Viscount Bells

Viscount Bells, or tube bells are musical instruments in the percussion family. Specifically, it is a chromatic mallet percussion instrument. They are similar to glockenspiel, but instead of metal bars, they consist of small, hollow, metal tubes. However, the tube bells tend to be more sparkly, loud, and brilliant in timbre and are usually played with hard glockenspiel mallets.
Use in film music and other recordings
Viscount bells were part of renowned studio percussionist Emil Richards' giant instrument collection, the Emil Richards Collection. Emil used them on numerous soundtracks and other recordings. He received them in the 1980s from film composer Michael Kamen, who brought them back from a trip to England and had Emil use them in the studio. Other composers, such as Elmer Bernstein and David Raksin used the viscount bells in their scores as well; the sheer brilliance of them made them a favorite substitute for glockenspiel, or combined with glockenspiel, for recording. Their range spans two octaves, C6-C8.

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