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Adams Musical Instruments - Together in Music

Schnellar Romantic

Adams Schnellar Romantic timpani feature a kettle that is slightly more voluminous than the Schnellar Classical timpani and are perfectly suited to the late Classical, and early Romantic repertoire. Available with brass lacquered or nickel-plated base.

The handmade kettles have a diameter of 600, 660 and 710 mm. The instruments come with Sonnberg goat skins. These goat parchments are made from rawhide and thus provide a richer variety of overtones. In addition, they have a very pronounced fundamental note, which gives the perfect bass foundation, especially for larger drums.

The timpani are available with a brass lacquered, a nickel plated or a grey powdercoated base.

Specifications Schnellar Romantic

Base: Brass Laquer, Grey Powder Coat, or High Gloss Nickel
Bowl: Voluminous bowl design
Tuning: Kurbel hand-crank tuning, Schnellar bowl-activated tuning system
Heads: Sonnberg goat skin or Super Kalfo heads w/ clamps
Sizes: 23.6" (60cm), 26" (66cm), 27.95" (71cm)

Hans Schnellar

Hans Schnellar (1865-1945) began his career as solo timpanist with the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra.  He was the guest timpanist with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam for one year before becoming the solo timpanist with the Vienna State Opera and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra until 1932. 

Schnellar experimented with timpani making, and produced many different types of drums.  Many of his instruments are still being used today because of the instrument’s sound quality.  Schnellar initiated the concept of pushing the kettle upwards instead of pulling the rim down to change head tension.  His kurbel instruments are still being used (in a revised edition by Hochrainer) in the Weiner Philharmoniker.  The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra has the only pair of original Schnellar pedal timpani, mentioned in the Berlioz/Strauss instrumentation book.    

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