tintinnabulation

the ringing sound of bells

TRANSLATION

tintinnabulation = der Akt des Glockenläutens oder ein Geräusch, das dem Läuten einer Glocke ähnelt (Geklingel)

STATISTICS

IN THE PRESS

“The American sculptor and double bassist Marcus Vergette performs TINTINNABULATION, where he and a pianist play a rather beautiful, atonal, written-through composition, one that ripples and resonates with the clattering of four enormous metal bells.”

John Lewis — The Guardian (13th March 2023)

Did you
know?

tintinnabulation
noun

- a ringing or tinkling sound

- the act of ringing bells, or a sound like a bell ringing

Oxford Languages / Cambridge Dictionary


WORD ORIGIN

The word "tintinnabulation" refers to the sound of a ringing bell and derives from the Latin word tintinnabulum which means "bell”. That Latin word came in turn from the verb tintinnare meaning "to ring, clang, or jingle”.  Like our English words "ting" and "tinkle," tintinnare was created to phonetically imitate the sound of bells and as such, is an onomatopoeic word.

In his poem "The Bells”, Edgar Allan Poe uses the word "tintinnabulation" to describe the musical ringing sound coming from bells:

“The tintinnabulation that so musically wells
 From the bells, bells, bells, bells,
 Bells, bells, bells"


FROM 'BING' TO 'ZINK'

A collection of tintinnabulatory words:

bing, bing-bong, bingle, bling, boing (like a springy bell), bong, chime, chiming, clang, clank, cling., clingle, clink, dangle (if describing a hanging bell movement), ding, ding-a-ling, ding-dong, dingaling, dingle, gong, jangle, jing, jing-a-ling, jing-jing, jingle, jingle-jangle, ping, pingle, plink, ring, ring-a-ling, ringle (soft bell sound), ting, ting-a-ling, ting-ting, tingle, tink, tinkle, tinkling, tintinnabulate, TINTINNABULATION, tling, tling-a-ling, tlink, toll, tolling, twinkle (in the context of a light), zing, zingle, zink



SMUGGLE OWAD into a conversation today:

“The enormous variety of TINTINNABULATION we experience is scarcely expressed by the vocabulary available!”


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