertes_, _gedämpfte Pauken_. Besides the beautiful effects obtained by means of delicate gradations of tone, numerous rhythmical figures may be executed on one, two or more notes. German drummers who were renowned during the 17th and 18th centuries, borrowing the terms from the trumpets with which the kettledrums were long associated, recognized the following beats:--

[Illustration: Music notes.

Single tonguing (_Einfache Zungen_)

Double tonguing (_Doppel oder gerissene Zungen_)

Legato tonguing (_Tragende Zungen_)

Whole double-tonguing (_Ganze Doppel-Zungen_)

Double cross-beat[2] (_Doppel Kreuzschläge_)

The roll (_Wirbel_)

The double roll (_Doppel Wirbel_)]

It is generally stated that Beethoven was the first to treat the kettledrum as a solo instrument, but in _Dido_, an opera by C. Graupner performed at the Hamburg Opera House in 1707, there is a short solo for the kettledrum.[3]

The tuning of the kettledrum is an operation requiring time, even when the screw-heads, as is now usual, are T-shaped; to expedite the change, therefore, efforts have been made in all countries to invent some mechanism which would enable the performer to tune the drum to a fixed note by a single movement. The first mechanical kettledrums date from the beginning of the 19th century. In Holland a system was invented by J. C. N. Stumpff[4]; in France by Labbaye in 1827; in Germany Einbigler patented a system in Frankfort-on-Main in 1836[5]; in England Cornelius Ward in 1837; in Italy C. A. Boracchi of Monza in 1839.[6]

The drawback in most of these systems is the complicated nature of the mechanism, which soon gets out of order, and, being very cumbersome and heavy, it renders the instrument more or less of a fixture. Potter's kettledrum with instantaneous system of tuning, the best known at the present day in England, and used in some military bands with entire success, is a complete contrast to the above. There is practically no mechanism; the system is simple, ingenious, and neither adds to the weight nor to the bulk of the instrument. There are no screws round the head of Potter's kettledrum; an invisible system of cords in the interior, regulated by screws and rods in the form of a Maltese cross, is worked from the outside by a small handle connected to a dial, on the face of which are twenty-eight numbered notches. By means of these the performer is able to tune the drum instantly to any note within the compass by remembering the numbers which correspond to each note and pointing the indicator to it on the face of the dial. Should the cords become slightly stretched, flattening the pitch, causing the representative numbers to change, the performer need only give his indicator an extra turn to bring his instrument back to pitch, each note having several notches at its service. The internal mechanism, being of an elastic nature, has no detrimental effect on the tone but tends to increase its volume and improve its quality.

The origin of the kettledrum is remote and must be sought in the East. Its distinctive characteristic is a hemispherical or convex vessel, closed by means of a single parchment or skin drawn tightly over the aperture, whereas other drums consist of a cylinder, having one end or both covered by the parchment, as in the side-drum and tambourine respectively. The Romans were acquainted with the kettledrum, including it among the _tympana_; the _tympanum leve_, like a sieve, was the tambourine used in the rites of Bacchus and Cybele.[7] The comparatively heavy tympanum of bronze mentioned by Catullus was probably the small kettledrum which appears in pairs on monuments of the middle ages.[8] Pliny[9] states that half pearls having one side round and the other flat were called _tympania_. If the name _tympania_ (Gr. [Greek: tympanon], from [Greek: typtein], to strike) was given to pearls of a certain shape because they resembled the kettledrum, this argues that the instrument was well known among the Romans. It is doubtful, however, if it was adopted by them as a military instrument, since it is not mentioned by Vegetius,[10] who defines very clearly the duties of the service instruments _buccina_, _tuba_, _cornu_ and _lituus_.

The Greeks also knew the kettledrum, but as a warlike instrument of barbarians. Plutarch[11] mentions that the Parthians, in order to frighten their enemies, in offering battle used not the horn or _tuba_, but hollow vessels covered with a skin, on which they beat, making a terrifying noise with these tympana. Whether the kettledrum penetrated into western Europe before the fall of the Roman Empire and continued to be included during the middle ages among the tympana has not been definitely ascertained. Isidore of Seville gives a somewhat vague description of tympanum, conveying the impression that his information has been obtained second-hand: "Tympanum est pellis vel corium ligno ex una parte extentum. Est enim pars media symphoniae in similitudinem cribri. Tympanum autem dictum quod medium est. Unde, et margaritum medium tympanum dicitur, et ipsum ut symphonia ad virgulam percutitur."[12] It is clear that in this passage Isidore is referring to Pliny.

The names given during the middle ages to the kettledrum are derived from the East. We have _attambal_ or _attabal_ in Spain, from the Persian _tambal_, whence is derived the modern French _timbales_; _nacaire_, _naquaire_ or _nakeres_ (English spelling), from the Arabic _nakkarah_ or _noqqarich_ (Bengali, _nagara_), and the German _Pauke_, M.H.G. _Bûke_ or _Pûke_, which is probably derived from _byk_, the Assyrian name of the instrument.

[Illustration: (Geo. Potter & Co. of Aldershot.)

FIG. 1.--Mechanical Kettledrum, showing the system of cords inside the head.

This regiment is now the 21st (Empress of India) Lancers.]

A line in the chronicles of Joinville definitely establishes the identity of the _nakeres_ as a kind of drum: "Lor il fist sonner les tabours que l'on appelle _nacaires_." The nacaire is among the instruments mentioned by Froissart as having been used on the occasion of Edward III.'s triumphal entry into Calais in 1347: "trompes, tambours, nacaires, chalemies, muses."[13] Chaucer mentions them in the description of the tournament in the _Knight's Tale_ (line 2514):--

"Pipes, trompes, _nakeres_ and clarionnes, That in the bataille blowen blody sonnes."

The earliest European illustration showing kettledrums is the scene depicting Pharaoh's banquet in the fine illuminated MS. book of Genesis of the 5th or 6th century, preserved in Vienna. There are two pairs of shallow metal bowls on a table, on which a woman is performing with two sticks, as an accompaniment to the double pipes.[14] As a companion illumination may be cited the picture of an Eastern banquet given in a 14th century MS. at the British Museum (Add. MS. 27,695), illuminated by a skilled Genoese. The potentate is enjoying the music of various instruments, among which are two kettledrums strapped to the back of a Nubian slave. This was the earlier manner of using the instrument before it became inseparably associated with the trumpet, sharing its position as the service instrument of the cavalry. Jost Amman[15] gives a picture of a pair of kettledrums with banners being played by an armed knight on horseback.

[Illustration: (From Härtel u. Wickhoff's "Die Wiener Genesis," _Jahrbuch der kunslhistorischen Sammlungen des allerhöchsten Kaiserhauses_.)

FIG. 2.--Kettledrums in an early Christian MS.]

[Illustration: FIG. 3.--Medieval Kettledrums, 14th century. (Brit. Museum.)]

As in the case of the trumpet, the use of the kettledrum was placed under great restrictions in Germany and France and to some extent in England, but it was used in churches with the trumpet.[16] No French or German regiment was allowed kettledrums unless they had been captured from the enemy, and the _timbalier_ or the _Heerpauker_ on parade, in reviews and marches generally, rode at the head of the squadron; in battle his position was in the wings. In England, before the Restoration, only the Guards were allowed kettledrums, but after the accession of James II. every regiment of horse was provided with them.[17] Before the Royal Regiment of Artillery was established, the master-general of ordnance was responsible for the raising of trains of artillery. Among his retinue in time of war were a trumpeter and kettledrummer. The kettledrums were mounted on a chariot drawn by six white horses. They appeared in the field for the first time in a train of artillery during the Irish rebellion of 1689, and the charges for ordnance include the item, "large kettledrums mounted on a carriage with cloaths marked I.R. and cost £158, 9s."[18] A model of the kettledrums with their carriage which accompanied the duke of Marlborough to Holland in 1702 is preserved in the Rotunda Museum at Woolwich. The kettledrums accompanied the Royal Artillery train in the Vigo expedition and during the campaign in Flanders in 1748. Macbean[19] states that they were mounted on a triumphal car ornamented and gilt, bearing the ordnance flag and drawn by six white horses. The position of the car on march was in front of the flag gun, and in camp in front of the quarters of the duke of Cumberland with the artillery guns packed round them. The kettledrummer had by order "to mount the kettledrum carriage every night half an hour before the sun sett and beat till gun fireing." In 1759 the kettledrums ceased to form part of the establishment of the Royal Artillery, and they were deposited, together with their carriage, in the Tower, at the same time as a pair captured at Malplaquet in 1709. These Tower drums were frequently borrowed by Handel for performances of his oratorios.

The kettledrums still form part of the bands of the Life Guards and other cavalry regiments. (K. S.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] From "drum" and "kettle," a covered metal vessel for boiling water or other liquid; the O.E. word is _cetel_, cf. Du. _ketel_, Ger. _Kessel_, borrowed from Lat. _catillus_, dim. of _catinus_, bowl.

[2] This rhythmical use of kettledrums was characteristic of the military instrument of percussion, rather than the musical member of the orchestra. During the middle ages and until the end of the 18th century, the two different notes obtainable from the pair of kettledrums were probably used more as a means of marking and varying the rhythm than as musical notes entering into the composition of the harmonies. The kettledrums, in fact, approximated to the side drums in technique. The contrast between the purely rhythmical use of kettledrums, given above, and the more modern musical use is well exemplified by the well-known solo for four kettledrums in Meyerbeer's _Robert le Diable_, beginning thus--

[Music notes].

[3] See Wilhelm Kleefeld, _Das Orchester der Hamburger Oper_ (1678-1738); _Internationale Musikgesellschaft_, Sammelband i. 2, p. 278 (Leipzig, 1899).

[4] See J. Georges Kastner, _Méthode complète et raisonnée de timbales_ (Paris), p. 19, where several of the early mechanical kettledrums are described and illustrated.

[5] See Gustav Schilling's _Encyklopädie der gesammten musikal. Wissenschaften_ (Stuttgart, 1840), vol. v., art. "Pauke."

[6] See _Manuale pel Timpanista_ (Milan, 1842), where Boracchi describes and illustrates his invention.

[7] Catullus, lxiii. 8-10; Claud. _De cons. Stilich._ iii. 365; Lucret. ii. 618; Virg. _Aen._ ix. 619, &c.

[8] John Carter, _Specimens of Ancient Sculpture_, bas-relief from seats of choir of Worcester cathedral and of collegiate church of St Katherine near the Tower of London (plates, vol. i. following p. 53 and vol. ii. following p. 22).

[9] _Nat. Hist._ ix. 35, 23.

[10] _De re militari_, ii. 22; iii. 5, &c.

[11] _Crassus_, xxiii. 10. See also Justin xli. 2, and Polydorus, lib. 1, cap. xv.

[12] See Isidore of Seville, _Etymologiarum_, lib. iii. cap. 21, 141; Migne, _Patr. curs. completus_, lxxxii. 167.

[13] _Panthéon littéraire_ (Paris, 1837), J. A. Buchon, vol. i. cap. 322, p. 273.

[14] Reproduced by Franz Wickhoff, "Die Wiener Genesis," supplement to the 15th and 16th volumes of the _Jahrb. d. kunsthistorischen Sammlungen d. allerhöchsten Kaiserhauses_ (Vienna, 1895); see frontispiece in colours and plate illustration XXXIV.

[15] _Artliche u. kunstreiche Figuren zu der Reutterey_ (Frankfort-on-Main, 1584).

[16] See Michael Praetorius, _Syntagma Musicum_ and _Monatshefte f. Musikgeschichte_, Jahrgang x. 51.

[17] See Georges Kastner, _op. cit._, pp. 10 and 11; Johann Ernst Altenburg, _Versuch einer Anleitung z. heroisch-musikalischen Trompeter u. Paukerkunst_ (Halle, 1795), p. 128; and H. G. Farmer, _Memoirs of the Royal Artillery Band_ p. 23, note 1 (London, 1904).

[18] Miller's _Artillery Regimental History_; see also H. G. Farmer, _op. cit._, p. 22; illustration 1702, p. 26.

[19] _Memoirs of the Royal Artillery._

KEUPER, in geology the third or uppermost subdivision of the Triassic system. The name is a local miners' term of German origin; it corresponds to the French _marnes irisées_. The formation is well exposed in Swabia, Franconia, Alsace and Lorraine and Luxemburg; it extends from Basel on the east side of the Rhine into Hanover, and northwards it spreads into Sweden and through England into Scotland and north-east Ireland; it appears flanking the central plateau of France and in the Pyrenees and Sardinia. In the German region it is usual to divide the Keuper into three groups, the _Rhaetic_ or upper Keuper, the middle, _Hauptkeuper_ or _gypskeuper_, and the lower, _Kohlenkeuper_ or _Lettenkohle_. In Germany the lower division consists mainly of grey clays and _schieferletten_ with white, grey and brightly coloured sandstone and dolomitic limestone. The upper part of this division is often a grey dolomite known as the Grenz dolomite; the impure coal beds--_Lettenkohle_--are aggregated towards the base. The middle division is thicker than either of the others (at Göttingen, 450 metres); it consists of a marly series below, grey, red and green marls with gypsum and dolomite--this is the _gypskeuper_ in its restricted sense. The higher part of the series is sandy, hence called the _Steinmergel_; it is comparatively free from gypsum. To this division belong the Myophoria beds (_M. Raibliana_) with galena in places; the Estheria beds (_E. laxitesta_); the Schelfsandstein, used as a building-stone; the Lehrberg and Berg-gyps beds; Semionotus beds (_S. Bergeri_) with building-stone of Coburg; and the Burgand Stubensandstein. The salt, which is associated with gypsum, is exploited in south Germany at Dreuze, Pettoncourt, Vie in Lorraine and Wimpfen on the Neckar. A ½-metre coal is found on this horizon in the Erzgebirge, and another, 2 metres thick, has been mined in Upper Silesia. The upper Keuper, Rhaetic or _Avicula contorta_ zone in Germany is mainly sandy with dark grey shales and marls; it is seldom more than 25 metres thick. The sandstones are used for building purposes at Bayreuth, Culmbach and Bamberg. In Swabia and the Wesergebirge are several "bone-beds," thicker than those in the middle Keuper, which contain a rich assemblage of fossil remains of fish, reptiles and the mammalian teeth of _Microlestes antiquus_ and _Triglyptus Fraasi_. The name Rhaetic is derived from the Rhaetic Alps where the beds are well developed; they occur also in central France, the Pyrenees and England. In S. Tirol and the Judicarian Mountains the Rhaetic is represented by the Kössener beds. In the Alpine region the presence of coral beds gives rise to the so-called "Lithodendron Kalk."

In Great Britain the Keuper contains the following sub-divisions: _Rhaetic or Penarth beds_, grey, red and green marls, black shales and so-called "white lias" (10-150 ft.). _Upper Keuper marl_, red and grey marls and shales with gypsum and rock salt (800-3000 ft.). _Lower Keuper sandstone_, marls and thin sandstones at the top, red and white sandstones (including the so-called "waterstones") below, with breccias and conglomerates at the base (150-250 ft.). The basal or "dolomitic conglomerate" is a shore or scree breccia derived from local materials; it is well developed in the Mendip district. The rock-salt beds vary from 1 in. to 100 ft. in thickness; they are extensively worked (mined and pumped) in Cheshire, Middlesbrough and Antrim. The Keuper covers a large area in the midlands and around the flanks of the Pennine range; it reaches southward to the Devonshire coast, eastward into Yorkshire and north-westward into north Ireland and south Scotland. As in Germany, there are one or more "bone beds" in the English Rhaetic with a similar assemblage of fossils. In the "white lias" the upper hard limestone is known as the "sun bed" or "Jew stone"; at the base is the Cotham or landscape marble.

Representatives of the Rhaetic are found in south Sweden, where the lower portion contains workable coals, in the Himalayas, Japan, Tibet, Burma, eastern Siberia and in Spitzbergen. The upper portion of the Karroo beds of South Africa and part of the Otapiri series of New Zealand are probably of Rhaetic age.

The Keuper is not rich in fossils; the principal plants are cypress-like conifers (_Walchia_, _Voltzia_) and a few calamites with such forms as _Equisetum arenaceum_ and _Pterophyllum Jaegeri_, _Avicula contorta_, _Protocardium rhaeticum_, _Terebratula gregaria_, _Myophoria costata_, _M. Goldfassi_ and _Lingula tenuessima_, _Anoplophoria lettica_ may be mentioned among the invertebrates. Fishes include _Ceratodus_, _Hybodus_ and _Lepidotus_. Labyrinthodonts represented by the footprints of Cheirotherium and the bones of _Labyrinthodon_, _Mastodonsaurus_ and _Capitosaurus_. Among the reptiles are _Hyperodapedon_, _Palaeosaurus_, _Zanclodon_, _Nothosaurus_ and _Belodon_. _Microlestes_, the earliest known mammalian genus, has already been mentioned.

See also the article TRIASSIC SYSTEM. (J. A. H.)

KEW, a township in the Kingston parliamentary division of Surrey, England, situated on the south bank of the Thames, 6 m. W.S.W. of Hyde Park Corner, London. Pop. (1901), 2699. A stone bridge of seven arches, erected in 1789, connecting Kew with Brentford on the other side of the river, was replaced by a bridge of three arches opened by Edward VII. in 1903 and named after him. Kew has increased greatly as a residential suburb of London; the old village consisted chiefly of a row of houses with gardens attached, situated on the north side of a green, to the south of which is the church and churchyard and at the west the principal entrance to Kew Gardens. From remains found in the bed of the river near Kew bridge it has been conjectured that the village marks the site of an old British settlement. The name first occurs in a document of the reign of Henry VII., where it is spelt Kayhough. The church of St Anne (1714) has a mausoleum containing the tomb of the duke of Cambridge (d. 1850) son of George III., and is also the burial-place of Thomas Gainsborough the artist, Jeremiah Meyer the painter of miniatures (d. 1789), John Zoffany the artist (d. 1810), Joshua Kirby the architect (d. 1774), and William Aiton the botanist and director of Kew Gardens (d. 1793).

The free school originally endowed by Lady Capel in 1721 received special benefactions from George IV., and the title of "the king's free school."

The estate of Kew House about the end of the 17th century came into the possession of Lord Capel of Tewkesbury, and in 1721 of Samuel Molyneux, secretary to the prince of Wales, afterwards George II. After his death it was leased by Frederick prince of Wales, son of George II., and was purchased about 1789 by George III., who devoted his leisure to its improvement. The old house was pulled down in 1802, and a new mansion was begun from the designs of James Wyatt, but the king's death prevented its completion, and in 1827 the portion built was removed. Dutch House, close to Kew House, was sold by Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester, to Sir Hugh Portman, a Dutch merchant, late in the 16th century, and in 1781 was purchased by George III. as a nursery for the royal children. It is a plain brick structure, now known as Kew Palace.

The Royal Botanic Gardens of Kew originated in the exotic garden formed by Lord Capel and greatly extended by the princess dowager, widow of Frederick, prince of Wales, and by George III., aided by the skill of William Aiton and of Sir Joseph Banks. In 1840 the gardens were adopted as a national establishment, and transferred to the department of woods and forests. The gardens proper, which originally contained only about 11 acres, were subsequently increased to 75 acres, and the pleasure grounds or arboretum adjoining extend to 270 acres. There are extensive conservatories, botanical museums, including the magnificent herbarium and a library. A lofty Chinese pagoda was erected in 1761. A flagstaff 159 ft. high is made out of the fine single trunk of a Douglas pine. In the neighbouring Richmond Old Park is the important Kew Observatory.