The Dance Chimes is a foot-operated chime-like

musical instrument A musical instrument is a device created or adapted to make musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can be considered a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. A person who pl ...

that consists of 9 bronze tiles, with mechanical sound elements under each.

Description

The 9 bronze tiles of the Dance Chimes are arranged in a square formation and usually in-built in the ground. The sound pads are triggered by sensitive hammers activated while hopping, jumping or dancing. The tone is bell-like and the notes are tuned in a

pentatonic A pentatonic scale is a musical scale with five notes per octave, in contrast to the heptatonic scale, which has seven notes per octave (such as the major scale and minor scale). Pentatonic scales were developed independently by many ancie ...

sequence and can be played note by note to play a melody, or sounded together to play a chord.

History

Invented and designed by Alfons van Leggelo in the 1970s,Toy Instruments
last accessed 28 September the Dance Chimes was created to relate the movement of walking directly with sound. The instrument, made of bronze is related to the physical properties of the

carillon A carillon ( , ) is a pitched percussion instrument that is played with a keyboard and consists of at least 23 cast-bronze bells. The bells are hung in fixed suspension and tuned in chromatic order so that they can be sounded harmoniou ...

. The name 'Dance Chimes' comes from the movement to 'dance', a connection between movement and sound experience, and 'chimes', the instrument most similar in material and sound. Dance Chimes have been installed in public places worldwide, including

Battery Park The Battery, formerly known as Battery Park, is a public park located at the southern tip of Manhattan Island in New York City facing New York Harbor. It is bounded by Battery Place on the north, State Street on the east, New York Harbor to ...

Citygarden Citygarden is an urban park and sculpture garden in St. Louis, Missouri owned by the City of St. Louis but maintained by the Gateway Foundation. It is located between Eighth, Tenth, Market, and Chestnut streets, in the city's " Gateway Mall" ar ...

Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Playground The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Playground is a memorial to Diana, Princess of Wales, in Kensington Gardens, in The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London. It was erected after her death at a cost of £1.7 million on the site of ...

Museumplein The Museumplein (; ) is a public space in the Museumkwartier neighbourhood of the Amsterdam-Zuid borough in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Located at the Museumplein are three major museums – the Rijksmuseum, Van Gogh Museum, and Stedelijk Museum � ...

, Amsterdam and also schools for mentally/physically handicapped children.

Technical Details

The left panel shows the tuning of the dance chimes. The middle panel shows the corresponding nine tones under the nine tiles numbered 1 through 9. The right panel shows the path from the lowest (b') to the highest (f"').

References

{{Reflist

External links

YouTube video: The Stompstone Song

Dance Chimes information sheet

Dance Chimes Technical Details (English)

Dance Chimes Technical Details (German)

Alfons van Leggelo

Manufacturers

Richter Spielgeräte – English

Richter Spielgeräte – German

Distributors

Goric
European percussion instruments Idiophones 1976 musical instruments Dutch musical instruments