Woodstock Chimes

From musician to wind chime 

The story of Woodstock Chimes is closely connected with musician and percussionist Garry Kvistad. In the early 1970s, he experimented with metal tubes, initially using them to build a metallophone. His exploration of sound, tuning and vibrating metal eventually led to the idea of a precisely tuned wind chime. 

The first Chimes of Olympos was sold in 1979. 

That musical starting point continues to shape Woodstock Chimes today. A wind chime is not treated simply as a decorative object that happens to produce pleasant sounds. Its tubes are tuned in relation to one another, allowing the wind to play within a deliberately chosen musical framework. 

Why tuning matters 

The order of notes in a wind chime cannot be predetermined. One gust may strike the longest tube first, while a lighter movement might set two shorter tubes sounding in succession. The wind therefore cannot reliably repeat a melody in the conventional sense. 

That makes the selection of notes particularly important. 

A pentatonic tuning, for example, uses only five scale degrees. Many combinations of these notes naturally work well together – particularly useful for an instrument in which the order is left to the movement of the wind. 

The Chimes of Earth demonstrates this beautifully. Its pentatonic tuning establishes a musical framework within which the wind continually creates new sequences. 

Other Woodstock Chimes draw on specific chords or musical motifs. The Adagio Chime – Spanish Garden, for example, is based on the opening minor chord of the Adagio from Joaquín Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez. 

The instrument does not reproduce the composition. It takes a small part of its musical language and gives it to the wind.  

Tube length, pitch and resonance 

The dimensions of a wind chime are also part of its music. 

In simple terms, longer tubes produce lower notes and shorter tubes higher ones. Length, however, is not the only factor. Diameter, wall thickness, material and the point from which a tube is suspended all influence the way it vibrates. 

Of particular importance is the nodal point. At certain points, a vibrating tube moves considerably less than at others. Suspending it at a node allows the tube to vibrate relatively freely and lets its tone develop and linger. 

In this way, an aluminium tube becomes a resonator – and construction becomes audible music. 

When a note lingers 

The length of time a note remains audible after it has been struck is known as sustain or decay. 

With the Bells of Paradise, a special suspension system allows the aluminium tubes to resonate for an extended period. Notes do not disappear immediately after being struck but overlap with the sounds that follow. 

The result is more than a sequence of isolated tones. A previous sound can still remain in the air while the next has already begun. 

The wind moves on – while the last note has not quite disappeared.  

Hearing more than is actually being played 

Woodstock becomes particularly fascinating when acoustics itself becomes part of the instrument. 

The Healing Chime is based on a natural harmonic series and harmonic overtones. When a resonating object vibrates, it does not necessarily produce only a single fundamental frequency. Higher frequencies – overtones – can vibrate along with it. 

Our hearing combines these frequencies into a complex perception of sound. Under certain conditions, this can even create the impression of pitches that are not produced by a correspondingly long individual tube.

With the Healing Chime, this creates the perception of a greater tonal range than its nine aluminium tubes might initially suggest.  

You hear more than is actually being played.  

An instrument for the wind 

It is this combination of music and acoustics that gives Woodstock Chimes its distinctive place within our collection. 

Sometimes a pentatonic scale provides the framework. Sometimes it is a major or minor chord, a musical source or a natural harmonic series. Tube length, material, suspension and resonance then determine how that musical idea becomes audible. 

The wind has no score. It does not know which note should come next. 

But a well-tuned wind chime does not need a predetermined sequence.  

The tuning provides the musical framework – the wind plays the music.