Metallophone

Metallophone
A metallophone used in a Gamelan - Indonesian Embassy in Canberra

A metallophone is any musical instrument consisting of tuned metal bars which are struck to make sound, usually with a mallet.

Metallophones have been used in music for hundreds of years. There are several different types used in Balinese and Javanese gamelan ensembles, including the gendér, gangsa and saron. These instruments have a single row of bars, tuned to the distinctive pelog or slendro scales, or a subset of them. The Western glockenspiel and vibraphone are also metallophones: they have two rows of bars, in an imitation of the piano keyboard, and are tuned to the chromatic scale.

In music of the 20th century and beyond, the word metallophone is sometimes applied specifically to a single row of metal bars suspended over a resonator box. Metallophones tuned to the diatonic scale are often used in schools; Carl Orff used diatonic metallophones in several of his pieces, including his pedagogical Schulwerk. Metallophones with microtonal tunings are used in Iannis Xenakis' Pléïades and in the music of Harry Partch.

List of metallophones


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  • MÉTALLOPHONE — Terme qui désigne, dans les instruments à percussion, une division de la classe des idiophones (instruments dépourvus de cordes ou de membranes dont le corps solide suffit à produire un son). Ce nom s’applique aujourd’hui à tous les instruments à …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • Metallophone — Métallophone Le métallophone est un instrument utilisé dans le gamelan. Saron (métallophone i …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Metallophone — Me*tal lo*phone, n. [L. metallum metal + Gr. ? sound.] (Music) (a) An instrument like a pianoforte, but having metal bars instead of strings. (b) An instrument like the xylophone, but having metallic instead of wooden bars. [Webster 1913 Suppl.] …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Métallophone — Un métallophone est un type d instrument à lames de métal, qui se rapproche du vibraphone, du xylophone et du gamelan …   Wikipédia en Français

  • metallophone — noun Date: circa 1883 a percussion musical instrument consisting of a series of metal bars of varying pitch struck with hammers …   New Collegiate Dictionary

  • metallophone — /meuh tal euh fohn /, n. any musical instrument consisting of a graduated series of metal bars that may either be struck by hammers operated manually or played with a keyboard. [1885 90; METALLO + PHONE] * * * ▪ musical instrument       any… …   Universalium

  • metallophone — noun Any musical instrument consisting of tuned metal bars which are struck to make sound …   Wiktionary

  • metallophone — me·tal·lo·phone …   English syllables

  • metallophone — /məˈtæləfoʊn/ (say muh taluhfohn) noun a musical instrument comprising a sequence of tuned metal bars which are struck with a mallet …  

  • metallophone — mə̇ˈtaləˌfōn noun Etymology: International Scientific Vocabulary metall + phone : a percussion musical instrument of definite pitch consisting of a series of graduated metal bars that are struck by hammers either manually or by a mechanical… …   Useful english dictionary

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