Temple blocks are a type of percussion instrument consisting of a set of woodblocks. It is descended from the

muyu Muyu may refer to: * Muyu people, an indigenous ethnic group of Western New Guinea ** Muyu language * Wooden fish (), an Asian percussion instrument usually associated with Buddhist monks * Muyu, Hubei (), a town of Shennongjia, Hubei, China * Muyu ...

or wooden bell, an instrument originating from eastern Asia, where it is commonly used in religious ceremonies.

Description

It is a carved hollow

wood Wood is a structural tissue/material found as xylem in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulosic fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin t ...

en instrument with a large slit. In its traditional form, the

, the shape is somewhat bulbous like a bell, but modern instruments are often rectangular in shape. They are generally played in sets of four or more to give a variety of pitches, in which they are also known as "tone blocks". In Western music, they can be traced back to early jazz drummers where they were used as exotic instruments before being later adopted into widespread orchestral use. An updated version of the instrument made by

Latin Percussion {{for, the company, Latin Percussion Latin percussion is a family of percussion, membranophone, lamellophone and idiophone instruments used in Latin music. Instruments Afro-Cuban and Puerto Rican styles Folkloric and Santeria * Trap drums * Abaku ...

, known as "granite blocks", is made out of plastic rather than wood. The sound of temple blocks is similar to that of normal woodblocks, although temple blocks have a darker, more "hollow" timbre. In their most common configuration of five, temple blocks are typically tuned to a

pentatonic scale A pentatonic scale is a musical scale with five notes per octave, in contrast to heptatonic scales, which have seven notes per octave (such as the major scale and minor scale). Pentatonic scales were developed independently by many ancient ci ...

. Chromatic and diatonic sets have also been made. Despite this, they are not commonly treated as pitched percussion. Temple blocks are often used as

sound effect A sound effect (or audio effect) is an artificially created or enhanced sound, or sound process used to emphasize artistic or other content of films, television shows, live performance, animation, video games, music, or other media. In m ...

s, such as in

Leroy Anderson Leroy Anderson ( ; June 29, 1908 – May 18, 1975) was an American composer of short, Light music, light concert pieces, many of which were introduced by the Boston Pops Orchestra under the direction of Arthur Fiedler. John Williams descri ...

's " The Syncopated Clock" and " Sleigh Ride" where they mimic a ticking clock and a galloping horse, respectively. They can also be used to reinforce the melody. John Barnes Chance's '' Incantation and Dance'' and '' Variations on a Korean Folk Song'' both have temple blocks introduce and double the motifs that appear within the music, with the latter using the pentatonic nature of the temple blocks to evoke the sound of the

Orient The Orient is a term referring to the East in relation to Europe, traditionally comprising anything belonging to the Eastern world. It is the antonym of the term ''Occident'', which refers to the Western world. In English, it is largely a meto ...

References

{{Authority control Idiophones Orchestral percussion instruments Chinese musical instruments Japanese musical instruments Korean musical instruments Concert band instruments