February 15, 2021 | Instruments, Resources
The tubular bells in modern opera and orchestras are arranged chromatically as symphonic chimes. They were built for the orchestra as an easy-to-carry instrument for daily use, and their original design strived to be as similar to church bells as possible. However,...
January 7, 2021 | Instruments, Resources
The most recent addition to the repertoire of orchestral percussion instruments is the vibraphone (also known as the vibraharp or vibes), with its early origins dating back to the vaudeville era of the 1920s. The onomatopoeic name vibraphone refers to the vibrating...
January 21, 2021 | Instruments, Resources
The name glockenspiel means “bell play” in German. It refers to the sound of small bells. Indeed, the very first instruments to bear this name consisted of a set of exactly that. They were either played by a group of musicians, a style which is called...
January 14, 2021 | Instruments, Resources
The term xylophone derives from two ancient Greek words which mean wood and tone. Its name has been in use for decades. A series of wooden bars of different lengths arranged according to pitch and struck with mallets essentially comprise this instrument. Nowadays, the...
October 1, 2021 | Instruments, Resources
Gamelan is an Indonesian traditional ensemble of music. It consists primarily of percussive instruments played by the Javanese, Sundanese, and Balinese peoples. The most prevalent instruments consist of mallet-played metallophones and kendhang, a set of hand-played...
