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• n  a large hemispherical brass or copper percussion instrument with a drumhead that can be tuned by adjusting the tension on it

• When he was in high school, he heard a concert by the Philharmonic, and was so fascinated by the timpani that he dashed backstage and asked to become the timpanist's pupil.
• A sound track assaults the ear with insinuation ranging from the wail of a solitary violin to the menacing timpani of wooden spoons.
• In another room, woodblocks, timpani and bells are whipping up a rhythmic frenzy as the 75-member Fritsche Philharmonic Orchestra tackles Elliott Del Borgo's Aboriginal Rituals.

• kettle
• kettledrum
• tympanum
• tympani

News & Articles

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• Timpani purchase in Glen Ridge
  Glen Ridge High School marching band, jazz band and concert band students from left, Emma Blackman, Andrew Tuck, Ian Karp, William Smolen and Tyler Winther stand behind the recently purchased timpani.
  June 13, 2013 - The Record

Quotes

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• Philip Glass in calendarlive.com
  I put off the timpani concerto for about 10 years because I just couldn't imagine how I would do it,Glass says in Maycock's book.
• Clem Cattini in The Guardian
  All I really remember was having to play the timpani for hours on end on this track called The Ocean,Cattini says. "We finally finished and Lou was raving about the swell of the sea, the sound of the pounding waves I was making on the...
• Goran Bregovic in Seattle Times
  I threw out everything from the classical orchestra, everything that makes an orchestra too well-tuned,Bregovic said. "I threw out the timpani and replaced them with traditional percussion. I threw out all the brass and replaced then with...