Temple blocks are a type of percussion instrument consisting of a set of woodblocks. It is descended from the muyu, an instrument originating from eastern Asia, where it is commonly used in religious ceremonies.

Description

It is a carved hollow

wood Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin ...

en instrument with a large slit. In its traditional form, the

muyu Muyu may refer to: * Muyu people, an indigenous ethnic group of Western New Guinea **Muyu language Muyu, Moyu,Zahrer, Alexander. 2019. ''First data of Moyu, a lowland Ok language of New Guinea''. 11th International Austronesian and Papuan Langua ...

, the shape is somewhat bulbous like a bell, but modern instruments are often rectangular in shape. They are generally played in sets of four or more to give a variety of pitches, in which they are also known as "tone blocks". In Western music, they can be traced back to early

jazz drummers Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African Americans, African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recog ...

where they were used as exotic instruments before being later adopted into widespread orchestral use. An updated version of the instrument made by

Latin Percussion {{for, the company, Latin Percussion Latin percussion is a family of percussion, membranophone, lamellophone and idiophone instruments used in Latin music. Instruments Afro-Cuban and Puerto Rican styles Folkloric and Santeria * Trap drums * Abakua ...

, known as "granite blocks", is made out of plastic rather than wood. The sound of temple blocks is similar to that of normal woodblocks, although temple blocks have a darker, more "hollow" timbre. In their most common configuration of five, temple blocks are typically tuned to a

pentatonic scale 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 ancien ...

. Chromatic and diatonic sets have also been made. Despite this, they are not commonly treated as

pitched percussion A pitched percussion instrument (also known as a melodic or tuned percussion instrument) is a percussion instrument used to produce musical notes of one or more pitches, as opposed to an unpitched percussion instrument which is used to produce ...

. Temple blocks are often used as

sound effects A sound effect (or audio effect) is an artificially created or enhanced sound, or sound process used to emphasize artistic or other content of films, television shows, live performance, animation, video games, music, or other media. Traditi ...

, such as in

Leroy Anderson Leroy Anderson ( ) (June 29, 1908 – May 18, 1975) was an American composer of short, light concert pieces, many of which were introduced by the Boston Pops Orchestra under the direction of Arthur Fiedler. John Williams described him as ...

's "

The Syncopated Clock "The Syncopated Clock" is a piece of light music by American composer Leroy Anderson, which has become a feature of the pops orchestra repertoire. Composition Anderson wrote "The Syncopated Clock" in 1945 while serving with the U.S. Army and a ...

" and "

Sleigh Ride "Sleigh Ride" is a light orchestra standard composed by Leroy Anderson. The composer had formed the original idea for the piece during a heat wave in July 1946, and he finished the work in February 1948. The original recordings were instrumental ...

", where they mimic a ticking clock and a galloping horse, respectively. They can also be used to reinforce the melody.

John Barnes Chance John Barnes Chance (November 20, 1932 – August 16, 1972) was an American composer. Chance studied composition with Clifton Williams at the University of Texas, Austin, and is best known for his concert band works, which include '' Variatio ...

's ''

Incantation and Dance ''Incantation and Dance'' is a piece composed by John Barnes Chance in 1960 as his first work for wind ensemble. Before it was published in 1963, it went under the working title of ''Nocturne and Dance.'' It has become a cornerstone work in wind ...

'' and ''

Variations on a Korean Folk Song ''Variations on a Korean Folk Song'' is a major musical piece written for concert band by John Barnes Chance in 1965. As the name implies, ''Variations'' consists of a set of Variation (music), variations on the Korean folk song "Arirang", which ...

'' both have temple blocks introduce and double the motifs that appear within the music, with the latter using the pentatonic nature of the temple blocks to evoke the sound of the

Orient The Orient is a term for the East in relation to Europe, traditionally comprising anything belonging to the Eastern world. It is the antonym of ''Occident'', the Western World. In English, it is largely a metonym for, and coterminous with, the c ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Temple Block Idiophones Orchestral percussion Chinese musical instruments Japanese musical instruments Korean musical instruments