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Celesta

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An idiophone is any musical instrument that creates sound primarily by the vibration of the instrument itself, without the use of air flow (as with aerophones ), strings ( chordophones ), membranes ( membranophones ) or electricity ( electrophones ). It is the first of the four main divisions in the original Hornbostel–Sachs system of musical instrument classification (see List of idiophones by Hornbostel–Sachs number ). The early classification of Victor-Charles Mahillon called this group of instruments autophones . The most common are struck idiophones , or concussion idiophones, which are made to vibrate by being struck, either directly with a stick or hand (like the wood block , singing bowl , steel tongue drum , handpan , triangle or marimba ) or indirectly, with scraping or shaking motions (like maracas or flexatone ). Various types of bells fall into both categories. A common plucked idiophone is the Jew's harp .

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28-503: The celesta ( / s ɪ ˈ l ɛ s t ə / ) or celeste ( / s ɪ ˈ l ɛ s t / ), also called a bell-piano , is a struck idiophone operated by a keyboard. It looks similar to an upright piano (four- or five- octave ), albeit with smaller keys and a much smaller cabinet, or a large wooden music box (three-octave). The keys connect to hammers that strike a graduated set of metal (usually steel) plates or bars suspended over wooden resonators . Four- or five-octave models usually have

56-432: A Jenco Celestette in the band's live performances throughout the 1970s and 80s. Sheryl Crow plays celesta on her 2017 album, Be Myself . The band A-ha used, among other instruments, a Jenco celesta during their MTV Unplugged: Summer Solstice performances, recorded and released in 2017. The celesta has been common in cinema for decades. In addition to supplementing numerous soundtrack orchestrations for films from

84-459: A bow). Other classifications use six main sub-categories. For example, a pop toob is a brand name for a noisemaker or musical instrument consisting of tubes that are extendable, bendable, and connectable, with the noise being created concussively by the bending and unbending, or popping, of the tube's corrugation, whereas a whirly tube uses corrugated tubing and the difference in speed and thus air pressure to create an aerophone when spun in

112-657: A circle. Most idiophones are made of glass , metal , ceramics , and wood . They are considered part of the percussion section in an orchestra . A number of idiophones that are normally struck, such as vibraphone bars and cymbals , can also be bowed . Maurice Bouchor Maurice Bouchor (18 November 1855 – 18 January 1929) was a French poet. He was born in Paris. He published in succession Chansons joyeuses (1874), Poèmes de l'amour et de la mer (1875), Le Faust moderne (1878) in prose and verse, and Les Contes parisiens (1880) in verse. His Aurore (1883) showed

140-488: A damper pedal that sustains or damps the sound. The three-octave instruments do not have a pedal because of their small "table-top" design. One of the best-known works that uses the celesta is Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky ' s "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" from The Nutcracker . The sound of the celesta is similar to that of the glockenspiel , but with a much softer and more subtle timbre . This quality gave

168-663: A number of his works, particularly the "Roman triptych" of tone poems. George Gershwin included a celesta solo in the score to An American in Paris . Ferde Grofe also wrote an extended cadenza for the instrument in the third movement of his Grand Canyon Suite . Dmitri Shostakovich included parts for celesta in seven out of his fifteen symphonies, with a notable use in the fourth symphony 's coda . Erich Wolfgang Korngold featured it in many of his works, from Marietta's lied in act 1 of his opera Die tote Stadt , through his film career, to his Violin Concerto (particularly in

196-485: A tendency to religious mysticism, which reached its fullest expression in Les Symboles (1888; new series, 1895), the most interesting of his works. He contributed to the satirical weekly Le Courrier français . Bouchor (whose brother, Joseph-Félix Bouchor , b. 1853, became well known as an artist) was a sculptor as well as a poet, and he designed and worked the figures used in his charming pieces as marionettes ,

224-661: A work for full symphony orchestra . He first used it in his symphonic poem The Voyevoda , Op. posth. 78, premiered in November 1891. The following year, he used the celesta in passages of his ballet The Nutcracker (Op. 71, 1892), most notably in the Variation de la Fée Dragée (commonly known as the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy ), in response to instructions from the Balletmaster Marius Petipa that

252-412: Is a transposing instrument ; it sounds one octave higher than the written pitch. Instruments of different sizes exist with ranges of three to five and a half octaves. Its four-octave sounding range is generally considered to be C 4 to C 8 . The fundamental frequency of 4186 Hz makes this one of the highest pitches in common use. The original French instrument had a five-octave range, but because

280-608: Is the struck idiophones (also known sometimes as concussion idiophones). This includes most of the non-drum percussion instruments familiar in the West. They include all idiophones made to vibrate by being struck, either directly with a stick or hand (like the wood block , singing bowl , steel tongue drum , triangle or marimba ) or indirectly, by way of a scraping or shaking motion (like maracas or flexatone ). Various types of bells fall into both categories. The other three subdivisions are rarer. They are plucked idiophones, such as

308-494: Is the player's action that has shaped the instruments, because they have originated from extensions of striking or clapping hands or stamping feet. Accordingly, the basic question is how they are set into vibration. The word is from Ancient Greek, a combination of idio- ("own, personal" or "distinct") and -phone ("voice, sound"). Most percussion instruments that are not drums are idiophones. Hornbostel–Sachs divides idiophones into four main sub-categories. The first division

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336-545: Is used by the pianist Russ Freeman on tracks from Chet Baker Sings (such as My Ideal and I Get Along Without You Very Well (Except Sometimes) ). A number of recordings Frank Sinatra made for Columbia in the 1940s feature the instrument (for instance I'll Never Smile Again ), as do many of his albums recorded for Capitol in the 1950s ( In the Wee Small Hours , Close to You and Songs for Swingin' Lovers ). Notable pop and rock songs recorded with

364-636: The 1930s through to the 1960s , the celesta has occasionally been spotlighted to invoke a whimsical air. For example, in Pinocchio (1940), a small motif on the celesta is used whenever the Blue Fairy appears out of thin air or performs magic. Celesta also provides the signature opening of Pure Imagination , a song (sung by Gene Wilder ) from the 1971 film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory . Composer John Williams 's scores for

392-550: The Jew's harp , amplified cactus , kouxian , dan moi , music box and mbira ( lamellophone or thumb piano); blown idiophones , of which there are a very small number of examples, the Aeolsklavier being one; and friction idiophones , such as the singing bowl , glass harmonica , glass harp , turntable , verrophone , daxophone , styrophone , musical saw , and nail violin (a number of pieces of metal or wood rubbed with

420-484: The keyboard section and usually played by a keyboardist. The celesta part is normally written on two braced staves, called a grand staff . The celesta was invented in 1886 by the Parisian harmonium builder Auguste Mustel  [ fr ] . His father, Charles Victor Mustel, had developed the forerunner of the celesta, the typophone, in 1860. This instrument produced sound by striking tuning forks instead of

448-535: The 1st, 2nd and 4th movements, in his Symphony No. 8 and Das Lied von der Erde . Karol Szymanowski featured it in his Symphony No. 3 . Gustav Holst employed the instrument in his 1918 orchestral work The Planets , particularly in the final movement, Neptune , the Mystic . It also features prominently in Béla Bartók 's 1936 Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta . Ottorino Respighi included it in

476-637: The Silver Rose scene in Der Rosenkavalier (1911). The keyboard glockenspiel part in Mozart's The Magic Flute is nowadays often played by a celesta. Since Earl Hines took it up in 1928, other jazz pianists have occasionally used the celesta as an alternative instrument. In the 1930s, Fats Waller sometimes played celesta with his right hand and piano simultaneously with his left hand. Other notable jazz pianists who occasionally played

504-401: The celesta include Memphis Slim , Meade "Lux" Lewis , Willie "The Lion" Smith , Art Tatum , Duke Ellington , Thelonious Monk , Buddy Greco , Oscar Peterson , McCoy Tyner , Sun Ra , Keith Jarrett , and Herbie Hancock . A celesta provides the introduction to Someday You'll Be Sorry , a song Louis Armstrong recorded for RCA , and is featured prominently throughout the piece. A celesta

532-459: The celesta include: Icelandic band Sigur Rós included celesta on their album Takk... , as did lead singer Jónsi on Go Quiet , the acoustic version of his solo album Go . Steven Wilson also uses it on various tracks in his solo works. The Italian 1970s progressive rock band Celeste was named after the instrument. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band used a celesta heavily in their early days, with Danny Federici often playing

560-407: The first three Harry Potter films feature the instrument, particularly in the first two films' frequent statements of " Hedwig's Theme ". Another notable use of the celesta was in the music on the children's television series Mister Rogers' Neighborhood . It was most famously heard in the intro to the theme song of the programme, "Won't You Be My Neighbor", which began with a dreamy sequence on

588-512: The instrument its name, celeste , meaning "heavenly" in French. The celesta is often used to enhance a melody line played by another instrument or section. Its musical parts are often the duplicate of a theme played on flute, harp or piano; sometimes even a real solo part. It is also used in chamber music, but there are very few concertos written for it. The delicate, bell-like sound is not loud enough to be used in full ensemble sections. The celesta

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616-626: The instrument. The song was sung by Fred Rogers and played by Johnny Costa . It was also used from time to time in other music sequences throughout the programme, such as the one heard as the Neighborhood Trolley moved in and out of the Neighborhood of Make Believe. A celesta is used in the full orchestral version of the theme song from the TV series The West Wing , composed by W. G. Snuffy Walden . Schiedmayer and Yamaha are

644-403: The lowest octave was considered somewhat unsatisfactory, it was omitted from later models before eventually being added back when technology improved. The standard French four-octave instrument is now gradually being replaced in symphony orchestras by a larger, five-octave German model. Although it is a member of the percussion family, in orchestral terms it is more properly considered a member of

672-496: The metal plates that would be used in the celesta. The dulcitone functioned identically to the typophone and was developed concurrently in Scotland; it is unclear whether their creators were aware of one another's instrument. The typophone's and dulcitone's uses were limited by its low volume, too quiet to be heard in a full orchestra. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky is usually cited as the first major composer to use this instrument in

700-540: The music should resemble "...drops of water shooting out of fountains..." . However, Ernest Chausson preceded Tchaikovsky by employing the celesta in December 1888 in his incidental music , written for a small orchestra, for La tempête (a French translation by Maurice Bouchor of William Shakespeare 's The Tempest ). The celesta is also notably used in Gustav Mahler 's Symphony No. 6 , particularly in

728-440: The only companies currently making celestas. Other known manufacturers that made celestas in the past include: If an ensemble or orchestra lacks a celesta, a piano, synthesizer, or sampler and electronic keyboards are often used as a substitute. Idiophone According to Sachs , idiophones are instruments made of naturally sonorous materials not needing any additional tension as do strings and drumskins. In this class it

756-511: The second movement), and beyond. Twentieth-century American composer Morton Feldman used the celesta in many of his large-scale chamber pieces such as Crippled Symmetry and For Philip Guston , and it figured in much of his orchestral music and other pieces. In some works, such as "Five Pianos" one of the players doubles on celesta. The celesta is used in Carl Orff 's cantata Carmina Burana (1936), and in some 20th-century operas such as

784-522: The words being recited or chanted by himself or his friends behind the scenes. These miniature dramas on religious subjects, Tobie (1889), Noel (1890) and Sainte Cécile (1892), were produced in Paris at the Théâtre des Marionnettes . A one-act verse drama by Bouchor, Conte de Noël , was played at the Théâtre Français in 1895, but Dieu le veut (1888) was not produced. In conjunction with

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