Tubular bells: Guadeloupe musical instrument

Tubular bells are musical instruments that belong to the family of percussion instruments. Each bell is a metal tube, 30 to 38 mm in diameter; the musical instrument is tuned by altering its length. Its standard range is from C4-F5, though many professional musical instruments reach G5. The tubular bells are usually replaced by studio chimes that are smaller and normally less expansive musical instruments. Studio chimes are analogous in appearance to tubular bells, but each bell has a smaller diameter than the corresponding bell on the tubular bells.

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The musical instruments are sometimes struck on the top edge of the tube with a rawhide- or plastic- headed hammer. Normally, a sustain pedal will be fixed to permit extended ringing of the bells. The bells can also be bowed at the bottom of the tube to manufacture a very loud, very high-pitched overtone.

The musical instruments have been made popular in the western culture by the song Carol of the Bells and the Mike Oldfield album and its sequels, the latter best known as the starting theme from the Exorcist.

The tubes used gave a purer tone than solid cylindrical chimes like those of a mark tree. Chimes are usually used in concert band pieces. Most composers write chimes under the genre of percussion. It rarely performs melody, mostly a bass that brings out some color but sometimes has some solo, normally very simple.

In tubular bells, modes 4, 5, and 6 seem to determine the strike tone and have frequencies that are in the ratios 9²:11²:13², or 81:121:169, "which are near enough to the ratios 2:3:4 for the ear to take them nearly harmonic and to make use of them as a basis for establishing a virtual pitch," presumably on 2.

Mike Oldfield, a multi-instrumentalist has used tubular bells on many of his studio album, most notably Tubular Bells (1973), Tubular Bells II (1992) & Tubular Bells III (1998). He also has used them on other albums like Hergest Ridge (1974), Ommadawn (1975) and Crises (1983).

Pink Floyd used the musical instruments on The Dark Side of the Moon (1973) on the song Brian Damage but is rendered inaudible almost on the main stereo mix and Quadrophonic mix. The band’s drummer, Nick Mason opined that he had forgotten that they were on there until he heard them in the 5.1 surround mix for the 2003 SACD 30^th anniversary edition of the album that has since been released on BD and DVD.

The Flaming Lips' 2002 track "Do You Realize??" features the musical instrument. The animated television series Futurama's theme is played on the musical instruments. The Smashing Pumpkins' 1994 recording "Disarm" uses the musical instruments to create a haunting mood. Tracey Ullman's 1983 cover of Kirsty MacColl's "They Don't Know" features the musical instruments in a celebratory manner, reminiscent of wedding bells. The "funding for this program provided by ..." rider that followed the end credits of the television show Sesame Street for children also famously featured these bells in the year 1980s.