A metallophone is any

musical instrument A musical instrument is a device created or adapted to make Music, musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can be considered a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. A person ...

in which the sound-producing body is a piece of metal (other than a metal string), such as tuned

metal A metal () is a material that, when polished or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electrical resistivity and conductivity, electricity and thermal conductivity, heat relatively well. These properties are all associated wit ...

bars, tubes, rods, bowls, or plates. Most frequently the metal body is struck to produce sound, usually with a mallet, but may also be activated by friction, keyboard action, or other means. Metallophones have been used in music in Asia for thousands of years. There are several different types used in

Bali Bali (English:; Balinese language, Balinese: ) is a Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia and the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. East of Java and west of Lombok, the province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller o ...

nese and

Java Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...

nese

gamelan Gamelan (; ; , ; ) is the traditional musical ensemble, ensemble music of the Javanese people, Javanese, Sundanese people, Sundanese, and Balinese people, Balinese peoples of Indonesia, made up predominantly of percussion instrument, per ...

ensembles, including the gendèr, 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 A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

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.

Classification

Metallophones are a subset, made of metal, of Hornbostel-Sachs category 111.22 Percussion plaques, which is a subset of percussion idiophones.

List of metallophones

* Aluphone * Bell * Bell plate * Bonang * Cegléd water jug * Celesta *

Chime bar A chime bar or resonator bell is a percussion instrument consisting of a tuned metal bar similar to a glockenspiel bar, with each bar mounted on its own wooden resonator. Chime bars are played with percussion mallet, mallets again similar to a g ...

* Cowbells * Crotales * Dulcitone * Fangxiang * Gangsa * Geger * Gendèr * Glockenspiel * Gong * Hand bells * Handpan * Jegogan * Jublag * Kulintang a Tiniok/ Sarunay * Mark tree * Orff metallophones *

Ranat ek lek The ''ranat ek lek'' (, ) is a metallophone used in the classical music of Thailand. It is the smaller of the two sizes of Thai metallophone; the larger one is called '' ranat thum lek''. This musical instrument was originated in the reign o ...

* Ranat thum lek * Rhodes piano * Roneat dek * Roneat thong * Saron * Slentem * Step bell * Steel marimbaphone * Ugal * Steel drum * Tam-tam * Toy piano * Triangle * Tubaphone * Tubular bells * Vibraphone * Waterphone

References

{{Authority control Keyboard percussion instruments Percussion idiophones

Classification

List of metallophones

See also

References