Timpani are orchestral drums retuneable to follow key modulations.

Evidence

While the tom-tom can produce a more definite sense of pitch, it is not the clearest that can be achieved from a drum. The main orchestral drum is the kettledrum, and there will usually be between two and five kettledrums used in today’s orchestras, with a single player devoted to playing them. Such a group of kettledrums is referred to as “timpani” (the Oxford Companion to Music notes that “tympani” is a common misspelling of “timpani”); therefore a single kettledrum would be a “timpano.” As the music modulates from one key to another, composers can continue to make use of the timpani in the new key, since they can be retuned rapidly. — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 1300

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies kettledrum, timpani, timpano terminology.
• CANDY: Fun trivia: ‘tympani’ is a common misspelling of ‘timpani’.
• XREF: connects to: Timpani kept usable across key changes because they retune quickly — David Howard, Jamie Angus, coustics and Psychoacoustics, 1323