Classical suspended cymbal A suspended cymbal is any single cymbal played with a stick or beater rather than struck against another cymbal. Common abbreviations used are "sus. cym.," or "sus. cymb." (with or without the period). Most

drum kit A drum kit or drum set (also known as a trap set, or simply drums in popular music and jazz contexts) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and sometimes other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one p ...

s contain at least two suspended cymbals: a

crash cymbal A crash cymbal is a type of cymbal that produces a loud, sharp "crash" and is used mainly for occasional accents, as opposed to a ride cymbal. It can be mounted on a stand and played with a drum stick, or by hand in clash cymbals, pairs. One ...

and a ride cymbal.

History

The term comes from the modern

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * String instruments, such as the violin, viola, cello, ...

, in which the term ''cymbals'' normally refers to a pair of clash cymbals. The first suspended cymbals used in the modern orchestra were one of a pair of orchestral cymbals, supported by hanging it bell upwards (''i.e.'', with concavity opening downward) by its strap. They could be used as a replacement for a

gong A gongFrom Indonesian language, Indonesian and ; ; zh, c=鑼, p=luó; ; ; ; ; is a percussion instrument originating from Southeast Asia, and used widely in Southeast Asian and East Asian musical traditions. Gongs are made of metal and ...

.Riemann, Hugo.
Dictionary of Music
'. Trans. J.A. Shedlock. Augener, 1900. 288. This technique is still used, at times, but has largely been replaced by specialised cymbals with larger mounting holes that can be mounted on a cymbal stand. Occasionally the term ''suspended cymbal'' is still used in the original sense of one of a pair of orchestral cymbals hung by its strap, and this is the usage in older scores and may be the wish of modern conductors in playing them. It is essential to check this before committing to a particular technique.

Technique

In an orchestral setting, suspended cymbals are most often used for rolled crescendos, or swells. To do this, the percussionist uses a single-stroke roll on the outside edge of the cymbal, using soft mallets, one on each side. The terminology most commonly used to describe this technique is a suspended cymbal roll. At times, a score also calls for hitting the cymbal with a stick or scraping it with a

triangle A triangle is a polygon with three corners and three sides, one of the basic shapes in geometry. The corners, also called ''vertices'', are zero-dimensional points while the sides connecting them, also called ''edges'', are one-dimension ...

beater. Other techniques utilize the bow of a contrabass, to be drawn slowly across the outside rim of the cymbal. This technique will give a very shrill, eerie sound, particularly useful in film music. Another lesser-known technique is to place a suspended cymbal upside down on a

timpani Timpani (; ) or kettledrums (also informally called timps) are musical instruments in the percussion instrument, percussion family. A type of drum categorised as a hemispherical drum, they consist of a Membranophone, membrane called a drumhead, ...

head. The timpanist is instructed to roll ad lib on the suspended cymbal while moving the timpani pedal up and down as a

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 ...

. Film composer Danny Elfman has made great use of this technique, which needs to be performed in a more "transparent" orchestral setting to be heard. Other composers will use a sample, or recording, of the cymbal struck by a mallet with a long, natural decay. They will then play that segment backwards, so the effect heard is a crescendo to a crisp cutoff of the sound. This is used to great effect for film and

pop music Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom.S. Frith, W. Straw, and J. Street, eds, ''iarchive:cambridgecompani00frit, The Cambridge Companion to Pop ...

to punctuate scenes in many

reality television Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring ordinary people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 1990s ...

shows.

Other uses

In a

, nearly all the cymbals used are suspended cymbals in the broadest sense, the main exception being the hi-hat cymbal.

References

Cymbals {{music-stub