Temple block
The temple block , English temple block , is a musical instrument belonging to the genre of the serve idiophone , which is traditionally made of wood and today also made of plastic. The temple block is a small slit drum as the simple wooden block and is in its variety of shapes identical to the originating also from East Asia wooden fish .
In their countries of origin China (with the name muyu , " wooden fish "), Japan ( mokugyo ), Korea ( mokt'ak ) and Vietnam , temple blocks consist of a round piece of wood, often decorated with carvings, which is first pierced in the middle, then by is hollowed out on the inside and finally provided with a slit leading to the outside, so that at the end there is a shape that is vaguely reminiscent of a frog's mouth or two conch shells facing each other.
When hitting the temple blocks, individual tones are created which, due to the air vibrating inside, have a soft and full sound, while the wooden block, slotted on two sides , produces a sharper, brighter sound.
Temple blocks have been used in Buddhist ritual music since ancient times, and in classical Western music and jazz since the 20th century.
A modernized form of the temple blocks are granite blocks or granite blocks , which, contrary to their name, are not made of stone, but plastic and as such z. B. can be found in the rhythm sections of Guggemusik and other street music ensembles.
Temple blocks and granite blocks are usually played in sets of five different sized and therefore different sounding instruments that can be attached to a special tripod or a support frame hung over the shoulders.
literature
- James Holland: Temple blocks. In: Grove Music Online , 2001
