only one player to open up new positions for other members. However, not all corps could afford a new set of concert timpani and simply grounded their marching timpani. Turkish crescents In several countries, there exists a Turkish-derived tradition of carrying a Turkish crescent as part of the percussion section of bands or field music, by itself having Central Asian origins. It arrived in Europe as part of the trend of adopting Turkish musical forms in the 18th century, when Turkish musicians from various Ottoman military bands in the Ottoman Empire, majority of them Janissaries, were employed to form part of a growing number of military bands, introducing this instrument to the West together with the cymbals and bass drum. By the 19th century, it had been adopted as part of the percussion battery of military marching bands in a number of countries. Its heyday in Europe was from the mid-18th to mid-19th century, when it was commonly played often by elaborately dressed black Africans in a number of countries (like France and the United Kingdom), who made all manner of contortions while playing the instrument in the battery section. Some of these gestures survive today, in the stick twirling by bass and tenor drummers. An aspect of the elaborate costumes survives in the leopard skin apron worn by bass drummers in British military bands; however the use of the "Jingling Johnny" was discontinued in the British Army in 1837. By the 19th up to the early 20th century, Turkish crescents were used in processions honoring important dignitaries as part of the band percussion section or in front of the leading ranks. They were skillfully twirled by dignified performers, much as batons are handled today by drum majors. This aspect survives today in the use of Turkish crescents as mostly symbolic objects in military marching bands. Today, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Sweden, Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Chile, Brazil, Peru, and Bolivia, among others, still preserve the use of the instrument, albeit in the ceremonial form, but not playable, as part of the percussion unit or at the head of the band and/or field music ensemble. It is still a valuable part of the Ottoman bands that still use it to this day in Turkey, where they form part of the percussion unit. The instrument is held vertically and when played is either shaken up and down or twisted. Sometimes there