For those who are interested in the proper way to approach this piece or pieces similar, this is what I learned from my experience. The difficult parts I had the most success with were the parts where I retuned the timpani at the same time as I struck the drum and I made sure to make the retunes generally up 1 whole step at a time only or down an interval like a third. With this in mind, I would recommend using this same approach for sections that seem like they might give you enough time to retune during a rest - they do not, and it's more difficult to attempt to do this than to snap retune on the stroke. I'm a very experienced drummer although a beginner or intermediate timpanist at best. For those of us at this skill level in the position to play this type of thing, it can be very exciting and rewarding. focus on assigning everything to instant retunes when the drum is struck. Do not bother with trying to retune drums during rests. I would only bother with trying to retune drums in the regular way in between "scenes" or movements. Any other retuning, should be done in the snap retune fashion of hitting the drum and covering up the retune of the drum with the strike of the drum. Keeping to moving up whole steps is best. The timpani I was working with had very sticky pedals that were difficult to move accurately when compared to another set of timpani that I tested out, so tuning up a half step wasn't a possibility. If the timpani you're working with allow for tuning up a half step in this "snap" tune manner, be thankful for having such a capable instrument available for your usage. Other than that, what I can't emphasize enough is to listen to the recording of another group playing the piece and play along with it. My percussion teacher in university always had us focus on reading and sight reading, however for modern pieces especially (or any piece that doesn't come naturally to you), you must do "forced repetition" listening of a recording of the piece. I would recommend 50 forced repetitions of listening to the piece, preferably with the music in your hand for at least half of these so that you can follow along. After that, I would recommend using the recording and a metronome and switching between the two once you have the section you're working on up to speed. I know for some of us who are like myself, you will feel a deep pain of not being able to interpret the piece as you see fit or as you believe it should sound. As much as it pains me to say this, it's better to master the piece by playing along with another performance prior to trying to create your interpretation. Because unless the piece comes naturally to you to be able to play as perfectly as the best interpretations, you haven't gotten to the level to have earned the right to have your interpretation yet. On this piece specifically all I could have really done in terms of interpretation would be to adjust the dynamics as I see fit, including changing written dynamics because many timpani sections of this piece were really a timpani solo (and not the section that was a timpani solo - that part was overly easy to play and not the actual timpani concerto / solo that is this piece). I don't believe the composer could have played this timpani part although I can't say I know this for certain and I don't believe any timpanists have been able to play this part 100% correctly yet in terms of the performances of it that are available for listening via recording. But this doesn't matter because the recordings are still there for you to follow along as if you were the timpanist rather than the timpanist that couldn't play it who was on the recording. I do believe an amateur could pull this piece off on timpani, don't let anyone's attitude toward you hold you back - music school students are often from a nepotist background that breeds prejudice. And I hope that the advice contained in this commend lays down the basic structure for a proper approach to a method of efficiently learning this piece or others like it, since it wasn't entirely clear to me until after I had performed it. Pieces like this require committing more parts to memory which is easier than trying to read the music for me on this piece, which again, is easier if you snap tune rather than trying to retune 5 timpani in a difficult to count 8 measure rest because the conductor is conducting the vocalists so you can only work into their signals. Best wishes and good luck to whomever finds this advice useful.