The tilaphone, or "tile bells", is a percussive instrument conceived and built by M. A. Doherty that utilizes ceramic, porcelain and stone tiles as its source of sound production.  It is currently in its fifth incarnation (shown below), differing from its third shown at left.  The tile bells range in size from 18 x 18 in to just under 9 inches square.  The instrument is currently tuned through two octaves with many possibilities of microtones (utilizing over as many as 35 tiles).  The tiles are either struck, or otherwise made to resonate with various types of mallets and wooden dowels, brushes and sticks, for pleasing mellow tones (bells) or bright attacks similar to gamelan metali-phones. 

Future work will include utilizing a homogeneous selection of tile material based upon specifications regarding the dimensions of the keys, with particular attention to seamless presentation of timbre from the group of tiles.  It will be tuned using just intonation rather than equal temperament and will have a fixed range.

tile bells