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Music of the Spheres Wind Chimes
How It Began
In 1989, with his love of musical beauty, Larry Roark began to craft wind chimes in his garage. And so began the Music of the Spheres wind chimes business that has grown through the years, even after Larry’s untimely death in 2001.
Wind chimes have been around for thousands of years, addressing various practical as well as aesthetic purposes. Today as well, the simple, gentle harmonies of wind chimes create an atmosphere of peacefulness, serving to relax and soothe. Now, Larry’s dream was to make top-of-the-line chimes, “the Stradivarius of wind chimes” as he described it, producing “the most durable chimes of the highest acoustical quality possible.” And so he has.
Durable Chimes
The Music of the Spheres wind chimes are themselves constructed from a high quality tempered aluminum alloy tubing. A protective finish helps to prevent corrosion in adverse outdoor conditions.
Furthermore, the chime pipes are suspended and supported by a heave gauge stainless steel ring, which adds a polished beauty, and by tough cords which are made to resist abrasion, ultra-violet breakdown, and decay. In addition, by polishing the ends of the tubes, abrasion of the cords is prevented.
Tonal quality, and increased durability under varied environmental conditions are provided by clappers made of solid polyethylene. The windcatcher, which “catches the wind” and thus moves the clapper, which bumps against the chimes and sets them ringing, is constructed of the same material and finish as the chime tubes. The windcatcher is designed for easy removal at times when the wind is too strong.
Of The Highest Acoustical Quality
To insure the highest quality, as well as give a personal touch, the chimes are not mass produced, but assembled and tuned individually by hand.
Music of the Spheres offers a wide selection of types of chimes, both with respect to pitch and tuning. Pitch can be thought of as the sound produced, for example, when one key on a piano is struck. Each key on the piano represents a different pitch. Now, with respect to chimes, pitch is correlated to the size of the chime tubing. The larger the size, the lower the pitch. Conversely, the smaller the size, the higher the pitch.
The categories of pitch options for the chimes range over 4 octaves: from Basso Profudo to Contra Bass to Bass to Tenor to Alto to Mezzo Soprano to Soprano. Typically, each of these chimes options is made of six tubes of the same diameter, but differing lengths. Thus you get a harmonized set of 6 related pitches within the same category. Each chime category will have a different tube diameter.
In addition to these categories of pitch choices, one can select a set of chimes in one of 10 different “tunings”, or musical scales, some more familiar, others more exotic. In layman’s terms, one might think of a “tuning” as a “selected family of harmonized pitches” that a particular instrument (for example, a piano, a drum, an orchestra, or a chimes) is then “tuned” to.
For an 11th tuning option, because their tones have become so familiar in the western world, the Westminster tuning is also offered, echoing the Big Ben clock of Westminster Palace, London.
As a musician, Larry Roark wanted to offer this variety so that Music of the Spheres wind chimes customers could pick the one that sounded the sweetest to them. And thanks to his vision, the world now has the “the Stradivarius of wind chimes” to provide soothing, musical beauty.