Why does classical music (at least from the past) lack drums?

Question

I wonder why the great classical composers from history like Mozart, Beethoven, etc. didn’t make more use of drums or percussion in general?

I mean, they did write quite a lot of bombastic pieces and did all they could to make the parts that needed it to hit hard. So why did’nt they use more than one or two bangs on a kettle drum, giving the one who played them the most boring job in the orchestra?

Also I know that a drum-kit is a rather modern invention, but couldn’t they have used different guys playing different kinds of percussion?

Also maybe I’m completely mistaken and this turns out to be a list of classical music with some blasting in it..

Edit: I’m sencerely apologising to every classical percussionist, reading the answers I clearly underestimated your role

In: 4587

Answer 1

To ask this is, in a way, to not understand the different sensibilities of different times. Why *would* they use more percussion? It would have sounded worse to them. It’s like asking “Why don’t pop stars do more yodeling? Do they just not know how to do it?”

As far as using various percussion instruments, the range of percussion instruments is actually quite large once you get up to the romantic era. There were also indeed ways to play more than one instrument at a time, for example marching bands would attach a pair of cymbals to the bass drum, as you still sometimes see.