| In Memoriam As the timpanist of the Cleveland Orchestra from 1942 until his retirement in 1981, Cloyd Duff earned a reputation as one of the finest timpanists of the twentieth century, known the world over for his beautiful, singing sound and his flawless musicianship. He was an absolute master of touch, finesse, and intonation, and also a master at the myriad details of the instrument - stick making, head clearing, head tucking and mounting, instrument maintenance and so on. For his students he was an inspiration; for his colleagues, he was the rock-solid foundation of the Cleveland Orchestra. Duff graduated from the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, where he was a student of Oscar Schwar (Duff called him "Papa Schwar").Recognition came early in Cloyd's career when he was chosen by Leopold Stokowski for the All-American Youth Orchestra, touring South America, and the U.S. His first orchestra job was as principal timpanist with the Indianapolis Symphony for four years before moving on to Cleveland. Cloyd had a wonderful career with the Cleveland Orchestra: four decades working with many of the foremost conductors of his time and performing in concert halls around the world. The recordings he made with the orchestra continue to be reissued and many have become a standard reference for young timpanists learning the repertoire. I remember clearly the first time I ever heard Cloyd's playing: It was the late '60s, my junior year in college, and the recording was the new release of Hindemith's "Symphonic Metamorphosis." When I heard the solo timpani passages in the second movement, it was like a jolt from the blue - an epiphany! I remember thinking, "That's what this instrument should sound like!" The sound of Cloyd Duff playing his original Jahne-Boruvka Dresden and Anheier cable timpani is simply one of a kind. Like all legendary figures, stories abound about Duff's performances. A favorite of mine is one Cleveland Orchestra percussionist Joe Adato tells about a performance in 1962 of the Strauss tone poem "Symphonia Domestica": The timpani part has a passage traditionally added at the top of the last page - a D-major scale pedaled across the two center drums. Just as the orchestra arrived at that moment in the music, the head on the 28-inch drum broke! "Cloyd still managed to play the rest of the composition with only three working drums. I might add that he played it better with three drums than most timpanists can play it with four." Adato was so impressed that he had Duff autograph the head for him, had it framed, and it still hangs in his home. George Szell, the conductor that brought the Cleveland Orchestra to world-wide prominence, was not known for effusive compliments to his musicians . But one evening after a performance of the Beethoven 6th Symphony he took Duff aside to say, "You know, Cloyd, I conduct this symphony all over Europe, and no one plays that storm movement the way you do." During his years in Cleveland, Duff taught hundreds of students through The Cleveland Institute of Music, The Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Baldwin-Wallace College, and the Aspen Music Festival and School. Following his retirement, he started the Cloyd Duff Timpani Masterclass at Colorado State University. At the time, Cloyd hoped the class would continue for several years before starting, as he put it, "a gradual diminuendo." To his amazement, it became an annual event for almost two decades, attracting both students and professionals from the U.S. and Canada, Europe, Japan, and Australia. He may have expected a diminuendo, but what he got was a crescendo: In his retirement he gave clinics and master classes across the United States, Europe and the Far East, including PASIC '82, '88 and '92. In 1977 he was elected to the Percussive Arts Society Hall of Fame. Cloyd Duff was a great player and a master teacher, but he was also an extraordinary and unforgettable person. He was a man of great personal warmth and unfailing good cheer who touched the lives of students around the world through his generosity of spirit - generous with a lifetime of accumulated knowledge and expertise, generous with praise, and generous with his support and encouragement. Through personal example, he taught his students so much more than simply how and when to hit a drum. This great man imparted a love of the music, a sense of uncompromising integrity about the craft, respect for colleagues, and an enduring fascination for something as fleeting and ephemeral as the glorious sound that the timpani can produce. Jim Atwood is Timpanist with the Louisiana Philharmonic and has been Cloyd Duff's assistant at the Duff Masterclass in Colorado since 1982. Remembering Cloyd Duff My Dear Sir, It feels as though you left us quite swiftly, Mr. Duff. Perhaps it's that your departure took so many of us by surprise. Considering the energy and vigor you so often exuded, it almost seemed at times that maybe you had cheated Father Time himself and that you'd always be here. So despite the fullness of your 85 years this time around, your passing still comes as a shock to many of us. Cloyd, many people have so much for which to thank you - particularly your students but also the fans of your many Cleveland Orchestra recordings. I stress that largely because it was through your recordings that so many of us - your students - originally came to know you. Through the years, as I'd speak with many of your students, I came to realize that the following scenario was very common: A young high-school or college percussionist buys a Cleveland Orchestra recording simply because he/she/I heard that it was a good orchestra. Then, something you did on the recording just reaches out and GRABS the listener's attention and really "turns the head"! The student thinks, "Wow, who IS this guy? He sounds FABULOUS!" (For me, Mr. Duff, that was 1972 when I first heard your "Siegfried's Rhine Journey.") After that moment, the young student begins to increasingly tune in to what you're doing throughout every Cleveland Orchestra recording in his/her/my (suddenly growing) collection of George Szell and Pierre Boulez records. Amassing the basic works invariably follow for so many of us: Szell's Complete Beethoven Symphonies as well as those collections of Brahms, Schumann, Dvorak, Wagner and Richard Strauss - and for your subsequent students, the rest was "history" for us. By hook or by crook, we were ultimately drawn to you. As students, lessons with you proved both insightful and provocative. Observing how you internally "processed" a major timpani part from the standard rep always proved fascinating to behold. And yet, as deep as that might get, often your principal message to us in lessons could be something as simple as, "You're working too hard right there and for less results, too." Cloyd, for all of us who might feel that we didn't have (or didn't perhaps take, when we had it) the chance to acknowledge you and bid you adieu, I wish to thank you for deepening our love and knowledge of the instrument and of symphonic music in general. And for those of us working students of yours, the mere fact that we can feed and support our families doing what we love is largely attributable to what we brought away from our association with you. So please say "Hey!" to the guys for us all: Saul, Oscar, Alfred and one of your first great students, Jack Moore. And thank you so much for all the memories, Cloyd. Though we can't see you now, we still sort of know you're there - just on the other side of the veil - checking out our wrists and strokes for glitches. And as long as Sony keeps doing the right thing by re-releasing works like your "Symphonic Metamorphosis" and "Rite of Spring" on CD, then we all have the benefit of still being able to keep little pieces of you around. They make fitting mementos, really, considering how so many of us met you. Your friend and student, George Brown is Principal Timpanist of the Utah Symphony and teaches timpani at the University of Utah.
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