History of the Glockenspiel Follow Us History of the Glockenspiel The name "glockenspiel" comes from German and it means "bell play, referring to the sound made of small bells. It is a percussion instrument and sounds like "Christmas". Advertisement Glockenspiel is a percussion instrument which sounds like a lot of smaller bells with an enchanting melody, like listening to a small bells ensemble. The name itself comes from German and it means "bell play", referring to the sound made of small bells. The musical instrument's history begins in Germany where the fixed bells playing in churches and town hall belfries are still a great tourist attraction. Back in the medieval ages when it was invented, the glockenspiel was a small set of actual bells (different ranges) which were struck by hand. It resembled a smaller carillon. The smaller glockenspiels worked on the principle of notes sequence using an automatic mechanism performed by a clockwork device. The notes were played in their specific order by this mechanism which was also used to play the fixed bells in churches or campaniles. Later on, in the 16th century it was given a piano-like keyboard so playing the "bells" was done easier.

Rectangular steel bars started to replace the bells by the end of the 17th century. These metal bars were also easier to tune, and back then they were played using a mechanical set of hammers which was activated by the performer via a piano-like keyboard. The early versions of the instrument used bars or bells which were a little bigger and lower pitched than the modern glockenspiel. In the beginning, this arrangement of metal bars was just a substitute for real bells but it soon developed into a musical instrument on its own. The bars of the modern glockenspiel are made of high carbon steel, and they are struck with small-headed mallets. The pitch is very high, so the songs are written two octaves below the actual sounding pitch. The glockenspiel is the "bird" of the orchestra. You can find it in orchestras nowadays and its central role is to enhance the sound of some other instruments by doubling their melody line, adding brightness and vivacity to it. Therefore, we can hear our "bird" sing most often in combination with the flute, piccolo, celesta and harp, and less frequently with the violin, oboe, and clarinet.

The modern instruments related to glockenspiel are the tubophone and the vibraphone. How to Play the Glockenspiel? This instrument is played like the xylophone, using the mallets. One can only play the main melody line - and not the harmony - even if the music player could hold two mallets in each hand. On the other hand using vibraphone one can play both: the melody and the harmony. Glockenspiel solos are rather exceptional; nevertheless, their charming sound makes them very special and capable of drawing the audience's attention. How Does the Glockenspiel Look Like Today? Just like the piano keys, the chromatically tuned bars lie in two rows placed in a wooden box, which can be mounted on an adaptable metal stand-this or the bars can simply be placed on a table. The same width and thickness is common to all the bars and only their length varies. The bars are held together in one of nest two modalities: a. A round hole in one end of each bar with a pin through it. The other end does not have a hole trough but rests on a felt rail. This system is used just for the table glockenspiel. b.

The bars have holes in both sides. A string passes through all the holes and the bars are suspended this way and look like a ladder. Each bar is isolated from the next one by pegs, which keep it in place and allow it to vibrate without restraint. This arrangement style is found only on glockenspiel with a damper pedal. The glockenspiel case acts as a sound box; therefore, it has no supplementary resonators. This instrument is used in orchestras but also loved by children and composers like George Frideric Handel (1738) and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart have included the glockenspiel in their operas. Claudia Miclaus musical instrument | Britannica.com Musical instrument Musical instrument, any device for producing a musical sound. The principal types of such instruments, classified by the method of producing sound, are percussion , stringed , keyboard , wind , and electronic . Children playing musical instruments.

A discussion of the landmark music museum in Vermillion, South Dakota, from the documentary … Great Museums Television (A Britannica Publishing Partner) Musical instruments are almost universal components of human culture: archaeology has revealed pipes and whistles in the Paleolithic Period and clay drums and shell trumpets in the Neolithic Period . It has been firmly established that the ancient city cultures of Mesopotamia, the Mediterranean, India , East Asia, and the Americas all possessed diverse and well-developed assortments of musical instruments, indicating that a long previous development must have existed. As to the origin of musical instruments, however, there can be only conjecture. Some scholars have speculated that the first instruments were derived from such utilitarian objects as cooking pots (drums) and hunting bows (musical bows); others have argued that instruments of music might well have preceded pots and bows; while in the myths of cultures throughout the world the origin of music has frequently been attributed to the gods, especially in areas where music seems to have been regarded as an essential component of the ritual believed necessary for spiritual survival. Bone whistle, c. 10,000 bc; in the Pitt-Rivers Museum, Oxford, Eng.

Courtesy of the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford Whatever their origin, the further development of the enormously varied instruments of the world has been dependent on the interplay of four factors: available material, technological skills, mythic and symbolic preoccupations, and patterns of trade and migration. Thus, residents of Arctic regions use bone, skin, and stone to construct instruments; residents of the tropics have wood, bamboo, and reed available; while societies with access to metals and the requisite technology are able to utilize these malleable materials in a variety of ways. Myth and symbolism play an equally important role. Herding societies, for example, which may depend on a particular species of animal not only economically but also spiritually, often develop instruments that look or sound like the animal or prefer instruments made of bone and hide rather than stone and wood, even when all the materials are available. Finally, patterns of human trade and migration have for many centuries swept musicians and their instruments across seas and continents, resulting in constant flux, change, and cross-fertilization and adaptation . Flute carved from bone about 32,000 years ago, found in Dordogne, France.

It is one of the oldest … © The British Museum/Heritage-Images opera The sound produced by an instrument can be affected by many factors, including the material from which the instrument is made, its size and shape, and the way that it is played. For example, a stringed instrument may be struck, plucked, or bowed, each method producing a distinctive sound. A wooden instrument struck by a beater sounds markedly different from a metal instrument, even if the two instruments are otherwise identical. On the other hand, a flute made of metal does not produce a substantially different sound from one made of wood, for in this case the vibrations are in the column of air in the instrument. The characteristic timbre of wind instruments depends on other factors, notably the length and shape of the tube. The length of the tube not only determines the pitch but also affects the timbre: the piccolo , being half the size of the flute, has a shriller sound. The shape of the tube determines the presence or absence of the “upper partials” (harmonic or nonharmonic overtones ), which give colour to the single note .

(For more on the science of sound, see acoustics .) Musician playing a shakuhachi, a Japanese end-blown flute, … E&E Image Library/Heritage-Images Music: Fact or Fiction? This article discusses the evolution of musical instruments, their structure and methods of sound production, and the purposes for which they have been used. Although it focuses on the families of instruments that have been prominent in Western art music, it also includes coverage of non-Western and folk instruments. General characteristics Ringling Bros. Folds Its Tent Musical instruments have been used since earliest times for a variety of purposes, ranging from the entertainment of concert audiences to the accompaniment of dances, rituals , work, and medicine . The use of instruments for religious ceremonies has continued down to the present day, though at various times they have been suspect because of their secular associations. The many references to instruments in the Old Testament are evidence of the fact that they played an important part in Jewish worship until for doctrinal reasons they were excluded.

It is also clear that the early Christians in the eastern Mediterranean used instruments in their services, since the practice was severely condemned by ecclesiastics, who insisted that the references to instruments in the Psalms were to be interpreted symbolically. Although instruments continue to be banned in Islamic mosques (but not in religious processions or Sufi ritual) and in the traditional Eastern Orthodox church, they play important roles in the ritual of most other societies. For example, Buddhist cultures are rich in instruments, particularly bells and drums (and in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China, wind instruments as well). Belief in the magical properties of instruments is found in many societies. The Jewish shofar (a ram’s horn), which is still blown on Rosh Hashana (New Year) and Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), must be heard by the congregation. The power of the shofar is illustrated by the story of Joshua at the siege of Jericho: when the priests blew their shofars seven times, the walls of the city fell flat. In India, according to legend , when the deity Krishna played the flute, the rivers stopped flowing and the birds came down to listen.

The birds are said to have done the same in 14th-century Italy when the composer Francesco Landini played his organetto, or portative organ . In China, instruments were identified with the points of the compass, with the seasons, and with natural phenomena. The Melanesian bamboo flute was a charm for rebirth. Shofar made of ram’s horn in the form of a fish, Ethiopia, 19th century; in the Jewish Museum, New … Graphic House/EB Inc. Facebook Twitter YouTube Instagram Pinterest Many of the instruments used in medieval Europe came from western Asia, and they have retained some of their original symbolism. For example, trumpets , long associated with military operations, had a ceremonial function in the establishment of European kings and nobles and were, in fact, regarded as a sign of nobility. In the later Middle Ages and for long afterward, they were associated with kettledrums (known originally as nakers, after their Arab name, naqqārah), which were often played on horseback, as they still are in some mounted regiments. Trumpet fanfares, heard on ceremonial occasions in the modern world, are a survival of medieval practice.

Men in traditional dress playing alphorns at a festival in the town of Mannlichen, Switzerland. Patrick Ward/Corbis Technological developments Conventional Western thinking claimed that the earliest instruments were slightly modified natural objects such as bones, shells, or gourds. They played only one pitch and then evolved into more complex forms. However, it appears that bone flutes from Neanderthal caves had finger holes, and recent archaeological finds in China included bone flutes from 7000 bc that not only have seven finger holes but an additional aperture that may have been drilled to correct a poorly placed hole. Thus, early humans appear to have been just as sensitive to pitch and tone colour as were most other sentient creatures, such as birds, cats, dogs, and whales. None of the sounds they heard or made moved from simple to complex. Aztec clay versions of shell trumpets imitated the internal chambers of the nautilus; the instruments’ construction may indicate a sophisticated use of the overtone series to obtain varied pitches (as is done on the bugle). The stretched string of a bow can produce several pitches when it is beaten, and the string can be stopped at points along its length to produce varied sounds.

In addition, a resonator such as a pot or gourd is often used to increase the volume of the sound. The player’s mouth can add variety to both volume and pitch. A tube of bamboo can become musical when it is struck on the ground, and a set of different-sized tubes can produce a melodic and rhythmic ensemble. Lifting strips of the bark from a tube and adding bridges under the strips creates a melodic zither , for which each strip produces a separate pitch. The sound can be enhanced by placing one end of the tube in a resonator, whether a gourd or a tin can. In sum, the complexity of music depends less on technology than on human imagination. Lamellaphone with bamboo tongues, from central Africa; in the James Blades Collection. Reid Music Library, The University of Edinburgh, gift of James Blades Britannica Lists & Quizzes Editor Picks: Exploring 10 Types of Basketball Movies The first step in the building of any instrument is the selection and preparation of material. Wood used for wind or stringed instruments needs to be seasoned, as do the reeds used in oboes, clarinets, saxophones, and related instruments.

Metals, which are widely used for strings, bells, cymbals, gongs, trumpets, and horns, must be manufactured and cast—often originally by secret processes. Next, the construction and tuning of all instruments require skill and craftsmanship: the piercing of a tube to a uniform or expanding width, the flaring of the bell of a wind instrument to increase sonority, the measurement of the bars of a saron (for the Javanese gamelan) or of a glockenspiel , the curvature of the back of a lute or ʿūd, the internal and external structure of the body of a violin, a koto , or even a shakuhachi. All of these involve accurate workmanship from experts in wood and metal and, in many instances, a knowledge of the mathematics of sound. A Sakha group (from eastern Siberia) playing the khomus, a … Sovfoto The mathematical basis of accurate tuning systems has been the subject of philosophical and scientific speculation since ancient times; nevertheless, no single system has been deemed perfect (see also tuning and temperament ). All practical tuning systems involve a series of compromises, a fact that instrument makers have known for centuries.

An instrument maker, surrounded by guitars and lutes, carving a violin neck in a shop at Colonial … Kelly-Mooney Photography/Corbis Opium Wars The instrument maker’s skill, like that of the cabinetmaker and the silversmith, was developed by long practice, and the principles that determine both tone and intonation were discovered by trial and error. The growth of instrumental playing in 16th-century Europe stimulated the production of instruments to be used not merely for ceremonial and official entertainment but also for social occasions and private pleasure. From this time, records began to be kept of the names of makers, many of whom established family businesses that lasted for several generations. These include, for example, Andrea Amati (16th century), a violin maker in Cremona, Italy; Hans Ruckers (late 16th century), a harpsichord maker in Antwerp, Belg.; and Johann Haas (1649–1723), a trumpet maker in Nürnberg (now in Germany). In all literate cultures there are known families or guilds of instrument makers, e.g., for the Middle Eastern ʿūd, South Asian sitar and vina , or Japanese tsuzumi drums.

Around the world, instrument makers have long signed their products. Although similar respectful positions are held by instrument makers in cultures without a written record, their reputation is far less likely to spread beyond their particular time and place. Typically ornate Hardanger fiddle (detail), a Norwegian folk instrument. © Wulffenstejn Hardanger Fiddle/hardingfele.com Instrument makers have always represented a blend of conservatism with the ability to quickly seize on and use a new constructional technique, a new tool , or a new material. Their contribution to both the history of music and the history of musical instruments has been enormous and little appreciated. The older makers of instruments were craftsmen who took delight in the appearance of their work. In some cases, additions are purely decorative, as when pictures were painted on the inside of harpsichord lids or elaborate patterns were carved onto Indian vinas or inlaid into Persian lutes and drums. The rare set of 9th-century court instruments found in Nara, Japan, includes stunning examples of such artisan skills from all over East Asia. Equal beauty is found on many of the anonymously constructed instruments of Oceania.

Often these additions are symbolic or totemic; the patterns on the Australian didjeridu identify the clan of the performer, and shapes and patterns on instruments in New Guinea reflect aspects of the environment and culture . Similarly, the dragon heads on the end of Tibetan and Chinese woodwinds have a symbolic meaning in those cultures. Most modern Western instruments reject ornamentation, but overall design and finish are as important as they have always been. Modern technology has in many cases simplified or improved the construction of instruments. In the past, for example, the tubes of horns and trumpets were made from a sheet of brass cut to the right width, which was rolled into shape, leaving the edges to be joined by brazing. In modern manufacture the tube is drawn in one piece, and there is no seam. Evolution of design has been particularly notable in the construction of woodwind instruments, not only in the fixing of the metal keys and the mechanism that controls them but also in the piercing of holes in such a way that they are acoustically correct. This achievement was due mainly to the pioneering work of Theobald Boehm , who was not only a flute maker but also a performer and composer.

His system, designed for the flute, was later applied to the clarinet , the oboe , and the bassoon . The early 19th century saw a revolution in the manufacture of brass instruments as well: the addition of pieces of tubing of different lengths through which the air could be directed by the depression of valves (or pistons), enabling an instrument to produce all 12 notes of the chromatic scale, in place of its earlier limitation to the notes of the natural harmonic (overtone) series. Newer techniques of cutting and beating metal have created distinctive modern instruments, such as steel drums. The discovery of plastics in the 20th century also has influenced the manufacturers of instruments; for example, some makers have used plastic instead of quill or leather for the plectra that pluck the strings of the harpsichord, and plastic recorders have been built. Mechanization has made possible the mass production of instruments of all kinds. Insofar as this makes it possible for people to acquire an instrument at a moderate price, mass production is a good thing, and in education it has been beneficial to schools working on a small budget.

A natural development has been the provision of kits consisting of the separate parts of an instrument, which can then be assembled by the purchaser. It remains true, however, that the production of an instrument of the finest quality still demands the highest degree of individual skill. A violin glued together from mass-produced parts cannot be the equal of one that has been meticulously constructed from the first by an individual craftsman who will not be satisfied with his work until every detail of it has been tested. Children in Irish costumes play recorders while marching in New York City’s St. Patrick’s Day … Rudi von Briel/PhotoEdit Technology has been of service to music by providing composers with instruments they have asked for, by eliminating some defects of instruments, and by making instruments more widely available to the community in general. Richard Wagner , for example, suggested the need for a baritone double-reed instrument akin to the oboe; the resulting heckelphone has been featured in Richard Strauss ’s opera Salome (1905) and subsequent works. Wagner also ordered a special type of tuba for use in his four-opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen ( The Ring of the Nibelung , 1869–76).

Not all modern changes in construction have been wholly advantageous, however. It is easier to play in tune on a modern woodwind instrument, but the older examples, being less cluttered with metal fittings, had a purer tone. Similarly, the modern horn is to most listeners inferior in tone quality to its 18th-century predecessor. Among Western orchestral instruments, only the trombone and the stringed instruments have remained, apart from minor modifications, unchanged in structure over the centuries (though the substitution of wire strings for gut has materially altered the tone of the violin). In contrast, the rate of technological change in electronic instruments has been almost bewilderingly fast. Classification of instruments Instruments have been classified in various ways, some of which overlap. The Chinese divide them according to the material of which they are made—as, for example, stone, wood, silk, and metal. Writers in the Greco-Roman world distinguished three main types of instruments: wind, stringed, and percussion. This classification was retained in the Middle Ages and persisted for several centuries: it is the one preferred by some writers, with the addition of electronic instruments, at the present day.

Some 16th-century writers excluded certain instruments from this classification; the musical theorist Lodovico Zacconi went so far as to exclude all percussion instruments and established a fourfold division of his own—wind, keyed, bowed, and plucked. Musician playing a changgo, a Korean two-headed drum. Korea Britannica Corp. A different fourfold classification was accepted by Hindus at least as early as the 1st century bc: they recognized stringed instruments, wind instruments, percussion instruments of wood or metal, and percussion instruments with skin heads (i.e., drums). This ancient system—based on the material producing sound—was adopted by the Belgian instrument maker and acoustician Victor-Charles Mahillon , who named his four main classes autophones, or instruments made of a sonorous material that vibrates to produce sound (e.g., bells, rattles); membranophones , in which a stretched skin is caused to vibrate (e.g., drums); aerophones , in which the sound is produced by a vibrating column of air (wind instruments); and chordophones , or stringed instruments.

In their highly influential studies of musical instruments, the Austrian musicologist Erich von Hornbostel and his German colleague Curt Sachs accepted and expanded Mahillon’s basic division, creating the classification now used in most systematic studies of instruments. The name idiophones was substituted for autophones, and each class was subdivided according to a method similar to that used by botanists. A fifth class, electrophones , in which vibration is produced by oscillating electric circuits, was added later. The Table gives examples of instruments that fall within the various categories. Classification and examples of some musical instruments Idiophones polyphonic (producing harmony and simultaneous melodic lines) many synthesizers Many instruments can be played using more than one system of tone production and hence might reasonably appear in several subcategories. The double bass , for example, is usually considered a chordophone whose strings may be bowed or plucked; sometimes, however, the body of the instrument is slapped or struck, placing the double bass among the idiophones.

The tambourine is a membranophone insofar as it has a skin head which is struck; but, if it is only shaken so that its jingles sound, it should be classed as an idiophone, for in this operation the skin head is irrelevant. Open flue stops are the foundation of organ tone, but the instrument also has a number of free reed stops, so that the organ belongs equally to the first and second order of aerophones. Modern composers not infrequently require players to treat their instruments in unorthodox ways, thus changing their position in the classification system. It must be understood that the Sachs-Hornbostel system was created for the purpose of bringing order to the massive collections of musical instruments in ethnographic museums. It is directly analogous to the various book classification systems of libraries and, like them, is arbitrary. Musicians themselves generally think of instruments in terms of their technological features and playing method. To them, therefore, it is logical to group keyboard instruments together, ignoring the fact that in the Sachs-Hornbostel system such instruments fit into several categories. Tambourine with snare and jingles, detail from an early 14th-century English manuscript (add.

… Reproduced by permission of the British Library, London History and evolution There has been speculation about the origin of instruments since antiquity. Older writers were generally content to rely on mythology or legends . In the 19th century, partly as a result of theories of evolution put forward by Charles Darwin and Herbert Spencer , new chronologies based on anthropological evidence were advanced. The British writer John Frederick Rowbotham argued that there was originally a drum stage, followed by a pipe stage, and finally a lyre stage. The Austrian writer Richard Wallaschek, on the other hand, maintained that, although rhythm was the primal element, the pipe came first, followed by song , and the drum last. Sachs based his chronology on archaeological excavation and the geographic distribution of the instruments found in them. Following this method, he established three main strata. The first stratum, which is found all over the world, consists of simple idiophones and aerophones; the second stratum, less widely distributed, adds drums and simple stringed instruments; the third, occurring only in certain areas, adds xylophones , drumsticks, and more complex flutes.

In the 21st century, ethnomusicologists have questioned assumptions about the evolution of instruments from simple to complex; see above Technological developments . The development of musical instruments among ancient high civilizations in Asia, North Africa , and the Mediterranean appears to have emphasized stringed instruments. In Central and South America, wind and struck instruments seem to have been most important. It is not always easy to say whether instruments are indigenous to a particular area, however, since their cultivation may well have spread from one country to another through trade or migration. Nevertheless, it is known that the harp was used from early times in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and India and was imported into China after the end of the 4th century ad. In Greece it was regarded as a foreign instrument: the standard plucked instrument was the lyre , known in its fully developed form as the kithara (or cithara). Apart from the trumpet, the only wind instrument in normal use in Greece was the aulos , a double-reed instrument akin to the modern oboe. The Egyptians used wind instruments not only with double reeds but also with single reeds and thus may be said to have anticipated the clarinet.

Peculiar to China was the sheng, or mouth organ; the Chinese also used as an artistic instrument the panpipes ( xiao ), which in Greece had a recreational function. Sheng; in the Horniman Museum, London. Courtesy of the Horniman Museum, London; photograph, J.R. Freeman & Co. Ltd. In medieval Europe, many instruments came from Asia, having been transmitted through Byzantium , Spain , or eastern Europe. Perhaps the most notable development in western Europe was the practice, originating apparently in the 15th century, of building instruments in families, from the smallest to the largest size. A typical family was that of the shawms , which were powerful double-reed instruments. A distinction was made between haut (loud) and bas (soft) instruments, the former being suitable for performance out-of-doors and the latter for more intimate occasions. Hence, the shawm came to be known as the hautbois (loud wood), and this name was transferred to its more delicately toned descendant, the 17th-century oboe.

By the beginning of the 17th century the German musical writer and composer Michael Praetorius , in his Syntagma musicum (“Musical Treatise”), was able to give a detailed account of families of instruments of all kinds—recorders, flutes, shawms, trombones, viols, and violins. Percussion instruments Drum ensembles have achieved extraordinary sophistication in Africa, and the small hand-beaten drum is of great musical significance in western Asia and India. The native cultures of the Americas have always made extensive use of drums, as well as other struck and shaken instruments. In Southeast Asia and parts of Africa, xylophones and, since the introduction of metals, their cousins the metallophones play significant roles. Europe, however, has not placed great emphasis on drums and other percussion instruments. (See also percussion instrument .) Kenyah boys playing the jatung utang (a type of xylophone) … © Gini Gorlinski Stringed instruments Many varieties of plucked instruments were found in Europe during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance; but bowed instruments eventually came to characterize the area, and they played an important role in the rest of Eurasia and in North Africa as well.

The idea of playing a stringed instrument with a bow may have originated with the horse cultures of Central Asia , perhaps in the 9th century ad. The technique then spread rapidly over most of the European landmass. The European fiddle existed in various forms: by the 16th century these had settled down into two distinct types—the viol , known in Italy as viola da gamba (leg fiddle), and the violin , or viola da braccio (arm fiddle). The viol has a flat back, sloping shoulders, and six or seven strings; the violin has a rounded back, rounded shoulders, and four strings. The viol, unlike the violin, has frets—pieces of gut wound at intervals around the fingerboard—which make every stopped note (i.e., the string being pressed by the finger to produce a higher pitch) sound like an open (unstopped) string. The violin, being the smallest member of the family, came to be known by the diminutive violino: the tenor of the family was called simply viola, while the bass acquired the name violoncello , a diminutive of violone (“big fiddle”).

(See also stringed instrument .) Man playing a bass viol, from Christopher Simpson’s The Division-Violist (1659); in … Courtesy of the trustees of the British Museum, London; photograph, J.R. Freeman & Co. Ltd. Keyboard instruments Only in Europe did the keyboard develop—for reasons that are not clear. The principle of the keyboard has been used successfully to control bells (the carillon), plucked and struck stringed instruments (the piano and harpsichord), and wind instruments (the organ , the accordion , and the harmonium). Of all instruments, the organ showed the most remarkable development from the early Middle Ages to the 17th century. Originally, sound was admitted to the pipes by withdrawing sliders or depressing levers. Both of these methods were clumsy: they gave way to a reduction in the size of the levers, which eventually could be depressed by the fingers, while the larger pipes were controlled by pedals. A further development was to separate the various rows of pipes, so that each row could be brought into action or suppressed by means of a draw stop .

Once a manageable keyboard had been produced, it could be applied to the portable organ, carried by the player, which was already in use by the 12th century. Scientific experiments with the monochord , a stretched string that could be divided into various lengths by means of a metal tangent, were followed by the construction of an instrument with a whole range of strings and a keyboard similar to that of the organ—the clavichord . A similar adaptation of the plucking of stringed instruments led to the harpsichord , the ingenious mechanism of which had been perfected by the 16th century. It is curious that a similar method was not applied to the dulcimer , which was struck with hammers, until the early 18th century, when the Italian maker Bartolomeo Cristofori constructed the first pianoforte , so-called because, unlike the harpsichord, it could vary the tone from soft (piano) to loud (forte).

(See also keyboard instrument .) The Bruckner Organ, 18th century; in the church of the Abbey of Sankt Florian, Austria Toni Schneiders Wind instruments In Europe the practice of constructing instruments in families continued from the 17th century onward. English composers wrote for the tenor hautbois, the intermediate oboe d’amore, and the bass, or baritone, oboe. The clarinet (the name means “little trumpet”) emerged at the end of the 17th century and, like the oboe, developed into a family extending to a contrabass clarinet in the 19th century and later a subcontrabass. It established itself only gradually in the orchestra in the course of the 18th century. Trumpets and horns were used in most areas of Eurasia for ceremonial and military purposes. They remained relatively unchanged until the early 19th century, when valves were added to European instruments. This modification also led to the creation of new types.

A pioneer in the field was the Belgian instrument maker Antoine-Joseph Sax , who in 1845 built a family of valved instruments called saxhorns , using the bugle as the basis for his invention . Similar instruments were widely adopted in military and brass bands, but only the bass, under the name bass tuba, became a normal member of the orchestra. Sax also invented the saxophone , a single-reed instrument like the clarinet but with a conical tube. This, too, was made in various sizes, which came to be used both in military bands and in jazz ensembles. The saxophone never became a normal member of the symphony orchestra, but the alto and the tenor have been used by art-music composers, largely as solo instruments, and occasionally a complete quartet of four different sizes has appeared in an orchestral work. (See also wind instrument .) Alto saxophone. musical instrument - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up) Devices that produce musical sounds, musical instruments may be used for ritual or ceremony, entertainment, or private enjoyment.

The vast numbers of such devices have been classified in a variety of ways, but no system can be completely satisfactory because there are too many different elements. The system that has been most generally accepted is a classification based on the way in which sound is produced by the instrument. In this system instruments are divided into aerophones, or wind instruments; chordophones, or stringed instruments; membranophones, or drums; idiophones, or percussion instruments other than drums; and electrophones, or electronic instruments. (See also electronic instruments; percussion instruments; stringed instruments; wind instruments; band; orchestra.) Article Contributors Bell - definition of bell by The Free Dictionary Bell - definition of bell by The Free Dictionary (bĕl) n. 1. A hollow metal musical instrument, usually cup-shaped with a flared opening, that emits a metallic tone when struck. 2. Something resembling such an instrument in shape or sound, as: a. The round, flared opening of a wind instrument at the opposite end from the mouthpiece. b. bells A percussion instrument consisting of metal tubes or bars that emit tones when struck. c. A hollow, usually inverted vessel, such as one used for diving deep below the surface of a body of water.

d. The corolla of a flower: "In a cowslip's bell I lie" (Shakespeare). e. The body of a jellyfish. 3. Nautical a. A stroke on a hollow metal instrument to mark the hour. b. The time indicated by the striking of this instrument, divided into half hours. v. belled, bell·ing, bells v.tr. 1. To put a bell on. 2. To cause to flare like a bell. v.intr. To assume the form of a bell; flare. Idiom: To perform a daring act. [Middle English belle, from Old English.] bell 2 (bĕl) n. The bellowing or baying cry of certain animals, such as a deer in rut or a beagle on the hunt. intr.v. belled, bell·ing, bells To utter long, deep, resonant sounds; bellow. [From Middle English bellen, to bellow, from Old English bellan.] bell (bɛl) n 1. (Instruments) a hollow, usually metal, cup-shaped instrument that emits a musical ringing sound when struck, often by a clapper hanging inside it 2.

(Horology) the sound made by such an instrument or device, as for showing the hours or marking the beginning or end of a period of time 3. (Electrical Engineering) an electrical device that rings or buzzes as a signal 4. (Instruments) the bowl-shaped termination of the tube of certain musical wind instruments, such as the trumpet or oboe 5. (Instruments) any musical percussion instrument emitting a ringing tone, such as a glockenspiel, one of a set of hand bells, etc. Compare chime 13 6. (Nautical Terms) nautical a signal rung on a ship's bell to count the number of half-hour intervals during each of six four-hour watches reckoned from midnight. Thus, one bell may signify 12.30, 4.30, or 8.30 a.m. or p.m 7. (Nautical Terms) See diving bell 8. (Biology) biology a structure resembling a bell in shape, such as the corolla of certain flowers or the body of a jellyfish 9. (Telecommunications) slang Brit a telephone call (esp in the phrase give someone a bell) 10.

beat seven bells out of knock seven bells out of informal Brit to give a severe beating to 11. (Ecclesiastical Terms) bell, book, and candle a. instruments used formerly in excommunications and other ecclesiastical acts b. informal the solemn ritual ratification of such acts 12. ring a bell to sound familiar; recall to the mind something previously experienced, esp indistinctly 13. sound as a bell in perfect condition 14. the bells the ringing of bells, in a church or other public building, at midnight on December 31st, symbolizing the beginning of a new year vb 15. to be or cause to be shaped like a bell 16. (tr) to attach a bell or bells to 17.

bell the cat to undertake a dangerous mission [Old English belle; related to Old Norse bjalla, Middle Low German bell; see bell2] bell (bɛl) n (Zoology) a bellowing or baying cry, esp that of a hound or a male deer in rut vb (Zoology) to utter (such a cry) [Old English bellan; related to Old Norse belja to bellow, Old High German bellan to roar, Sanskrit bhāsate he talks; see bellow] Bell (bɛl) n 1. (Biography) Acton, Currer (ˈkʌrə), and Ellis. pen names of the sisters Anne, Charlotte, and Emily Brontë. See Brontë 2. (Biography) Alexander Graham. 1847–1922, US scientist, born in Scotland, who invented the telephone (1876) 3. (Biography) Sir Francis Henry Dillon. 1851–1936, New Zealand statesman; prime minister of New Zealand (1925) 4. (Biography) Gertrude (Margaret Lowthian).

1868–1926, British traveller, writer, and diplomat; secretary to the British High Commissioner in Baghdad (1917–26) 5. (Biography) Joshua. born 1967, US violinist 6. (Biography) Dame (Susan) Jocelyn, married name Jocelyn Burnell, born 1943, British radio astronomer, who discovered the first pulsar 7. (Biography) Vanessa, original name Vanessa Stephen. 1879–1961, British painter; a member of the Bloomsbury group, sister of Virginia Woolf and wife of the art critic Clive Bell (1881–1964) bell1 (bɛl) n. 1. a hollow metal instrument, typically cup-shaped with a flaring mouth, that produces a ringing sound when struck. 2. any device, as an electronic circuit, that produces a similar sound. 3. the stroke or sound of a bell. 4. something having the form of a bell, as the flared end of a musical wind instrument. 5.

any of the half-hour units of nautical time rung on the bell of a ship. 7. to cause to flare like a bell. 8. to put a bell on. v.i. 9. to take or have the form of a bell. Idioms: 1. bell the cat, to attempt something dangerous or daring. 2. with bells on, eagerly; ready to enjoy oneself. [before 1000; Middle English, Old English belle, c. Middle Dutch, Middle Low German belle] bell2 1. to bellow; bay. n. 2. a bellowing or baying sound, esp. of a stag in rut or a hunting dog. [1275–1325; Middle English; Old English bellan to roar, c. Middle Dutch bel(l)en, Old High German bellan, Old Norse belja] Bell Alexander Graham, 1847–1922, U.S. scientist, born in Scotland: inventor of the telephone. bell - The flared open end of a wind instrument. See also related terms for wind instrument .

bell I will have been belling you will have been belling he/she/it will have been belling we will have been belling you will have been belling they will have been belling Past Perfect Continuous bell - a hollow device made of metal that makes a ringing sound when struck acoustic device - a device for amplifying or transmitting sound church bell - a bell in a church tower (usually sounded to summon people to church); "church bells were ringing all over town" clapper , tongue - metal striker that hangs inside a bell and makes a sound by hitting the side cowbell - a bell hung around the neck of cow so that the cow can be easily located death bell , death knell - a bell rung to announce a death dinner bell - a bell rung to announce that dinner has been served electric bell - a bell activated by the magnetic effect of an electric current fire bell - a bell rung to give a fire alarm school bell - a bell rung to announce beginning or ending of class sheep bell - a bell hung round the neck of a sheep so that the sheep can be easily located shop bell - a bell attached to the door of a small shop; warns the proprietor that a customer has entered the shop signaling device - a device used to send

 signals cascabel , sleigh bell - a bell attached to a sleigh, or to the harness of a horse that is pulling a sleigh sound bow - contact (the part of a bell) against which the clapper strikes warning bell , tocsin - a bell used to sound an alarm 2.

bell - a push button at an outer door that gives a ringing or buzzing signal when pushed buzzer , doorbell night bell - a doorbell to be used at night push button , button , push - an electrical switch operated by pressing; "the elevator was operated by push buttons"; "the push beside the bed operated a buzzer at the desk" 3. bell - the sound of a bell being struck; "saved by the bell"; "she heard the distant toll of church bells" toll sound - the sudden occurrence of an audible event; "the sound awakened them" knell - the sound of a bell rung slowly to announce a death or a funeral or the end of something angelus , angelus bell - the sound of a bell rung in Roman Catholic churches to announce the time when the Angelus should be recited 4. bell - (nautical) each of the eight half-hour units of nautical time signaled by strokes of a ship's bell; eight bells signals 4:00, 8:00, or 12:00 o'clock, either a.m. or p.m.

Bloomsbury Group - an inner circle of writers and artists and philosophers who lived in or around Bloomsbury early in the 20th century and were noted for their unconventional lifestyles 8. Alexander Bell , Alexander Graham Bell 9. bell - a percussion instrument consisting of a set of tuned bells that are struck with a hammer; used as an orchestral instrument carillon - set of bells hung in a bell tower handbell - a bell that is held in the hand percussion instrument , percussive instrument - a musical instrument in which the sound is produced by one object striking another 10.

bell - the flared opening of a tubular device blunderbuss - a short musket of wide bore with a flared muzzle funnel - a conically shaped utensil having a narrow tube at the small end; used to channel the flow of substances into a container with a small mouth opening - a vacant or unobstructed space that is man-made; "they left a small opening for the cat at the bottom of the door" wind instrument , wind - a musical instrument in which the sound is produced by an enclosed column of air that is moved by the breath Verb glockenspiel | musical instrument | Britannica.com musical instrument castanets Glockenspiel, ( German: “set of bells”) (German: “set of bells”) percussion instrument , originally a set of graduated bells, later a set of tuned steel bars (i.e., a metallophone ) struck with wood, ebonite, or, sometimes, metal hammers. The bars are arranged in two rows, the second corresponding to the black keys of the piano. The range is 2 1/2 or, occasionally, 3 octaves, the highest note normally the fourth C above middle C (written two octaves lower).

Military bands use a portable form with a lyre-shaped frame, called a bell lyre . A glockenspiel may be fitted with a keyboard mechanism so that chords can be played. The glockenspiel became part of the orchestra in the 18th century. The tubaphone is a softer-toned offspring of the glockenspiel. It is used in military bands and has metal tubes rather than bars. Learn More in these related articles: percussion instrument any musical instrument belonging to either of two groups, idiophones or membranophones. Idiophones are instruments whose own substance vibrates to produce sound (as opposed to the strings of a guitar or the air column of a flute); examples include bells, clappers, and rattles. Membranophones emit... in percussion instrument: The 19th century Several new instruments—or at least new versions—were introduced in the 19th century. The glockenspiel (from the German Glockenspiel, “bell chime”) was originally a bell chime, as its name indicates. Its transformation into a metallophone was in response to the need for a portable instrument. For marching bands the bars were hung in...

1 Reference found in Britannica Articles Assorted Reference glockenspiel - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up) In the German language, the words glocke and spiel translate to "bell play." The tuned percussion instrument known as the glockenspiel may not literally require bell playing, but it does produce a bell-like sound. The modern orchestral glockenspiel consists of two rows of tuned steel bars (or, in some cases, tubes) that are set up on a stand. An alternative form of the instrument is played by means of an actual keyboard. (See also percussion instrument.) Article History Corrections? Updates? Help us improve this article! Contact our editors with your feedback. MEDIA FOR: You have successfully emailed this. Error when sending the email. Try again later. Edit Mode Submit Tips For Editing We welcome suggested improvements to any of our articles. You can make it easier for us to review and, hopefully, publish your contribution by keeping a few points in mind. Encyclopædia Britannica articles are written in a neutral objective tone for a general audience. You may find it helpful to search within the site to see how similar or related subjects are covered.

Any text you add should be original, not copied from other sources. At the bottom of the article, feel free to list any sources that support your changes, so that we can fully understand their context. (Internet URLs are the best.) Your contribution may be further edited by our staff, and its publication is subject to our final approval. Unfortunately, our editorial approach may not be able to accommodate all contributions. Submit Thank You for Your Contribution! Our editors will review what you've submitted, and if it meets our criteria, we'll add it to the article. Please note that our editors may make some formatting changes or correct spelling or grammatical errors, and may also contact you if any clarifications are needed. Uh Oh There was a problem with your submission. Please try again later. Close Date Published: May 04, 1999 URL: Access Date: January 19, 2017 Share

Question: The name of which musical instrument is German for “bell play”?
Answer: Glockenspiel