"I played a ton of literature for Dan," said Brown. "I played all of the audition (repertoire) for him."

Brown said the three days were useful in helping the composer get a better understanding of the timpani. "Dan learned a lot. One of the things he learned is how we timpanists work in subtle shades of sounds and gradations. Thinking in tiny, little minutiae is big for us."

Welcher's crash course in the timpani paid off. "What I wrote is a 17-minute piece that shows the different colors and moods of the timpani," Welcher said. "The timpani is presented in different guises."

The three movements' titles are each descriptive of the music found within.

The first movement is called "Marching." "It's a chain of marches scored mostly for woodwinds and brass with the timpani," Welcher said.

The middle movement, "Mourning," emphasizes the lyrical possibilities of the timpani. "This is a chaconne for the strings and timpani," Welcher explained. Brown added that the music Welcher wrote for this movement will show an aspect of the timpani with which audiences are unfamiliar. "It presents the poetic/lyrical side of the timpani, something we rarely get a chance to do."

The finale, "Dancing," is a set of dances. "The movement has a 6/8 rollicking dance tune that transforms into a hoedown, a jig, African-Cuban jazz and finally into a fugue," said Welcher.

Brown said there are other concertos that are more demanding, but Welcher's piece gives him plenty to do. "Other concertos are more difficult for the hands because of polyrhythms, but there are only a couple that keep you busy with your feet."

And Welcher's is one of them. Timpani are tuned using foot pedals, and Brown said that the audience should look at his feet while he's playing. "Don't just watch my hands but also watch my feet. I'll be doing some fast movements with them."

Brown said that he'll be busy tuning the different drums while he's playing, something that's not out of the ordinary for a timpanist to do during a concert. But in this case, it's taken to the extreme. "I'm going to be doing a lot of retuning while playing. I'll be playing the small drum while tuning the big drum. I call that my stealth tuning."

Welcher's most frequently played work, "Prairie Light: Three Texas Watercolors of Georgia O'Keeffe," will also be performed at next weekend's concerts. Written in 1985 for the Sherman (Texas) Symphony Orchestra, the work is a musical portrayal of three of O'Keeffe's early watercolors.

The performance will be accompanied by a video shot by videographer Jan Andrews in Palo Duro Canyon in the Texas Panhandle, in the same vicinity depicted in O'Keeffe's watercolors. The performance is a collaboration with the Salt Lake Arts Center.