A musical instrument in which the sound is produced by one object striking another; SYN. percussive instrument.
Musical instrument played by being struck with the hand or a beater. Percussion instruments can be divided into those that can be tuned to produce a sound of definite pitch, such as the timpani, tubular bells, glockenspiel, and xylophone, and those of indefinite pitch, including bass drum, tambourine, triangle, cymbals, and castanets.
The timpano is a hemispherical bowl of metal with a membrane stretched across the rim, affixed and tuned by screwtaps; tubular bells are suspended on a frame; the glockenspiel (German “bell play”) is a small keyboard of aluminum alloy keys; the xylophone has hardwood rather than metal bars.
The snare drum is a shallow double-sided drum on the underside of which gut coils or metal springs are secured by a clamp and rattle against the underside when the drum is beaten, while the bass drum produces the lowest sound in the orchestra; the tambourine has a wooden hoop with a membrane stretched across it, and has metal discs suspended in the rim; a triangle is formed from a suspended triangular-shaped steel bar, played by striking it with a separate bar of steel—the sound produced can be clearly perceived even when played against a full orchestra; cymbals are two brass dishes struck together; castanets are two hollow shells of wood struck together; and the gong is a suspended disc of metal struck with a soft hammer.