Term applied to a set of concussion plaques suspended so that they can be activated by the wind (the instrument is classified as an idiophone). The plaques may be made of metal, glass, bamboo, stone, porcelain or shell. In the orchestra, the player activates the chimes by hand stroker; bamboo chimes create a loud ‘thwack’ when pushed together sharply between the two hands. Although not a precision instrument, wind chimes were being used increasingly in all types of music at the end of the 20th century. Glass wind chimes appear in Birtwistle’s The Mask of Orpheus (1973–84), Boulez’s Notations I–IV (1977–80) and Henze’s Voices (1973); shell wind chimes in Henze’s Compases para preguntas ensimismadas (1969–70) and Das Floss der ‘Medusa’ (1968, rev. 1990); and glass, shell and bamboo chimes in Messiaen’s Des canyons aux étoiles (1970–74).
A similar instrument is the mark tree, a set of 30–40 thin brass tubes, graduated in length from 10 to 30 cm and suspended from a stick (set of concussion-percussion tubes). When lightly stroked it produces a shimmering glissando. The mark tree (named after its inventor, Mark Stevens) was, at the end of the 20th century, widely used in all types of music from pop to orchestral.
JAMES HOLLAND