About vibraphones, metallophones, and glockenspiels
There are various kinds of instruments with different musical ranges and specifications in the metallophone family. They are played in all kinds of music, including classical music and jazz, and attract lots of attention not only as an accompanying instrument but also through solo performances using matchless techniques.
Metallophones, derived from glockenspiels
The glockenspiel is an instrument originating in Germany. In German, 'Glocken' means 'bell', and 'spiel' means 'play'. In Europe, the small carillon (a set of bells) had been popular until 1739, when the glockenspiel was first used in the performance of Handel's 'Saul'. Since then, many composers, such as Tchaikovsky and Saint-Saëns, have written music using glockenspiels. Famous glockenspiel works include Mozart's 'The Magic Flute' and Rimsky-Korsakov's 'The Golden Cockerel'. As can be gathered from the fact that it is also known as 'orchestra bells' in English, it is often used in orchestral music and percussion ensembles.
Meanwhile, the vibraphone, an instrument developed from the glockenspiel, was invented in the United States in 1921. Famous vibraphone works include Britten's 'Midsummer Night's Dream' and Messiaen's 'Turangalila-Symphonie', and Milhaud and Boulez also wrote some pieces for the vibraphone. The instrument is often used in jazz as well as classical music. There are lots of vibraphone players who give spectacular performances with two mallets in each hand. In this way, the vibraphone is characterised by its frequent solo performances in different genres of music.
Secret of the vibraphone's vibrato
The common feature of the three instruments is that tuned metallic bars are arranged from lowest to highest as the keys of a piano, building scales. The vibraphone and the metallophone are tuned to make their sound by sounding a fundamental tone and its fourth overtone (a tone two octaves higher than the fundamental tone, or a tone with a 4-fold frequency of that of the fundamental tone) at the same time, which is called 'fourth overtone tuning'. The usual range of the glockenspiel is two and a half octaves, and that of the vibraphone and metallophone is three octaves. The tone pitch increases in the order of vibraphone, metallophone, and glockenspiel.
The bars of the glockenspiel, which are made of steel, produce clear and brilliant sounds like a bell when struck with special metal mallets. The bell-lyre, which is used in drum and fife bands, is also in the glockenspiel family.
The bars of the vibraphone are made of aluminium alloy. The vibraphone and the metallophone have resonator tubes below their metal bars, which help produce soft, resonant tones. The vibraphone also enables you to get vibrato by rotating vanes in the resonators with an electric motor.
The metallophone has resonators, but due to its lack of vanes, it does not provide vibrato. It is said the pitch of the metal bars gets lower as the temperature gets higher.
Due to these differences in musical range and function, the three instruments are quite different from one another, though they are in the same family. For vibraphone and metallophone, in particular, thoroughly confirm the range and functions you need before purchasing.
Range of the vibraphone, metallophone, and glockenspiel
