The tubular bells
The Tubular bell
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The tubular bells - also called tubular bell or orchestra bells, is a musical instrument idiophone of the percussion family.
It consists of a series of bells. Each bell is a metal tube usually made of brass, whose diameter varies between a quarter inch and an inch and a half, and fits by changing its length. The tubular chimes are usually grouped into a series chromatic an octave and a half. A series of two octaves exist, but they are extremely heavy and are not really used. Their range is as follows:
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The bells are typically struck with a hammer plastic or rawhide. You can also use various types of material from the beater (like the tom-tom or bass drum) to timpani sticks, wood, leather or foam. The bells are struck in their upper part, which often requires a chair, or in the case of musicians from small size, a platform lift.
They were invented as a convenience to reproduce in a symphony orchestra the sound of church bells, while bypassing the problem of congestion such bells are very heavy: the percussionist have here a single instrument of about two meters high and one meter wide, with whom he can play 17 notes (for a standard set of tubular bells).
They are used in orchestral works such as Symphonie Fantastique (including the Fifth Party: "Dream of a Sabbath Night") by Berlioz , Walking Liberty Bell Sousa , or the 1812 Overture of Tchaikovsky , but also the popular music . Mike Oldfield tubular bells used extensively, for example in his debut album Tubular Bells (Tubular Bells in English) in 1973, including the opening theme was repeated for the music of the film The Exorcist.
(Source: wikipedia.org - copyright authors - article under GFDL)
Glossary
Hector Berlioz
Hector Berlioz is a composer, a writer and a French critic, born December 11, 1803 at La Cote Saint Andre, Isere, died March 8, 1869 in Paris.
It is considered one of the greatest representatives of European Romanticism, although it should challenge the term "romantic" that meant nothing to him.
It is defined in fact as a classical composer. His music had the reputation of not respecting the laws of harmony, accusation which does not resist to a deepened reading of its scores.
It reveals, paradoxically, that Berlioz respects the historical foundations of harmony dating from the XVIth century (rules governing opposite and joint movements), but sometimes it frees additional rules appeared later and aesthetically questionable (rules modulation cadential among others).
The chromatic scale
In solfeggio, the chromatic scale refers to a musical scale consisting of seven degrees of the diatonic scale of five notes added intermediaries, each sharing your past two semitones through accidentals.
- While the diatonic scale is in the form of isolated diatonic semitones framing alternating groups of two and three-tone chromatic scale is a succession of semitones - five chromatic semitones and seven diatonic semitones. This quasi-identity blurs intervals joint benchmarks and tends to generate a fuzzy tone.
- The chromatic scale and the intermediate notes :
Michael Gordon Oldfield
Michael Gordon Oldfield was born in Reading May 15, 1953.
The son of Dr. Raymond Henry Oldfield and Maureen Bernadine Liston (Irish descent), it is the last of three children who all had careers in music: Sally Oldfield (born 1947) is a singer, while Terry Oldfield (born in 1949) composed music for documentaries.
The octave in music
The Popular Music
The term popular music was used as a more or less wide, it is also called pop music. Initially used for any non-classical music, its definition is evolving in the nineteenth century, excluding folk music, traditional music called instead today.
John Philip Sousa
John Philip Sousa (November 6, 1854-March 6, 1932) was an American composer.
He was also a conductor, composed of many famous military marches (Stars and Stripes Forever, High School Cadets, Semper Fidelis, The Washington Post March, King Cotton El Capitan ...).
He gave his name to a variety of popular tuba in the marching bands, Jazz New Orleans, the sousaphone, Large flag towards the front and dominating the orchestra.
