Glockenspiel

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Glockenspiel

at behind right.]]

The glockenspiel (German
German language

German is a West Germanic languages, thus related to and classified alongside English language and Dutch language. It is one of the world's world language and the most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union....
, "set of bells

Bell (instrument)

A bell is a simple sound-making device. The bell is a percussion instrument and an idiophone. Its form is usually an open-ended hollow drum which resonates upon being struck....
" or "play-[of-]bells", also known as orchestra bells and, in its portable form, bell lira or bell lyre) is a musical instrument

Musical instrument

A musical instrument is an object constructed or used for the purpose of making music. In principle, anything that produces sound can serve as a musical instrument....
in the percussion

Percussion instrument

A percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound by being hit with an implement, shaken, rubbed, scraped, or by any other action which sets the object into vibration....
family. It is similar to the xylophone

Xylophone

The xylophone is a musical instrument in the percussion instrument family which probably originated in Slovakia. It consists of wooden bars of various lengths that are struck by plastic, wooden, or rubber drum stick#Malletss....
, in that it has tuned bars laid out in a fashion resembling a piano keyboard. The xylophone's bars are wooden, while the glockenspiel's are metal, thus making it a metallophone

Metallophone

A metallophone is any musical instrument consisting of tuned metal bars which are struck to make sound, usually with a drum stick#Mallets.Metallophones have been used in music for hundreds of years....
.

In Germany, a carillon

Carillon

A carillon is a musical instrument consisting of at least 23 cast bronze cup-shaped bell s which are played one after the other or sounded together ....
is also called a Glockenspiel.

The glockenspiel, moreover, is much smaller and higher in pitch

Pitch (music)

Pitch represents the perceived fundamental frequency of a sound. It is one of the three major auditory system attributes of sounds along with loudness and timbre....
.

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Encyclopedia

Bell (instrument)

Musical instrument

A musical instrument is an object constructed or used for the purpose of making music. In principle, anything that produces sound can serve as a musical instrument....
in the percussion

Percussion instrument

Xylophone

Metallophone

Carillon

Pitch (music)

Pitch represents the perceived fundamental frequency of a sound. It is one of the three major auditory system attributes of sounds along with loudness and timbre....
. When used in a marching or military band, the bars are sometimes mounted in a portable case and held vertically. In orchestra

Orchestra

An orchestra is an Musical ensemble, usually fairly large with string, brass, woodwind sections, and possibly a percussion section as well. The term orchestra derives from the name for the area in front of an theatre of ancient Greece reserved for the Greek chorus....
l use, the bars are mounted horizontally. A pair of hard unwrapped mallets

Drum stick

A mallet or drum stick is an object used to strike drums and other percussion_instrument to produce sound. Some specialized mallets are called beaters, drumsticks, or brushes....
, made of rubber, plastic, or metal, are generally used to strike the bars, although if laid out horizontally, a keyboard may be attached to the instrument to allow chords

Chord (music)

In music and music theory a chord is a set of two or more different note that sound simultaneously. Most often, in European-influenced music, chords are tertian Sonority that can be constructed as stacks of thirds relative to some underlying musical scale....
to be more easily played.

The glockenspiel's range is limited to the upper register, and usually covers about two and a half to three octave

Octave

In music, an octave The octave is occasionally referred to as a diapason.The octave above an indicated note is sometimes abbreviated 8va, and the octave below 8vb....
s. The glockenspiel is a transposing instrument; its parts are written two octaves below concert pitch. When struck, the bars give a very pure, bell-like sound.

Glockenspiels are still quite popular and appear in almost all genres of music ranging from hip hop to jazz.

One classical piece where such an instrument is used is Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Mozart showed prodigious ability from his earliest childhood in Salzburg. Already competent on keyboard and violin, he composed from the age of five and performed before European royalty; at seventeen he was engaged as a court musician in Salzburg, but grew restless and traveled in search of a better position, always...
's Die Zauberflöte (although the part has most often been played with a celesta

Celesta

The celesta or celeste is a struck idiophone operated by a keyboard instrument. Its appearance is similar to that of an upright piano or of a large wooden music box ....
in modern times). A modern example of the glockenspiel is Steve Reich

Steve Reich

File:Steve Reich2.jpgStephen Michael Reich is an United States composer who pioneered the style of minimalist music. His innovations include using tape loops to create phasing patterns , and the use of simple, audible processes to explore musical concepts ....
's 1974 composition Drumming
Drumming (Reich)

File:Steve Reich Drumming.jpgDrumming is a music composition by the minimalist music composer Steve Reich, dating from 1970-1971. Reich began composition of the work after a visit to Africa and observing music and musical ensembles there, especially under the master drummer Gideon Alorwoyie in Ghana....
, in which the glockenspiel becomes a major instrument in the 3rd and 4th movements.

Other instruments which work on the same struck-bar principle as the glockenspiel include the marimba

Marimba

The marimba is a musical instrument in the percussion instrument family. Keys or bars are struck with mallets to produce musical tones. The keys are arranged as those of a piano, with the accidentals raised vertically and overlapping the natural keys to aid the performer both visually and physically....
and the vibraphone

Vibraphone

The vibraphone, sometimes called the vibraharp or simply the vibes, is a musical instrument in the mallet subfamily of the percussion instrument family....
. There are also many glockenspiel-like instruments in Indonesia

Indonesia

The Republic of Indonesia , is a transcontinental country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Comprising Islands of Indonesia, it is the world's largest Archipelago state....
n gamelan

Gamelan

File:Javanese Gamelan.jpgA gamelan is a musical ensemble from Indonesia, typically from the islands of Bali or Java, featuring a variety of instruments such as metallophones, xylophones, drums and gongs; bamboo flutes, bowed and plucked strings....
ensembles.

External links

at the Vienna Symphonic Library
Online sources for the prescribed music of the Royal Schools of Music practical exams