Bell plates

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bell plates

Bell plates are as a musical instrument used metal plates similar to sound like bells . They are idiophones .

history

The metal sound bars come from Asia , where they are still of great importance today. Bell plates have been used in opera and symphony orchestras to recreate real bells since the 19th century. For example, they are used in Hector Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique from 1830 or Giuseppe Verdi's The Troubadour from 1853. In the 20th century, chromatically tuned plate glockenspiels were put together for the first time . For the setting of Stéphane Mallarmé's work “Pli selon pli”, performed by Pierre Boulez in 1962 , a two- octave carillon was made; three-octave carillons are now also available.

Functionality and use

The plates are between 30 and 100 centimeters long and made of aluminum weigh between one and six kilograms, while the best-sounding bronze plates weigh up to thirty kilograms. Steel plates lie in between from the crowd. The plates are attached to two holes hanging vertically, which are located at two nodes of the standing wave and thus do not impair the sound. The plates function simultaneously as a vibration exciter and resonator .

Bell plates are played with heavy mallets made of wood or with a metal core, the head of which is padded with a layer of leather or felt . The weight and hardness of the mallet influence the sound, and there are also different hitting spots with different sound spectra . Compared to tubular bells , the bell sound is better reproduced because the striking sound is more pronounced. Therefore tubular bells are mostly only used for high notes above c 0 , where the difference in sound is small.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b C.-R. Schad and G. Frik: Plate Bells plate bells . In: Acta Acustica united with Acustica . tape 82 , no. 1 , 1996, p. 158-168 ( ingentaconnect.com ).
  2. ↑ a b c d e Vienna Symphonic Library: Bell plates: History , accessed on March 10, 2015.
  3. ^ Vienna Symphonic Library: Bell plates: Repertoire , accessed on March 10, 2015.
  4. ↑ a b c Vienna Symphonic Library: Bell plates: Construction , accessed on March 10, 2015.
  5. ^ Vienna Symphonic Library: Bell plates: Schlägel , accessed on March 10, 2015.
  6. ↑ Vienna Symphonic Library: Bell plates: tone generation , accessed on March 10, 2015.
  7. ^ Vienna Symphonic Library: Bell plates , accessed on March 10, 2015.
  8. ↑ Vienna Symphonic Library: Bell plates: tone generation , accessed on March 10, 2015.