Showing results for "tympani"

• a variation of timpani.

tympani

British  

/ ˈtɪmpənɪ /

plural noun

1. a variant spelling of timpani

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Explanation

Tympani are large, deeply resonant drums. When you go to the symphony, you'll most likely hear tympani being played. Tympani, which are also known as timpani, timps, or kettledrums, are made of drum heads stretched across big metal bowls. The shape of their copper bodies explains the "kettle." The word tympani itself comes from the Latin root tympanum, or "drum." The sound of tympani is probably more familiar than you realize — the noise they make can sound just like thunder.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

tympani

His steps have percussive presence, the tympani and an edgy theme to make you eagerly await this intractable Hollywood luminary to pounce.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 15, 2023

Trumpets sounded brassy, violins silky, tympani boomy, clarinets reedy, and they were all laid across the “soundstage,” just like in a concert hall, in spacious depth and lifelike proportions.

From Slate ● Feb. 20, 2015

As vibrations of the ossicles travel through the oval window, the fluid of the scala vestibuli and scala tympani moves in a wave-like motion.

From Textbooks ● Jun. 19, 2013

I had to leave the Royal Albert Hall halfway through a Prom because the strings sounded like dry percussion, the high woodwind screamed, and brass and tympani boomed painfully.

From The Guardian ● Sep. 7, 2010

The auditory regions are relatively massive and bear narrow tegmen tympani; the distal ends of the tegmen tympani are medial to the lateral edge of the pterygoids in dorsal view.

From Neotropical Hylid Frogs, Genus Smilisca by William E. Duellman