Philip Glass was approached by timpanist Jonathan Haas to write a timpani concerto for himself nearly ten years before Glass was finally able to get down to it. The timpani concerto ‘grew up’ into a double concerto for twotimpanists and nine timpani in total in three movements with a pair of cadenzas which are usually added onto the third movement. As is often the case with Glass’s music this is a propulsive noisy piece with some unusualperformance instructions e.g. at one point the timpanists set their sticks aside and play bare-handed.American composer Philip Glass is widely known as one of the most celebrated influential and prolific of the modern composers. He is frequently referred to as a minimalist though he prefers to call himself a composer of ‘music with repetitive structures.’ His operas among them the renowned Einstein On The Beach are performed across the globe and hehas created work for small and large ensembles film and experimental theatre and founded his own performing group The Philip Glass Ensemble.
