Flexatone

The flexatone is a modern percussion instrument (an indirectly struck idiophone) consisting of a small flexible metal sheet suspended in a wire frame ending in a handle.

Uses

The flexatone is sometimes heard in funk music, and occasionally in pop music for special effect.

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The instrument is rarely used in classical music; Arnold Schoenberg employed it in his Variations for Orchestra and his unfinished opera Moses und Aron, and Aram Khachaturian's wrote for it in his Piano Concerto (though here the flexatone is now often omitted). The cellist in Sofia Gubaidulina's The Canticle of the Sun plays a flexatone in the middle of the piece.

Related Topics:
Classical music - Arnold Schoenberg - Variations for Orchestra - Moses und Aron - Aram Khachaturian - Piano Concerto - Sofia Gubaidulina - The Canticle of the Sun

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