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Xylophone
Tubular
Bells (chimes)
Pitched instrumental chromatic percussion
These are percussions that can used to play an entire
tune rather than rhythms alone, effects and atmosphere, as other percussions:
The tubular bells also known as "chimes",
include a set of copper tubes hanging on a wooden
frame, in varying lengths in accordance to sound pitch. Hammering
produces sounds similar to that of church bells, as in the "1812"
overture by Tchaikovsky.
In the movement "the Grand gate of Kiev" in "Pictures
at the Exhibition"
Mussorgski
integrates the tubular bells in a hypnotizing ostinato
as against the orchestra, gradually strengthening in a spectacular
crescendo
towards the main theme.
The Xylophone is built as a wooden
keyboard (Xylus is Greek for wood) on which you hit with wood hammers.
Keys are placed on a band of rubber so their sound is not stopped. Underneath
each key, there is a resonance box that amplifies the sound's volume. Saint-Saëns
used the Xylophone in "Danse Macabre",
and Rossini
gave it a solo part in "The Magic Store".
The Celesta - a kind of
a keyboard whose keys are attached to hammers beating
against steel plates. Tchaikovsky
was the one who gave it its first symphonic part, in the dance of
the sugar nut queen, in "The Nutcracker".
Celesta
Marimba
The Marimba resembles the xylophone in shape.
The marimba was brought to America
by African slaves,
originally having hollow pumpkins under its keys.
In time, those were replaced by metal tubes as in the xylophone. In 1947,
Milhaud
wrote a concerto for marimba and vibraphone
and it has been extensively cultivated by composers since.
VibraphoneGlockenspiel
Vibraphone is a xylophone
whose keys are made of metal instead of wood. At the end of each
tube there is a resonator, resonating to the key's sound, providing the
instrument with its typical floating sound. It is particularly popular
in jazz
music, and the "Modern Jazz Quartet"
is known for having the vibraphone as its characteristic. Among the greatest
players of this instrument, we find the Jazz virtuoso player Lionel
Hampton.
The glockenspiel is a metal
keyboard that makes sounds of tiny bells. In his many works for
children, Orff
used many kinds of percussion, among which is the glockenspiel in
his "Carrol of the Bells". Kodály
used the glockenspiel in the "Háry János"
suite.
Ancient Tubular Bells
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Composers
Tchaikovsky
Rimsky-Korsakov
Mussorgski
Saint-Saëns
Rossini
Orff
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