December 9, 200520 yr What are antique cymbals? I have NEVER heard of them before (or maybe under a different name i might have) I saw them when I opened up a sibelius orchestra template. What are they? Are they pitched?
December 27, 200520 yr They're also called "crotales", at least when I was in marching band. I believe Debussy used these, in Prelude to the Afternoon of a Fawn. They are 'pitched', in that they are arranged like a glockenspiel. They are small metal discs that are quick thick. It sounds very much like a glockenspiel or a mark tree. But the pitches are not the 12 in the chromatic scale, its more of an "higher-lower" sort of thing.
January 19, 200620 yr The crotales that I've played have always been pitched to standard chromaticism. We often use two octaves of crotales. Crotales often sound like a glockenspiel to the untrained ear, and even longtime percussionists can sometimes be confused. I've never heard of them referred to as Antique Cymbals, that's a new one on me. I'll bust that one out at the next percussion ensemble practice. :)
January 20, 200620 yr I'm not seeing how you are saying that Crotales sound like a glock... As in those things. I don't recall them EVER sounding like a glock untrained ear or not. My percussion experience was indoor concert style, but I've spent enough time on a marching field to hear them and know how they sound.
January 25, 200620 yr I meant it in the same sense that people think that a Marimba is a Xylophone. It's high. It's metal. It's ringy. You get more pitch with Bells but then again, it all depends on the mallet. I was listening to Barnes' Symphony Movement III: For Natalie, whichever one that is, as I was driving and I thought I was hearing glock, when the part was actually crotales. Unless the performing orchestra did not have crotales and used a glock, I could see how people could be confused with the two.
January 27, 200620 yr And actually, Samuel Adler mentions the similarity between the two in "The Study of Orchestration" which, might I add, is a mighty fine book.
July 23, 200619 yr Actually, I thought anticque cymbals and crotales were two different things...When I played antique cymbal in my wind ensemble, we had this tiny little cymbal that has this piercing ringing sound that resembles people banging forks together. And it's not pitched. Crotales, also which I played, are pitched, and don't even sound close to glocks... ~Kal
July 23, 200619 yr The little cymbals are finger cymbals. My friend bought a pair, are you talking about the little things that sound like the bell that you find on the counters in a store and you ding it and someone comes?
August 9, 200619 yr lets fill our heads with antique cymbal based knoledge. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crotales
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