Tubular Bells article
A Guide to Tubular Bells
Tubular bells make one of the biggest sounds in the percussion section from one of the simplest ideas. Here's what they are, how they're built and where you'll actually hear them.
Few instruments in the percussion section make such a big sound from such a simple idea. Strike one tube near the top and the whole room seems to lean in. Tubular bells are one of those instruments everyone half-recognises — from a film score, an old prog-rock album, or a school orchestra concert — without necessarily knowing what they are or how they work. This guide sorts that out: what the instrument actually is, how it's built, where it came from, and how to tell it apart from the handful of other things people casually call "chimes".
What Tubular Bells Actually Are
Tubular bells — also called orchestral chimes or concert chimes — are a set of tuned metal tubes, usually brass, suspended vertically in a row and struck near the top with a mallet. Each tube is cut to a length that gives it a specific pitch, so the full set works like a very tall, very loud keyboard. A typical orchestral set covers around one and a half octaves, roughly from middle C upward, though exact ranges vary between makers.
The name is a fair description of the sound, too: struck correctly, a single tube produces a sustained, ringing tone that behaves much more like a real bell than a drum or a block of wood. That's precisely why composers reach for them — they give the effect of a large church or tower bell without needing to hang an actual bell in the concert hall.
A Brief History
The modern orchestral instrument is generally traced to Paris, sometime between roughly 1860 and 1870, where tuned metal tubes were developed as a practical, portable stand-in for full-size church bells, which were obviously impossible to cart into a theatre or concert hall. Encyclopaedia Britannica notes that early large tubular bells were built specifically as substitutes for tower bells, with smaller versions later adapted for direct use in the orchestra.
Exactly who used them first in an orchestral score is genuinely disputed. Some historical accounts credit Giuseppe Verdi with early use in operas such as Rigoletto and Il trovatore in the 1850s; Britannica instead points to an 1886 performance of Arthur Sullivan's The Golden Legend in Coventry as the first English appearance. Both claims can be true at once — they may simply be describing different countries, different bell-tube designs, or different definitions of "first". Either way, by the late nineteenth century the instrument was a settled part of the orchestral percussion section.
Worth a quick clarification while we're here: Mike Oldfield's 1973 album, Tubular Bells, made famous by its use in The Exorcist, is not a recording of the orchestral instrument on its own. It's a multitracked rock and electronic record on which Oldfield played most of the parts himself; the ringing tubes are only one texture among guitars, keyboards and other percussion, not the whole show. A 1975 orchestral arrangement, credited to David Bedford and recorded with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, does put a full orchestra — and the real instrument — at the centre.
How the Instrument Is Built
A concert set is a taller, heavier piece of furniture than most people expect. The core parts are:
- The tubes — graded lengths of brass (sometimes chrome-plated), suspended from a rail rather than clamped, so each one can ring freely.
- The frame — a tall metal stand, usually on castors, since the whole thing needs to move between the store room and the stage.
- Two staggered rows — laid out like the white and black keys of a piano, with the "sharps" row raised behind the "naturals" row for easier reach.
- A damping pedal — the player's only way to stop every tube ringing at once, which matters enormously given how long a single struck tube can sustain in a reverberant hall.
Pitch is mostly a function of tube length — longer tubes ring lower, shorter tubes ring higher — though diameter, wall thickness and the tuning process all shape the exact pitch and tone as well. It's a deceptively fussy bit of metalwork for something that looks like plumbing.
Playing Technique
The player stands centred in front of the frame and strikes each tube near its top, close to the cap, using one or two mallets. Striking too far down the tube gives a duller, less focused sound and risks damaging both the tube and the mallet, so accuracy matters more here than in most percussion parts.
Mallet choice changes the character of the note considerably: hard rawhide or plastic heads give a bright, immediate attack that cuts through a full orchestra, while softer mallets round the sound off for quieter, more atmospheric passages. The damping pedal is used to control how long notes ring on, and because most instruments share one pedal across the whole set, the player has to plan ahead — a pedal change can silence a note that was struck several bars earlier just as easily as a new one.
Where You'll Hear Them
In the orchestra, tubular bells are used sparingly and deliberately — for ceremonial or religious moments, big climactic arrivals, funeral or ominous passages, or simply to imitate a distant tower bell. A single well-placed note can sit in the air for several seconds, so composers rarely overuse them. Beyond the concert hall, the instrument (or a close relative of it) turns up in film scoring, musical theatre, concert bands and opera, usually doing the same basic job: signalling something large and significant is happening.
Tubular Bells vs Other Bell-Like Instruments
"Chimes" gets used loosely, so it helps to know what's actually being described:
| Instrument | How it's played | Typical sound |
|---|---|---|
| Orchestral chimes | Struck near the top with a mallet | Sustained, resonant, bell-like ringing |
| Glockenspiel | Struck flat metal bars with hard mallets | Bright, short, bell-like but not as deep or sustained |
| Handbells | Individually rung by hand, one note each | Clean, controlled, choir-style ringing |
| Carillon bells | Played from a keyboard/pedalboard, huge cast bells | Enormous, tower-scale, outdoor sound |
It sits in the middle of that list: far more portable than a carillon, but with a depth and sustain a glockenspiel simply can't match.
The Bottom Line
Tubular bells are a deceptively simple instrument that does one job extremely well: giving an ensemble the weight and drama of a real bell without needing an actual bell tower. Understanding what they are and how they work is the useful first step, whether you're a listener trying to place that sound in a score, or a player about to stand in front of a set for the first time.
If you're weighing up buying a set for a school, studio or ensemble, our complete buyer's guide covers exactly what to check before you commit. Want a shortlist by budget instead? See our pick of the best options for the money. Brand new to the instrument yourself? Start with our beginner's guide, and once you're playing regularly, it's worth knowing the common mistakes most newcomers make with this instrument.
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