Music and Time Annotation << Back Percussion Instruments. Current State and Their Part in European Music in the First Half of the XX Century A.V. Suvorov The article describes one of the main groups of the contemporary orchestra – percussion instruments and their interpretation in European music of the first half of the XX century. The main idea of the article states that, at exactly this period the most brilliant development in percussion instruments occurred in the musical culture of Western Europe. This was also the time the percussion instrument formed its own section equally with the other instruments in the contemporary orchestra. According to the author’s opinion, the main reason for this development was the interest of a number of composers in new expressive resources in music. This started in the early twentieth century, such as rhythm and timbre, as well as the interest in instruments which could maximize these expressive features. The evolution of percussion instruments can be seen through the arts of several composers, who used percussions in their works widely in XX century. This include: E. Varèse, D. Milhaud, A. Jolivet, O. Messiaen, B. Bartók, I. Stravinsky, composers of the Second Viennese School and the others. Besides the historical aspect, the article shows the current state of percussion instruments and explains the system of classifications and their part in the music of present time. Keywords: percussion instruments, classifi cation, composers, timbre, rhythm, sound producing, evolution. Contacts: E-mail: alex-suvorov@yandex.ru Pp. 03-08.