How to Use sonority in a Sentence

sonority

noun
  • Long phrases sung by the men were layered with the lush sonorities of the women’s voices.
    Washington Post, 10 June 2019
  • The clarinet then falls silent, yet the sonority retains a sickly air.
    Alex Ross, The New Yorker, 30 Nov. 2022
  • Much of that is helped along by the use of the Baroque flute, whose sonorities have a woody luster a modern instrument can’t always match.
    Joshua Kosman, San Francisco Chronicle, 15 Mar. 2018
  • Throughout, the 13-minute work impressed with deft part writing and handling of sonorities.
    Scott Cantrell, Dallas News, 2 Mar. 2020
  • There is a sonority to both that encourages people to sit back and listen and, yes, learn.
    John Baldoni, Forbes, 22 Mar. 2023
  • Sometimes a bed of strings will swell with a prolonged sonority, though the component notes are too restless to stay put.
    New York Times, 11 May 2018
  • Ronald Thomas was the ensemble’s cellist; Li brought a wealth of sonorities to the piano part, from warm lyricism to glittery cascades of sound.
    Seattle Times Staff, The Seattle Times, 11 July 2017
  • Tendler offered a focused six-minute study in sonority and its absence.
    Mark Swed, latimes.com, 15 Mar. 2018
  • Its creative sonorities — the tissue-thin fairy music or the earthy braying of a donkey — had never been heard before.
    Christian Hertzog, sandiegouniontribune.com, 23 June 2017
  • But the murky sounds and tense sonorities that Ms. Thorvaldsdottir creates are at once eerie and beguiling.
    Anthony Tommasini, New York Times, 5 Apr. 2018
  • The cello section wasn’t able to always find a uniform sonority.
    Peter Dobrin, Philly.com, 9 Mar. 2018
  • The final work on the program was the Ravel quartet, and the musicians reveled in the richly varied sonorities of this masterpiece.
    Jeremy Yudkin, BostonGlobe.com, 11 Sep. 2023
  • Though there is plenty of content, the manipulation of sonorities drives the music.
    New York Times, 6 Feb. 2020
  • Some scholars have compared him to Brahms in concept, but with a different sonority.
    Cheryl North, The Mercury News, 6 Mar. 2017
  • Variations on a Burgundy Noel by André Fleury showed off more piquant sonorities.
    Dallas News, 15 Feb. 2023
  • Which is a big difference both in power and quality of sonority.
    Alan Artner, chicagotribune.com, 30 June 2018
  • Mr. Dohnanyi, looking hale at 85, almost seemed at times to be playing an organ, pulling this or that stop to shift colorations seamlessly and blend sonorities smoothly.
    James R. Oestreich, New York Times, 4 Mar. 2016
  • The smooth melodic contour and noble warmth of this sonority is an Elgar fingerprint.
    Barrymore Laurence Scherer, WSJ, 4 Sep. 2020
  • McCarthy’s imagery is strikingly visual and the rhythm of his prose has a sonority to it that, when read aloud, flows like music and puts most capital P poets to shame.
    Caine O'Rear, Rolling Stone, 3 July 2023
  • Blocks of sound battle it out through shifting sonorities, punctuated by sharp attacks on drums and cymbals.
    Stuart Isacoff, WSJ, 20 Apr. 2018
  • But throughout the program Tarrant played with absolute authority, a fine ear for sonorities and, where called for, real panache.
    Dallas News, 15 Feb. 2023
  • Her arresting wall-of-sound sonority is used more sparingly.
    David Patrick Stearns, Philly.com, 11 May 2018
  • Not so in soloist Paul Jacobs’ magisterial playing of the organ part, which built to a thrilling roar of low pedal sonority in the final pages that must have set off every seismograph in the state.
    John Von Rhein, chicagotribune.com, 12 May 2018
  • When the ruckus dissipated into delicate tones with the strings at the forefront, the piece invited listeners to notice the subtleties in each sonority.
    BostonGlobe.com, 21 Sep. 2019
  • Mäkelä has an excellent ear for sonority, especially in the string section.
    Alex Ross, The New Yorker, 19 Dec. 2022
  • In effect, though, its laws lead to the further abandonment of sonority and all the pleasing pattern-making and expected cadences of older music.
    Michael Dirda, Washington Post, 31 Aug. 2023
  • Muti shaped a flowing performance, although more resonant stage sonics would have better served the lush string sonorities.
    John Von Rhein, chicagotribune.com, 13 Apr. 2018
  • A canny ear for sonority and its expressive uses is always in evidence.
    John Von Rhein, chicagotribune.com, 23 May 2017
  • Acosta and the unaccompanied singers filled the church with Schumann’s big, full sonorities — a musical astringent to Alice Parker.
    San Diego Union-Tribune, 19 Oct. 2019
  • His new work, which had its origin in a series of guitar etudes, is similarly kaleidoscopic in its shifting masses of sonority and hazy bands of color achieved in part through the use of microtones.
    Jeremy Eichler, BostonGlobe.com, 27 Jan. 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'sonority.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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