Chime (bell instrument)
Videos
A chime or chime of bells is a carillon-like instrument, i.e. a pitched percussion instrument consisting of 22 or fewer bells. A Chime is primarily played with a keyboard, but can also be played with
Eight-bell chime in its frame (McShane Bell Foundry, Maryland). Note that the bottom bells are static-chimes, and the top bell is also hung for swing-chiming on its own.
Set of chime bells (cymbala), circa 1370 A.D. Europeans developed chimes from wracks of small hammer-struck bells into large tower-mounted bells played with mechanized assistance.
Cymbalum
Videos
The cymbalum was the name of two historical instruments, medieval European bells hung and struck with a hammer and Greek kymbalon cymbals. The two instruments may possibly be related, based on the sam
Chime (bell instrument)
…back to the 14th-century Middle English word chymbe, meaning 'cymbal'. It probably originates from the Old French chimbe or directly from the Latin cymbalum. The Latin word was shortened in Old French and misinterpreted as chymbe bellen in Middle English, where the meaning shifted by the mid-16th century…
Aeman hammers a cymbala (set of bells) while Ethan bows a fiddle. Bout Psalter Book of Hours.
12th-13th century, England. Musicians play the cymbala (set of small chime-bells) and cymbala cup-shaped cymbals, Bodleian Library MS. Laud Misc. 752
11th century, southern France. Chime bells wrung by clappers. Harley MS 4951, folio 299v.
1050-1100, Germany. English: Asaph playing chime bells, Pommersfeld Bible, Gräflich Schönbornsche Bibliothek, 334, fol. II 148