Instruments of the Modern Symphony Orchestra/CYMBALS

by Arthur Edward Johnstone

CYMBALS

Italian	German	French
Piatti	Becken	Cymbales
Cinelli	Cinellen

A pair of cymbals consists of two discs of resonant metal formed not unlike large dinner plates and about twelve inches in diameter. They are held by means of a loop of leather attached to the center of the instrument and passed around the hand of the performer. Cymbals are played, not by clashing them together, but by striking their edges with a sliding movement. Like other art instruments, cymbals may be of fine or of poor quality, producing a brilliant, lastingm and terrifying tone, or an impotent, dull smash, like broken crockery. The pitch is indefinite.

From motives of economy, one of the cymbals is often attached to the bass drum, the two instruments being played by the same performer; but as the cymbals lose much of their characteristic clash by this treatment, it is not followed in first-class orchestras. One cymbal is sometimes held in the hand and struck with the bass drumstick a single stroke or even a roll. Thus used the cymbal takes on something of the character of the gong. When short notes are required, the tone is damped by quickly bringing the cymbals against the chest.