Flexatone

Flexatone

Percussion
Classification	Percussion
Hornbostel–Sachs classification	112.12 (Frame rattles)
Developed	1922
Timbre	bright, metallic
Volume	medium
Attack	fast
Decay	slow
Related instruments
musical saw, water gong
Builders
Playatone

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. ^[1] Used in classic cartoons for its glissando effect, its sound is comparable to the musical saw.^[2]

History, construction and technique

An invention for a flexatone occurs in the British Patent Records of 1922 and 1923. In 1924 the 'Flex-a-tone' was patented in the USA by the Playatone Company of New York.

The instrument was first used in 1920s jazz bands as an effect but is now mainly and rarely used in orchestral music.^[3]

Wooden knobs mounted on strips of spring steel lie on each side of the metal sheet. The player holds the flexatone in one hand with the palm around the wire frame and the thumb on the free end of the spring steel. The player then shakes the instrument with a trembling movement which causes the beaters to strike the sides of the metal sheet. While shaking the handle, the musician makes a high- or low-pitched sound depending on the curve given to the blade by the pressure from his thumb. A vibrato is thus produced.

An alternate technique involves removing the two wooden knobs and their mounting springs, and then using a small metal rod (e.g., a triangle beater) held in the free hand striking the strip of spring steel. The pitch is altered in the same manner as the previous technique. This method of playing results in a different, more constrained sound.

Uses

The flexatone is sometimes heard in funk music, and occasionally in pop music for special effect. It is occasionally used in the soundtracks of films or cartoons to represent "ghosts" or other paranormal phenomena.

The instrument is rarely used in classical music; having been used by Schoenberg, Honegger, Henze.^[3] Arnold Schoenberg employed it in his Variations for Orchestra and his unfinished opera Moses und Aron. Best known, Aram Khachaturian wrote for it in his Piano Concerto (1936), where it doubles the violin melody in the second movement (though here the flexatone is now often omitted).^[3] It is also used in Jonny spielt auf by Ernst Krenek, Erwin Schulhoff's Symphony No. 1, and John Corigliano's "Symphony No. 1". The cellist in Sofia Gubaidulina's The Canticle of the Sun plays a flexatone in the middle of the piece. Dmitri Shostakovich also uses a flexatone prominently in his opera The Nose, to characterise the nihilistic schoolteacher in Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, and in his rarely performed suite Hypothetically Murdered. Alfred Schnittke used it in the death tango movement of his Faust Cantata as well as in the Tuba Mirum movement of his Requiem and in his Viola Concerto. In Schnittke's score for the ballet Peer Gynt, the flexatone represents the sound of the moaning wind. György Ligeti used it in many of his works, such as the second movement of his concerto for piano and his opera Le Grand Macabre. Peter Maxwell-Davies uses it in the third movement of his Symphony No. 1, as well as three of them at the climax of his opera The Lighthouse. Brian Ferneyhough calls for it in his 2011 orchestral piece Plötzlichkeit. The 1964 ballet The Display, by Australian composer Malcolm Williamson, also includes a part for the flexatone. Henze used the instrument in his Elegy for Young Lovers (1961).^[4]

• Krzysztof Penderecki - De Natura Sonoris No. 1^[5]
• Steven Mackey - Eating Greens^[6]
• Peter Maxwell Davies - Caroline Mathilde: Suites from Act I & II, J. 297-8; Cross Lane Fair, J. 332; Stone Litany, Runes from a House of the Dead, J. 168; and Symphony No. 5, J. 331^[7]
• Arnold Schoenberg - Variations for Orchestra, op. 31^[8]
• Edgard Varèse - Nocturnal^[9]

Recordings

• Jimi Hendrix used a flexatone on 1983... (A Merman I Should Turn to Be)
• The flexatone is used almost as a lead instrument in "Sing Swan Song" on the album Ege Bamyasi by Can (band) (1972).
• It appears frequently on Weather Report's Sweetnighter (1973).
• It makes an appearance on the Magma album Ẁurdah Ïtah (on the tracks "Bradïa Da Zïmehn Iëgah" and "Manëh Für Da Zëss") (1974).
• Rick Wakeman uses it on his album Criminal Record (1977).
• Appears in a lot of Funkadelic's recordings, beginning with "Back In Our Minds" from the album Maggot Brain (1971), and like a lead eventual effect on the 1978 hit One Nation Under A Groove.
• A flexatone can be heard on a number of tracks on the London Calling album by The Clash, most noticeably on the track "Jimmy Jazz" (1979).
• It is featured in Rick James' "Super Freak" (1981).
• "Weird Al" Yankovic uses the flexatone in "Another One Rides the Bus" (1982).
• "The Simpsons Theme" by Danny Elfman (1990).^[10]
• A flexatone is featured on Dr. Dre's "Been There, Done That" (1997).
• DJ Quik uses the flexatone in many of his songs, such as "Pitch in on a Party" (2000).

• The BP Renegades Steel Orchestra uses it during a quiet passage in their rendition of the calypso "Sound of the Ghost" ().^{[citation needed]}
• The instrument is also prominent in the intro to "Faith Healer" by Sensational Alex Harvey Band ().
• Ronnie Laws' funk/jazz hit "Always There," ().

Samples

	Sound of a flexatone Playing 1
Problems playing this file? See media help.

	Sound of a flexatone Playing 2
Problems playing this file? See media help.

	Sound of a flexatone Playing 3
Problems playing this file? See media help.

References

Further reading

• Del Mar, Norman (1983). Anatomy of the Orchestra, p.427-8. ISBN 9780520050624.
• Rossing, Thomas D. (2000). Science of Percussion Instruments, p.105. ISBN 9789810241582.