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A mark tree (also known as a nail tree, chime tree, or bar chimes) is a
A mark tree (also known as a nail tree, chime tree, or bar chimes) is a percussion instrument
A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...
used primarily for musical color. It consists of many small chimes—typically cylinders of solid aluminum or brass tubing about 3/8" in diameter—of varying lengths, hung from a bar. They are played by sweeping a finger or stick through the length of the hanging chimes. They are typically mounted in pitch order to produce rising or falling glissando
In music, a glissando (; plural: ''glissandi'', abbreviated ''gliss.'') is a wikt:glide, glide from one pitch (music), pitch to another (). It is an Italianized Musical terminology, musical term derived from the French ''glisser'', "to glide". In ...
s. More expensive models may also have a damper bar. Unlike tubular bell
Tubular bells (also known as chimes) are musical instruments in the percussion family. Their sound resembles that of church bells, carillons, or a bell tower; the original tubular bells were made to duplicate the sound of church bells withi ...
s, another form of chime, the chimes on a mark tree do not produce definite pitches.
The mark tree is named after its inventor, studio percussionist Mark Stevens, who devised it in 1967. When he could not come up with a name, percussionist Emil Richards
Emil Richards (born Emilio Joseph Radocchia; September 2, 1932 – December 13, 2019) was an American vibraphonist and percussionist.
Biography Musician
Richards began playing the xylophone aged six. In High School, he performed with the ...
named it after Stevens. Mark trees are colloquially called wind chimes
Wind chimes are a type of percussion instrument constructed from suspended tubes, rods, bells, or other objects that are often made of metal or wood. The tubes or rods are suspended along with some type of weight or surface which the tubes or ro ...
in some modern repertoire. However, the mark tree and wind chimes are two separate instruments, differing in construction and manner of sounding.
See also
*Bell tree
A bell tree, also known as tree bellsBeck, John. ''Encyclopedia of Percussion.'' Taylor and Francis, 1995. or Chinese bell tree (often confused with the mark tree), is a percussion instrument, consisting of vertically nested inverted metal bow ...
References
External links
* {{Authority control Musical instruments played with drum sticks Percussion idiophones 20th-century percussion instruments Unpitched percussion instruments Drum kit components