Wind chime

Wind chimes are a type of percussion instrument constructed from suspended tubes, rods, bells, or other objects that are often made of metal or wood.

Wind chimes that sound fairly distinct pitches can, through the chance movement of air, create simple songs or broken chords.

Bells were believed to ward off malevolent spirits and were often combined with a phallus, which was also a symbol of good fortune and a charm against the evil eye.

[2] In India during the second century CE, and later in China, extremely large pagodas became popular with small wind bells hung at each corner; the slightest breeze caused the clapper to swing, made in bronze too, producing a melodious tinkling.

[3] Japanese glass wind bells known as fūrin (風鈴) have been produced since the Edo period,[4] and those at Mizusawa Station are one of the 100 Soundscapes of Japan.

Chimes produce inharmonic (as opposed to harmonic) spectra, although if they are hung at about 2/9 of their length[5] (22.4%[6][7]), some of the higher partials are damped and the fundamental rings the loudest.

This is largely due to the fact that these scales inherently contain fewer dissonant intervals, and therefore sound more pleasant to the average listener when notes are struck at random.

In a wind chime, the vibrations of the pipe itself radiate the sound after being struck, so the air column has little to do with the pitch being produced.

Sound can be produced when the tubes or rods come in contact with a suspended central clapper in the form of a ball or horizontal disk, or with each other.

Other wind chimes materials include glass, bamboo, shell, stone, earthenware, stoneware, beads, keys and porcelain.

The sounds produced by recycling objects such as these are not tunable to specific notes and range from pleasant tinkling to dull thuds.