# Favorite Percussion Instrument



## mahlerfan

What is your favorite orchestra percussion instrument? Mine is the glockenspiel, because of the magical, light sound it produces. I also like the triangle. What is your favorite?


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## opus67

I don't know...the Timpani is a contender for the top spot. I love it in the scherzo movements of Beethoven and Dvorak's 9th symphonies.


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## Josef Haydn

I'm going to have to agree, Timps are the best percussion instrument. i think its obvious seen as though every other player in the orchestra envies the timp player cos he/she just gets to hit big things constantly


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## opus67

Josef Haydn said:


> the timp player cos he/she just gets to hit big things constantly


Those were my exact thoughts as I watching a performance of the Beethoven's 5th on YouTube.


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## Lisztfreak

Hem, timpani definitely, and drums and the... how is it called? I don't think it's the glockenspiel, it somehow sounds more bell-like and fine. 
Well, the instrument I cannot identify has a prominent part in Holst's Planets - 'Neptune, the mistic'. Could you tell me what it is?

The gong is terryfing for the ears. It makes the air particles shimmer and clash together, so it seems to me when it's hit loudly (Rimsky-Korsakov 'Russian Easter'; Musorgsky 'The Pictures at an Ex. 'The Great Gates of Kiev')


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## opus67

Cymbals? 

And "glockenspiel"...every time I read that word, hurriedly, some dog comes to mind.


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## Giovannimusica

I like probably the most peculiar *percussion* instrument: a *Zvon* (Russian Bell Peal). The analogy that describes the russian zvon is the African talking drum set. Russian bells are not tuned after they have been cast as is done in Western Bell Carrillons. The Western carrillons are tuned on a Lathe whereby a sharp tool is introduced to the inside lip of the bell and an amount of material is *scraped* off. Western carrillons are melodic instruments while the Russian bells are rhythm instruments where one subdivides beats. So, the bigger bell is the bass drum while the smaller bells are the various smaller drums *telling the story*.

Regards!

Giovanni


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## mahlerfan

Thanks for bringing up the timpani, guys! In my haste to write the previous post I had forgotten of it. Yes it is also one of my definite favorites, as well as the gong!


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## Edward Elgar

The timpani is definatly the beef of the precussian section, but for me it has to be the vibraphone. I also like the marimba, but you have to be careful where you use it!

However, if you class the piano as a precussion instrument, obviously I would choose it.


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## Morigan

Lisztfreak said:


> Hem, timpani definitely, and drums and the... how is it called? I don't think it's the glockenspiel, it somehow sounds more bell-like and fine.
> Well, the instrument I cannot identify has a prominent part in Holst's Planets - 'Neptune, the mistic'. Could you tell me what it is?


Neptune, the Mystic has harps and a celesta throughout and near the end, along with the women's voices. This piece is so incredible ^^.

What you're looking for is probably the celesta? Its most famously known fot the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy in the Nutcraker.


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## Handel

Timpani is great. Tambourine too.


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## Lisztfreak

Morigan said:


> What you're looking for is probably the celesta?


Thanks a lot! That's a celesta... I wasn't aware how gentle a sound it can produce. I always thought it's something quaky and harsh, having the same mechanism as the piano, but with metal bars instead.


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## Kezza

Love my timps and Love my Marimba(just look at my avatar)
They are my 2 fave But any keyboard percussion is great.
Aux and multi-percussion can be fun but not really my favourite.

Also the Glockenspiel is a very interesting instrument. It is used a lot in Holst's the planets from what I hear.
The strange think about a glock is that it is tuned to A=442
I have no idea why but it just is.


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## R-F

I think I'd have to say Timpani. I just love the timpani at the beginning of Greig's Piano Concerto. Marimba come close second though, as I play a lot of Marimba and love it's warm tone. I'm learning Flight of the Bumblebee on it, and I'm constantly going into my school whenever I can to practice it!

Triangle also gets honourable mention. Used at the right time it can add some great effects to a piece. So far no one has composed a triangle concerto, but Liszt had a triangle solo in his first piano concerto.


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## Methodistgirl

No one has mentioned the tom-tom and rattles. These are my favorites along
with the tamberine.
judy tooley


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## Yagan Kiely

They're all good. They make the colour of an orchestra.


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## maestro267

Ooh...difficult! Either the vibraphone (Shostakovich 14, end of 'Lorelei'; brilliant passage), or the wind machine. (Alpine Symphony or Des canyons aux etoiles)


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## tahnak

A Pair of Timpani


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## danae

That's a very easy question, for me at least: the marimba of course!


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## jcsd

Timp natch, though quite partial to the vibraphone


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## andruini

I'm quite partial to the xylophone and marimba, as well as the vibraphone.. I really like the tubular bells too.. And when it's right for the piece, the crotales are the shizzle.


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## jurianbai

xylophone, gamelan, taiko, double pedal drum!


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## Cortision

I like timpani and xylophone. Go percussionists! I think they rock...but not too hard in classical music, thankfully.


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## Scott Good

I love'm all!

I just finished scoring for a section of 5 players! 30 instruments in total - it's a percussion festival.

A few that haven't been mentioned:

Xylophone! Great, love it. What would Shostakovitch 5 be without this instrument?!

Triangle - especially when hand muting is used, a very interesting little instrument.

Congas, or for the sake of this forum, any hand drums - so many colours depending on where you strike and with what part of the hand.

Cymbals - such as ride, splash, chinese, sizzle, etc etc. can be struck in many different places, different mallets, sticks, or even a bass bow.

and some others - guiro, whip, anvil, brake drums, flexitone, vibra slap, sand blocks, rathet

each can play a special role.

but, hummm, i just can't pick a favorite. but, marimba can be so beautiful...probably my top choice.


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## Weston

I'm probably going to get roasted for this opinion, but --

I never quite understood why symphonic music moves along and then has the occasional cymbal crash or snare drum tap. Then the players seem to sit back down for the duration. I know those sporadic percussion hits add to the color of the orchestra, but why did it take the jazz era and later the rock era to devise the massive and efficient drum kits used on stage and recordings in non-classical music today? I know this is not a traditional orchestral instrument, but it should be. It's far more versatile and virtuoso than tapping once or twice on a snare drum or a triangle. 

You don't believe me? I can tell two drummers apart. I can't tell two triangle or cymbal players apart.

Of course for tuned percusssion like the tympani or xylophone it's a slightly different matter.

Still my vote goes to the modern drum kit even though it is scarcely ever used in the orchestra except in pop crossover orchestras. Someday it WILL be a standard part.


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## Rondo

Weston said:


> Someday it WILL be a standard part.


It already is:


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## thatperson

Uhhhh....

I guess bass drum, tamtam, guiro, thunder/metal sheet, wind machine, vibraphone, whip, and the huge hammer

some famous uses...

Bass drum: Berlioz Symp. Fantas., prokofiev symphonies, respighi pines of rome, stravinsky rite of spring, Barber 2nd essay, Elgar Enigma variations, Dukas sorcerer's apprentice, Tchaikovsky The Tempest, Debussy La mer, Mahler symphonies (esp. 3)

Tam tam: Tchaikovsky francesca da rimini, stravinsky rite of spring, debussy la mer, mahler symphonies, britten peter grimes sea interludes, Barber 3rd essay, Mussorgsky/Ravel pictures at an exhibition, Prokofiev symphony 3

Guiro: Stravinsky rite of spring

Thunder/metal sheet: Barber 3rd essay, Strauss Alpine Symphony

Wind machine: Strauss Alpine symphony

vibraphone: Bernstein west side story symphonic dances

whip: Mahler 5, Barber 3rd essay, shostakovich symphony 14

hammer: the one and only mahler 6


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## thatperson

Lisztfreak said:


> Hem, timpani definitely, and drums and the... how is it called? I don't think it's the glockenspiel, it somehow sounds more bell-like and fine.
> Well, the instrument I cannot identify has a prominent part in Holst's Planets - 'Neptune, the mistic'. Could you tell me what it is?
> 
> The gong is terryfing for the ears. It makes the air particles shimmer and clash together, so it seems to me when it's hit loudly (Rimsky-Korsakov 'Russian Easter'; Musorgsky 'The Pictures at an Ex. 'The Great Gates of Kiev')


youre probably talking about the celesta in Neptune


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## csolomonholmes

I don't have a fav per say but two pieces that stick out are -
Stravinsky: Pétrouchka - The Fair Toward Evening: Dance Of The Coachmen ...That bass drum!
Bartók: Concerto for Two Pianos, Percussion and Orchestra


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## QuietGuy

I like percussion instruments in general. One that hasn't been mentioned yet are metal or wooden (bamboo) wind chimes. Nice sound!


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## Guest

I am rather partial to the likes of marimba, glockenspiel, vibraphone...


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## ptr

Love them all, but size matters!










The Grand Cassa Rules!

Magnus Lindberg's "Ablauf" for (Bass) Clarinet and two Grand Cassa is a blast! 






/ptr


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## rrudolph

Glockenspiel? Yeah, I'll play it. Just put it down on this wooden block right here...


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## hpowders

The Glock, featured in Mozart's Magic Flute, no?


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## dgee

hpowders said:


> The Glock, featured in Mozart's Magic Flute, no?


Should be a toy piano? I've seen it on celesta and two glockenspiels and the celesta worked better imho - two glocks was just a bit tough to coordinate despite v good players

Honourable mentions:
Flexatone - Moses und Aron
Steel drums - Sur Incises
Crotales - Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, Les Noces

Personal favourite:
Piano - so versatile


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## KenOC

hpowders said:


> The Glock, featured in Mozart's Magic Flute, no?


Believe so, although Mozart personally preferred Smith & Wesson.


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## mtmailey

I have a few that i like they are triangles,sleigh bells,tambourines,xylophones & marimbas


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## tomhh

I like wooden block.I also like the timbre of glockenspiel .


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## SixFootScowl

Live cannons as in the 1812 Overture!


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## Zyklus

Haha! This right here!


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## Zyklus

Marimba will always be my favorite. Followed by Timpani.


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## elgar's ghost

Mine is probably the flexatone - I like the eerie, otherworldly sound it makes. Schnittke used it to good effect a few times, especially in his Faust Cantata. Ligeti was another who used it more than once and, as mentioned by dgee a few posts ago, so did Schoenberg.


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## Celloissimo

For tuned percussion, the Timpani win by a longshot. But for neutral pitched percussion it'd probably have to be the regular drumset to be honest.


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## Billy

Isn't the piano a percussion instrument? I would choose it first and wood blocks next.


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## MelodicHarmony

I like mallet percussion in general but i would have to choose the steel drum or vibraslap. Though neither are commonly used in typical orchestral music i have seen it done and they are my favourite percussion isntruments


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## Morimur

The Gubal, a Swiss percussion instrument.
http://www.hangblog.org/information-about-buying-a-gubal/


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## bghill

Hmm, hard to pick just one -- there are so many great sounds.

I love the way timpani dance back and forth, the dramatic force of the crash cymbals, the shimmer of the suspended cymbal, the playful variety of the tambourine, the rolling waves of the gong, the goofy tacka-tack of the xylophone, the mellow ring of the vibraphone ... but I'm tempted to pick the triangle, just because it's so under-rated, yet it can add such a certain magical je ne sais quoi with just a note or two.


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## techniquest

Mine is the tam-tam. It is often referred to as the 'gong', but strictly speaking it isn't a gong as it has no raised central section, however I'm not going to worry about that particularly as so many people FAR more knowledgeable than me regularly refer to the instrument as a 'gong'. I like how it can be so, so quiet (e.g. Tchaikovsky 6th symphony), or it can give a shimmer that sounds almost like a breath of air around the orchestra at a mid-volume, or it can completely overwhelm at big volume. The power of a really big tam-tam is astonishing:






I also find it is the instrument that is most varied in terms of recordings, for example: two tam-tams (one smaller, one larger) have major roles in Mahlers' 2nd symphony and at the very end it is only they and the bells that are 'active' (i.e they perform over a long held note by the rest of the orchestra) before the final chord. However, in so many recordings either one of them or both are so poorly recorded as to be seemingly absent. However, a very good recent performance has 3 tam-tams including a real monster of an instrument - the performance at the 2011 Proms by the SBYOoV and Gustavo Dudamel.


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## rrudolph

If you like tam-tams and gongs, you should visit me at my "day job" sometime...


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## MoonlightSonata

Percussion.... the celesta and piano, if they count. If not, the glockenspiel most probably.


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## techniquest

rrudolph said:


> If you like tam-tams and gongs, you should visit me at my "day job" sometime...
> 
> View attachment 61028
> 
> 
> View attachment 61029


I would really enjoy that, but unfortunately it seems you are about 3.5 thousand miles away 
Thanks for the offer though.


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## Fagotterdammerung

Cymbals: despite the rather cliched role given to them in 18th and 19th century works, they have a huge range of timbres and subtle nuances that add a special "splash" to the music.


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## tortkis

Gamelan.
Harry Partch's original instruments.
Recently, when I listened to Alvin Lucier's _Silver Streetcar for the Orchestra_ for the first time (thanks to SilverSurfer), I was totally fascinated with the triangle.


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## Strange Magic

Other best uses: Tam Tam: end of Saint Gregory the Great, Respighi _Church Windows_. Eisenblech-Bogen (iron sheet): Mosolov _Iron Foundry_. Music to speed the parting guest.


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## norhanity4621

I recommend playing UFO drum, a steel tongue drum from Bali, Indonesia.

The first UFO drum was created in Siberia. Now we produce UFO Drums on the "Island of Gods" - Bali. Where from past people have national metal idiophone musical instrument "Gamelan". Each of UFO drum is perfectly hand-tuned by 20 years of experience master.









Our UFO Drums have moreover been used with much achievement by approved music consultants and their patients in an extensive variety of ways. You will love having the ability to add a melodic portion to your beats. An instinctual strategy to the notes makes it easy to explore new musical horizons.

The strong intelligent tones are calming and mind boggling for loosening up at whatever time. Besides, because of its insignificant design you can take it outside and welcome it in nature. Your next outside trek won't be done without UFO Drum time around the outdoors fire.


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## Pugg

norhanity4621 said:


> I recommend playing UFO drum, a steel tongue drum from Bali, Indonesia.
> 
> The first UFO drum was created in Siberia. Now we produce UFO Drums on the "Island of Gods" - Bali. Where from past people have national metal idiophone musical instrument "Gamelan". Each of UFO drum is perfectly hand-tuned by 20 years of experience master.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Our UFO Drums have moreover been used with much achievement by approved music consultants and their patients in an extensive variety of ways. You will love having the ability to add a melodic portion to your beats. An instinctual strategy to the notes makes it easy to explore new musical horizons.
> 
> The strong intelligent tones are calming and mind boggling for loosening up at whatever time. Besides, because of its insignificant design you can take it outside and welcome it in nature. Your next outside trek won't be done without UFO Drum time around the outdoors fire.


Nice first post, welcome to Talk Cassical .


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## norhanity4621

thank you i appreciate it! can i ask something? have you played this type of instrument?


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## SixFootScowl




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## Pugg

norhanity4621 said:


> thank you i appreciate it! can i ask something? have you played this type of instrument?


No I don't, I will stick to the piano.


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## norhanity4621

Pugg said:


> No I don't, I will stick to the piano.


here's the video of how to play it!


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## starthrower

Marimba and snare drum are my favorites.


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Marimba for me too, also like Tom toms


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## TwoFlutesOneTrumpet

Good ol' timpani for me. And bass drum. I can't stand the triangle. Sorry triangle fans.


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## Richannes Wrahms

Proper percussion: metals (bells, gongs, etc) but not the glockenspiel or the chime tree.

Instruments usually asigned to percussionists: Rain Stick


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## Orfeo

Timpani for me, although I like bass drums and snare/side drums also (and the bells!).
Nielsen's employment of the side drums in his Fifth Symphony may likely win many converts. The genius of this man.


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## hpowders

My favorite percussion instrument has and always will be the piano.


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## Terry93D

Timpani and marimba. Love those things.


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## Rhinotop

First, the timpani. The percussion's soul

Also celesta, tam-tam (for shocking moments), vibraphone, tubular bells (for great and solemn sections)


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## Nate Miller

this really must be a classical music crowd if after 5 pages no one has even mentioned the cow bell


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## floatdude

Marimba, great when you have to play a lot on notes.


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## Retrograde Inversion

My current bout of hay-fever inevitably brought a certain silly Saturday Night Live sketch to mind...


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## madclarinetist

I honestly love the crotales. They are interesting- especially how they are used with a string bow. However, I love the timpani- I love the intensity of the instrument. Even better, put all of those together! Place the crotale on a timpani and I think you move the tuning pedal to make the sound. By doing so you get this eerie, wind-like, empty sound. Truly wicked. It is used in this piece me and my band our playing called "Gone" by Scott McAllister, part of a clarinet concerto he wrote.


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## meowmixalot

My favorite percussion instrument is probably the marimba. I love the low notes and the resonance it has. It creates a beautiful tone. 
I recently started renting one made of rosewood and it has such a deep, beautiful sound. I'm so in love.


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## Guest




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## hpowders

My wife's rolling pin. Concussion from percussion.


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## Bettina

Piano, if that counts. Second favorite: xylophone. It has lots of potential for special effects. I love the way that Saint-Saëns uses it in Danse Macabre and Carnival of the Animals.


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## hpowders

Bettina said:


> Piano, if that counts. Second favorite: xylophone. It has lots of potential for special effects. I love the way that Saint-Saëns uses it in Danse Macabre and Carnival of the Animals.


Yes, I initially chose piano too. An obvious choice, although the triangle was tough competition.


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## arkiv1111

maracas, güiro, bongo, cántaro


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