Glockenspiel (musical instrument)
The glockenspiel is a metallophone with tuned metal rods or metal plates arranged in a row or like a keyboard, which is used in Europe as an orchestral and children's instrument . As usual for metallophones, the metal rods are mounted on the two vibration nodes and are attached in the middle. The stop is made with (two) mallets (for example with box glockenspiel ) or with keys by a piano mechanism (with keyboard glockenspiel ). The carillon has been known in Europe since the 17th century. The name, which is also used in English as Germanism , has nothing to do with the playing of several bells , but refers to its original use as an instrument for tuning the tower carillon .
origin
Metallophones have been known in East and Southeast Asia since the 1st millennium. The Dutch East India Company was active in what is now Indonesia since the first years of the 17th century . There the Dutch probably got to know different forms of metallophones ( e.g. gendèr and gangsa ). The Dutch organist Quirin van Blankenburg (1654 - after 1739) mentions a bronze “Staafspel” ( stick chime ) that he saw in Pieter Hemony's bell foundry in 1676 and that was used there to tune the carillon. In addition, the small metallophone initially served as a practice instrument for the tower carillon. The carillon has retained this function. Because of the possibility of using it in closed rooms, composers began to write works especially for the glockenspiel in the 18th century.
Design and style of play
The glockenspiel is an octave-transposing musical instrument , because its music is notated two octaves (more rarely an octave) lower than it sounds, similar to the crotales . In the classical symphony orchestra, the glockenspiel is one of the highest sounding instruments. The mood of the carillon can be changed by swapping the plates.
In early musical education , the instrument is used for teaching elementary instrumental playing. It is also often used as a teaching aid in schools.
There is also a seldom used, special design of the glockenspiel, in the form of a small keyboard instrument based on the principle of the celesta , the so-called keyboard glockenspiel.
The glockenspiel used in marching music or in military bands is called a lyre .
literature
- James Blades, James Holland: Glockenspiel (i). In: Grove Music Online, 2001
- Curt Sachs : Handbook of musical instruments. (1930). Georg Olms, Hildesheim 1967, pp. 21-23
- Carillon . In: Anthony Baines: Lexicon of Musical Instruments. JB Metzler'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Stuttgart 2005, p. 114
Web links
- Search for glockenspiel (musical instrument) in the German Digital Library
- Search for glockenspiel in the SPK digital portal of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation
- The glockenspiel as an orchestral instrument. Vienna Symphonic Library
Individual evidence
- ↑ Wieland Ziegenrücker: General music theory with questions and tasks for self-control. German Publishing House for Music, Leipzig 1977; Paperback edition: Wilhelm Goldmann Verlag, and Musikverlag B. Schott's Sons, Mainz 1979, ISBN 3-442-33003-3 , p. 178.
- ^ Curt Sachs, 1965, p. 21