Topic: Flexatonee

The flexatone or fleximetal 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. Used in
classic cartoons for its glissando effect, its sound is comparable to the musical saw.

History, construction and technique

[The] flexatone [is a] percussion instrument; shaking it causes two wooden balls, one on either
side, to strike a metal blade subject to thumb pressure, which thereby can produce spooky
glissando effects.

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. "An instrument
called the 'Flex-a-tone' was patented in the U.S.A. in 1924 by the Playertone Company of New
York. It was introduced as a new instrument, making 'jazz jazzier' and announced as combining
the tone effect of musical saw, orchestra bells, and song whistle." "Small sheet of spring steel in
a frame with wooden strikers mounted on either side. The player shakes the beater while bending
the steel in order to change the pitch."The instrument was first used in 1920s jazz bands as an
effect but is now mainly and rarely used in orchestral music.

The flexatone is a small, thin, flexible metal plate fastened to its frame at one end. The plate is
hit alternatively on each side by rubber or wooden beaters mounted on a clock spring. A tremolo
is the normal effect, and thumb pressure on the free end of the plate alone changes the pitch,
resulting in a glissando from note to note...It is usually employed as an abstract effect, since it is
notoriously difficult to play specified pitches with any accuracy—the thumb pressure to sharpen
or flatten is extremely subtle and difficult to gauge...The sound is quite clangy, a cross between
the smoothness of a musical saw and a poor glockenspiel.

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 or her thumb: "As the thumb depresses the vibrating metal sheet, the relative pitch of
the instrument ascends; as the thumb pressure is released, the relative pitch of the instrument
descends." A vibrato is thus produced. While the instrument has a very limited dynamic range,
volume can be controlled by how vigorously or delicately the player shakes the Flexatone.

It cannot be pretended that its scope or range are wide, but such as it is, it is quite irreplaceable.
Its curious penetrating whine is created by rapid oscillation of the little wooden knob at the end
of the thin flexible strips against the broad curving metal plate, whose curvature—and hence
pitch—is controlled by the thumb. This effect cannot be emulated by any other means except
possibly the Ondes Martenot...or perhaps the musical saw.
"Vibes generally make a perfectly acceptable alternative, especially when the music is somewhat
indeterminate anyway."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 give the player greater control of the sound of the flexatone as it
eliminates the need to shake the instrument." This method of playing results in a different, more
constrained sound. The flexatone may also be bowed along its edge with an orchestral string
instrument bow.

The flexatone is notated using tremolo lines (rolls) to indicate shaking the instrument and lines to
indicate the desired direction of the glissando or a wavy line (chevron) to indicate alternating
thumb pressure. If using the instrument with the balls removed, indicate strikes with single notes
followed by arrows indicating the direction of the glissando (similar to a guitar tab pitch bend). It
is recommended that pitch designation should only be approximate, as, "specific pitches are
difficult but possible; glissandi without specific pitch are easily executed."

Double meaning of the term "Flexatone"

In contemporary music of the 20th century between around 1920 and 1970 the term "Flexatone"
has been used on one hand for the instrument flexatone, on the other hand for the musical saw.
Composers who used it for the musical saw were: Arthur Honegger (Short opera Antigone,
1924/1927), Ernst Krenek (opera Jonny spielt auf, 1927), Dmitri Shostakovich (The Nose
(1929), Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District (1934), and film music for The New Babylon
(1929)), Aram Khachaturian (Piano Concerto 1936), and Hans Werner Henze (opera Elegy for
young lovers, 1961).

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 not often used in classical music, but it appears in the work of Arnold
Schoenberg, Hans Werner Henze, Sofia Gubaidulina, György Ligeti and others. Schoenberg
employed it, "unrealistically...accurate bursts of widely spaced sounds being hardly obtainable
with such abruptness," in his Variations for Orchestra Op.31 (1928) and his unfinished opera
Moses und Aron (1932). The cellist in Sofia Gubaidulina's The Canticle of the Sun (1998) plays
a bowed flexatone before the final section. Alfred Schnittke used it in his Faust Cantata (1983),
in the Tuba Mirum movement of his Requiem (1975), in his Viola Concerto (1985), and in his
score for the ballet Peer Gynt (1987), the flexatone represents the sound of the moaning wind.
György Ligeti used it in many of his works, such as his 1988 concerto for piano second
movement and his opera Le Grand Macabre (1977). Peter Maxwell Davies uses it in the third
movement of his Symphony No. 1 (1976), as well as three of them at the climax of his opera The
Lighthouse (1980). Vivian Fine owned a flexatone, and used flexatone music in compositions
such as The Race of Life (1937). Some other classical pieces featuring the flexatone include:
Aram Khachaturian - Piano Concerto (Khachaturian) (1936) in the second movement, a rarely
performed piece.

Luciano Berio - Recital (1972) and Voci (1984)

Christophe Bertrand - Mana (2004–2005)

John Corigliano - Symphony No. 1 (1988)

George Crumb - Songs, Drones, and Refrains of Death (1968) and Star-Child (1977)

Michael Daugherty - Metropolis Symphony for Orchestra, mov. IV: "Oh, Lois!" (1988–93)

Jacob Druckman - Aureole for orchestra (1979)

Brian Ferneyhough - Plötzlichkeit, for orchestra (2011)

Vivian Fine - Meeting for Equal Rights 1866 (1975), Ma's in Orbit (1987)

Lukas Foss - Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird (1978)

Sofia Gubaidulina - And: The Feast is in Full Progress (1993, bowed), Jetzt immer Schnee
(1993), Figures of Time (1994, bowed)

Stephen Hartke - Meanwhile - Incidental Music to Imaginary Puppet Plays, mov. VI:
"Celebrations" (2007)

Hans Werner Henze - Violin Concerto no. 2 (1971), Tristan (1973), and Venus und Adonis
(1997)

Steven Mackey - Eating Greens (1994) and It Is Time (2010)

Benedict Mason - Lighthouses of England and Wales (1987) and Double Concerto (1989)

Robert W. Smith - Africa: Ceremony, Song, and Ritual (1994)

Peter Maxwell Davies - Caroline Mathilde: Suites from Act I & II, J. 297-8 (1990); Cross Lane
Fair, J. 332 (1994); Stone Litany, Runes from a House of the Dead, J. 168 (1973); Symphony
No. 5, J. 331 (1994); and Time and the Raven (1995)

Per Nørgård - Symphony No. 4

Nigel Osborne - The Electrification of the Soviet Union (1987)

Krzysztof Penderecki - De Natura Sonoris No. 1 (1966)

Einojuhani Rautavaara - Piano Concerto no. 2 (1989)

Robert Xavier Rodríguez - The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics (orchestra
version) (2005)

Alfred Schnittke - Gogol Suite (1980), Concerto No. 1 for Cello and Orchestra (1985/86), Cello
Concerto No. 2 (1990), Life with an Idiot (1992)

Arnold Schoenberg - Variations for Orchestra, op. 31 (1928); Von heute auf morgen (1929), and
Kol Nidre, Op. 39 (1938)

Vladislav Shoot - Ex Animo (1988)

Dmitri Shostakovich - The New Babylon (1928), The Bedbug (1929), and The Golden Age
(1930)

Erwin Schulhoff - Symphony No. 1 (1925)

Edgard Varèse - Nocturnal (1961)

Judith Weir - The Consolations of Scholarship (1985)

Malcolm Williamson - The Display, ballet (1964)

Recordings

John Barry's "Wednesday's Child" (1966) instrumental version.

Jimi Hendrix used a flexatone on "1983... (A Merman I Should Turn to Be)" (1968)

Rahsaan Roland Kirk - The Inflated Tear (1968)

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".

The flexatone is used almost as a lead instrument in "Sing Swan Song" on the album Ege
Bamyasi by the band Can (1972).

The instrument is also prominent in the intro to "Faith Healer" by Sensational Alex Harvey Band
(1973).

Percussionist Dom Um Romão plays the Flexatone frequently on Weather Report's Weather
Report (1971), Sweetnighter (1973), Mysterious Traveller (1974), and Tale Spinnin' (1975).
It makes an appearance on the Magma album Ẁurdah Ïtah (on the tracks "Bradïa Da Zïmehn
Iëgah" and "Manëh Für Da Zëss") (1974).

Ronnie Laws' funk/jazz hit "Always There" (1975).

There's a flexatone in the intro of Stylus's version of "Summer Breeze" (1975)

A flexatone is used on album Jaco Pastorius (1976) on the track "Opus Pocus".

Lonnie Liston Smith's "Get Down Everybody (It's Time for World Peace)" (1976)

Rick Wakeman uses it on his album Criminal Record (1977).

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). And “Just Got Play” (2020). “Rick James
Forever”.

Its infrequent appearances, countering an insistent, funky bassline, form most of the hook in One
Way's "Cutie Pie" (1982).

"Weird Al" Yankovic used the flexatone during his performance of "Another One Rides the Bus"
live on The Tomorrow Show with Tom Snyder (1981).

"The Simpsons Theme" by Danny Elfman (1990).

DJ Quik uses the flexatone in many of his songs, such as "Pitch in on a Party" (2000) and Tony!
Toni! Toné!'s "Let's Get Down" (1996).

A flexatone is featured on Dr. Dre's "Been There, Done That" (1997).

Flexatone heard throughout Ozomatli's early release "Cut Chemist Suite" from self-titled album
(Alamo Sounds 1998)

Scaramanga Six - Cursed (2011)

"Meu CEP é o Seu" (Portuguese for 'My ZIP Code is Yours'), Entidade Urbana, by Fernanda
Abreu (2000)

Michael Hunter - "San Andreas Theme Song" (2004)

The Phantom Band - "Throwing Bones" (2009)

The BP Renegades Steel Orchestra uses it during a quiet passage in their rendition of the calypso
"Sound of the Ghost", A Panorama Saga II (2013).
Joker - "Digidesign" (Hyperdub Records 2009)

Samples
See also
Nutty Noah

Heliogabalus imperator

References
Further reading
Rossing, Thomas D. (2000). Science of Percussion Instruments, p. 105. ISBN 9789810241582.