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The xylophone (; ) is a
musical instrument A musical instrument is a device created or adapted to make musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can be considered a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. A person who pl ...
in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars struck by
mallet A mallet is a tool used for imparting force on another object, often made of rubber or sometimes wood, that is smaller than a maul or beetle, and usually has a relatively large head. The term is descriptive of the overall size and proport ...
s. Like the
glockenspiel The glockenspiel ( or , : bells and : set) or bells is a percussion instrument consisting of pitched aluminum or steel bars arranged in a keyboard layout. This makes the glockenspiel a type of metallophone, similar to the vibraphone. The glo ...
(which uses metal bars), the xylophone essentially consists of a set of tuned wooden keys arranged in the fashion of the keyboard of a piano. Each bar is an idiophone tuned to a pitch of a musical scale, whether pentatonic or heptatonic in the case of many African and Asian instruments,
diatonic Diatonic and chromatic are terms in music theory that are most often used to characterize Scale (music), scales, and are also applied to musical instruments, Interval (music), intervals, Chord (music), chords, Musical note, notes, musical sty ...
in many western children's instruments, or
chromatic Diatonic and chromatic are terms in music theory that are most often used to characterize scales, and are also applied to musical instruments, intervals, chords, notes, musical styles, and kinds of harmony. They are very often used as a pair, ...
for orchestral use. The term ''xylophone'' may be used generally, to include all such instruments such as the marimba, balafon and even the
semantron The semantron ( el, σήμαντρον) is a percussion instrument used in Eastern and Oriental Orthodox monasteries to summon the monastics to prayer or at the start of a procession. It is also known as a semandron, semanteriom (σημαντ ...
. However, in the orchestra, the term ''xylophone'' refers specifically to a chromatic instrument of somewhat higher pitch range and drier timbre than the marimba, and these two instruments should not be confused. A person who plays the xylophone is known as a ''xylophonist'' or simply a ''xylophone player''. The term is also popularly used to refer to similar instruments of the lithophone and metallophone types. For example, the Pixiphone and many similar toys described by the makers as xylophones have bars of metal rather than of wood, and so are in organology regarded as
glockenspiel The glockenspiel ( or , : bells and : set) or bells is a percussion instrument consisting of pitched aluminum or steel bars arranged in a keyboard layout. This makes the glockenspiel a type of metallophone, similar to the vibraphone. The glo ...
s rather than as xylophones.


Construction of xylophones

The modern western xylophone has bars of rosewood,
padauk ''Pterocarpus'' is a pantropical genus of trees in the family Fabaceae. It belongs to the subfamily Faboideae, and was recently assigned to the informal monophyletic ''Pterocarpus'' clade within the Dalbergieae. Most species of ''Pterocarpus ...
, cocobolo, or various synthetic materials such as fiberglass or
fiberglass-reinforced plastic Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass ( Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass c ...
which allows a louder sound. Some can be as small a range as octaves but concert xylophones are typically or 4 octaves. Like the glockenspiel, the xylophone is a transposing instrument: its parts are written one octave below the sounding notes. Concert xylophones have tube
resonators A resonator is a device or system that exhibits resonance or resonant behavior. That is, it naturally oscillates with greater amplitude at some frequencies, called resonant frequencies, than at other frequencies. The oscillations in a resonator ...
below the bars to enhance the tone and sustain. Frames are made of wood or cheap steel tubing: more expensive xylophones feature height adjustment and more stability in the stand. In other music cultures some versions have gourds that act as Helmholtz resonators. Others are "trough" xylophones with a single hollow body that acts as a resonator for all the bars. Old methods consisted of arranging the bars on tied bundles of straw, and, is still practiced today, placing the bars adjacent to each other in a ladder-like layout. Ancient mallets were made of willow wood with spoon-like bowls on the beaten ends.


Mallets

Xylophones should be played with very hard rubber, polyball, or acrylic mallets. Sometimes medium to hard rubber mallets, very hard core, or yarn mallets are used for softer effects. Lighter tones can be created on xylophones by using wooden-headed mallets made from rosewood, ebony, birch, or other hard woods.


History

The instrument has obscure ancient origins. Nettl proposed that it originated in southeast Asia and came to Africa c. AD 500 when a group of Malayo-Polynesian speaking peoples migrated to Africa, and compared East African xylophone orchestras and Javanese and Balinese gamelan orchestras. This was more recently challenged by ethnomusicologist and linguist Roger Blench who posits an independent origin in of the Xylophone in Africa, citing, among the evidence for local invention, distinct features of African xylophones and the greater variety of xylophone types and proto-xylophone-like instruments in Africa.


Asian xylophone

The earliest evidence of a true xylophone is from the 9th century in southeast Asia, while a similar hanging wood instrument, a type of harmonicon, is said by the Vienna Symphonic Library to have existed in 2000 BC in what is now part of China. The xylophone-like
ranat ''Ranat'' ( th, ระนาด, , also spelled ''ranad'' or ''ranaat'') is the generic name for keyboard percussion instruments used in the music of Thailand. The bars of the various types of ''ranat'' may be made from hardwood or bamboo (''ranat ...
was used in
Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...
regions (kashta tharang). In Indonesia, few regions have their own type of xylophones. In
North Sumatra North Sumatra ( id, Sumatra Utara) is a province of Indonesia located on the northern part of the island of Sumatra. Its capital and largest city is Medan. North Sumatra is Indonesia's fourth most populous province after West Java, East Java and ...
, The Toba Batak people use wooden xylophones known as the Garantung (spelled: "garattung"). Java and
Bali Bali () is a province of Indonesia and the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. East of Java and west of Lombok, the province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller neighbouring islands, notably Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan, and Nu ...
use xylophones (called gambang, Rindik and Tingklik) in gamelan ensembles. They still have traditional significance in Malaysia, Melanesia, Indonesia, Thailand,
Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...
, and regions of the Americas. In Myanmar, the xylophone is known as Pattala and is typically made of bamboo.


African xylophone

The term ''marimba'' is also applied to various traditional folk instruments such as the West Africa '' balafon''. Early forms were constructed of bars atop a gourd. The wood is first roasted around a fire before shaping the key to achieve the desired tone. The resonator is tuned to the key through careful choice of size of resonator, adjustment of the diameter of the mouth of the resonator using wasp wax and adjustment of the height of the key above the resonator. A skilled maker can produce startling amplification. The mallets used to play ''dibinda'' and ''mbila'' have heads made from natural rubber taken from a wild creeping plant. "Interlocking" or alternating rhythm features in Eastern African xylophone music such as that of the Makonde ''dimbila'', the Yao ''mangolongondo'' or the Shirima ''mangwilo'' in which the ''opachera'', the initial caller, is responded to by another player, the ''wakulela''. This usually doubles an already rapid rhythmic pulse that may also co-exist with a counter-rhythm.


Mbila

The mbila (plural "timbila") is associated with the Chopi people of the
Inhambane Province Inhambane is a province of Mozambique located on the coast in the southern part of the country. It has an area of 68,615 km2 and a population of 1,488,676 (2017 census). The provincial capital is also called Inhambane. The climate is trop ...
, in southern Mozambique. It is not to be confused with the mbira. The style of music played on it is believed to be the most sophisticated method of composition yet found among preliterate peoples. The gourd-resonated, equal-ratio heptatonic-tuned mbila of Mozambique is typically played in large ensembles in a choreographed dance, perhaps depicting a historical drama. Ensembles consist of around ten xylophones of three or four sizes. A full orchestra would have two bass instruments called with three or four wooden keys played standing up using heavy mallets with solid rubber heads, three tenor , with ten keys and played seated, and the mbila itself, which has up to nineteen keys of which up to eight may be played simultaneously. The uses gourds and the and Masala apple shells as resonators. They accompany the dance with long compositions called or and consist of about 10 pieces of music grouped into 4 separate movements, with an overture, in different tempos and styles. The ensemble leader serves as poet, composer, conductor and performer, creating a text, improvising a
melody A melody (from Greek language, Greek μελῳδία, ''melōidía'', "singing, chanting"), also tune, voice or line, is a Linearity#Music, linear succession of musical tones that the listener perceives as a single entity. In its most liter ...
partially based on the features of the Chopi tone language and composing a second
contrapuntal In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more musical lines (or voices) which are harmonically interdependent yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. It has been most commonly identified in the European classical tradi ...
line. The musicians of the ensemble partially improvise their parts. The composer then consults with the choreographer of the ceremony and adjustments are made. The longest and most important of these is the "Mzeno" which will include a song telling of an issue of local importance or even making fun of a prominent figure in the community! Performers include Eduardo Durão and Venancio Mbande.


Gyil

The ''gyil'' () is a pentatonic instrument common to the Gur-speaking populations in Ghana, Burkina Faso, Mali and
Ivory Coast Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire, officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital is Yamoussoukro, in the centre of the country, while its largest city and economic centre is ...
in West Africa. The Gyil is the primary traditional instrument of the
Dagara people The Dagaaba people (singular Dagao, and, in northern dialects, for both plural and singular
, update as of 25 May ...
of northern Ghana and Burkina Faso, and of the Lobi of Ghana, southern Burkina Faso, and
Ivory Coast Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire, officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital is Yamoussoukro, in the centre of the country, while its largest city and economic centre is ...
. The gyil is usually played in pairs, accompanied by a calabash gourd drum called a ''kuor''. It can also be played by one person with the drum and the stick part as accompaniment, or by a soloist. Gyil duets are the traditional music of Dagara funerals. The instrument is generally played by men, who learn to play while young, however, there is no restriction on gender. The Gyil's design is similar to the ''Balaba'' or Balafon used by the
Mande Mande may refer to: * Mandé peoples of western Africa * Mande languages * Manding, a term covering a subgroup of Mande peoples, and sometimes used for one of them, Mandinka * Garo people of northeastern India and northern Bangladesh * Mande River ...
-speaking Bambara, Dyula and
Sosso The Sosso Empire was a twelfth-century Kaniaga kingdom of West Africa. The Kingdom of Sosso, also written as Soso or Susu, was an ancient kingdom on the coast of west Africa. During its empire, reigned their most famous leader, Sumaoro Kan ...
peoples further west in southern Mali and western Burkina Faso, a region that shares many musical traditions with those of northern Ivory Coast and Ghana. It is made with 14 wooden keys of an African hardwood called liga attached to a wooden frame, below which hang calabash gourds. Spider web silk covers small holes in the gourds to produce a buzzing sound and antelope sinew and leather are used for the fastenings. The instrument is played with rubber-headed wooden mallets.


Silimba

The silimba is a xylophone developed by
Lozi people Lozi people, or Barotse, are a southern African ethnic group who speak Lozi or Silozi, a Sotho–Tswana language. The Lozi people consist of more than 46 different ethnic groups and are primarily situated between Namibia, Angola, Botswana, Zimbab ...
in Barotseland, western Zambia. The tuned keys are tied atop resonating gourds. The silimba, or shinjimba, is used by the
Nkoya people The Nkoya (also Shinkoya) people are a Bantu people native to Zambia, living mostly in the Western and Southern provinces and the Mankoya area. As of 2006, they were estimated to number 146,000 people. Besides Nkoya proper, Nkoya dialects incl ...
of Western Zambia at traditional royal ceremonies like the Kazanga Nkoya. The silimba is an essential part of the folk music traditions of the
Lozi people Lozi people, or Barotse, are a southern African ethnic group who speak Lozi or Silozi, a Sotho–Tswana language. The Lozi people consist of more than 46 different ethnic groups and are primarily situated between Namibia, Angola, Botswana, Zimbab ...
and can be heard at their annual Kuomboka ceremony. The shilimba is now used in most parts of Zambia.


Akadinda, amadinda and mbaire

The akadinda and the amadinda are xylophone-like instruments originating in
Buganda Buganda is a Bantu peoples, Bantu kingdom within Uganda. The kingdom of the Baganda, Baganda people, Buganda is the largest of the traditional kingdoms in present-day East Africa, consisting of Buganda's Districts of Uganda, Central Region, inclu ...
, in modern-day Uganda. The amadinda is made of twelve logs which are tuned in a pentatonic scale. It mainly is played by three players. Two players sit opposite of each other and play the same logs in an interlocking technique in a fast tempo. It has no gourd resonators or buzzing tone, two characteristics of many other African xylophones. The amadinda was an important instrument at the royal court in
Buganda Buganda is a Bantu peoples, Bantu kingdom within Uganda. The kingdom of the Baganda, Baganda people, Buganda is the largest of the traditional kingdoms in present-day East Africa, consisting of Buganda's Districts of Uganda, Central Region, inclu ...
, a Ugandan kingdom. A special type of notation is now used for this xylophone, consisting of numbers for and periods. as is also the case with the embaire, a type of xylophone originating in southern Uganda.


Balo

The ''balo'' (''balenjeh'', ''behlanjeh'') is used among the
Mandinka people The Mandinka or Malinke are a West African ethnic group primarily found in southern Mali, the Gambia and eastern Guinea. Numbering about 11 million, they are the largest subgroup of the Mandé peoples and one of the largest ethnic-linguistic gro ...
of West Africa. Its keys are mounted on gourds, and struck with mallets with rubber tips. The players typically wear iron cylinders and rings attached to their hands so that they jingle as they play.


Western xylophone

The earliest mention of a xylophone in Europe was in
Arnolt Schlick Arnolt Schlick (July 18?,Keyl 1989, 110–11. c. 1455–1460 – after 1521) was a German organist, lutenist and composer of the Renaissance. He is grouped among the composers known as the Colorists. He was most probably born in Heidelberg and ...
's ''Spiegel der Orgelmacher und Organisten'' (1511), where it is called ''hültze glechter'' ("wooden clatter"). There follow other descriptions of the instrument, though the term "xylophone" is not used until the 1860s. The instrument was associated largely with the folk music of Central Europe, notably Poland and eastern Germany. An early version appeared in Slovakia and the earliest reference to a similar instrument came in the 14th century. The first use of a European orchestral xylophone was in
Camille Saint-Saëns Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns (; 9 October 183516 December 1921) was a French composer, organist, conductor and pianist of the Romantic music, Romantic era. His best-known works include Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso (1863), the Piano C ...
' '' Danse Macabre'', in 1874. By that time, the instrument had already been popularized to some extent by Michael Josef Gusikov, whose instrument was the five-row xylophone made of 28 crude wooden bars arranged in semitones in the form of a trapezoid and resting on straw supports. There were no resonators and it was played fast with spoon-shaped sticks. According to musicologist Curt Sachs, Gusikov performed in garden concerts, variety shows, and as a novelty act at symphony concerts. The western xylophone was used by early jazz bands and in vaudeville. Its bright, lively sound worked well the syncopated dance music of the 1920s and 1930s. Red Norvo, George Cary,
George Hamilton Green George Hamilton Green Jr. (May 23, 1893 – September 11, 1970) was a xylophonist, composer, and cartoonist born in Omaha, Nebraska. He was born into a musical family, both his grandfather and his father being composers, arrangers, and conductors ...
,
Teddy Brown Teddy is an English language given name, usually a hypocorism of Edward or Theodore. It may refer to: People Nickname * Teddy Atlas (born 1956), boxing trainer and fight commentator * Teddy Bourne (born 1948), British Olympic epee fencer * Ted ...
and Harry Breuer were well-known users. As time passed, the xylophone was exceeded in popularity by the metal-key vibraphone, which was developed in the 1920s. A xylophone with a range extending downwards into the marimba range is called a xylorimba. In orchestral scores, a xylophone can be indicated by the French ''claquebois'', German ''Holzharmonika'' (literally "wooden harmonica"), or Italian ''silofono''. Shostakovich was particularly fond of the instrument; it has prominent roles in much of his work, including most of his
symphonies A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, most often for orchestra. Although the term has had many meanings from its origins in the ancient Greek era, by the late 18th century the word had taken on the meaning com ...
and his Cello Concerto No. 2. Modern xylophone players include Bob Becker, Evelyn Glennie and Ian Finkel. In the United States, there are Zimbabwean marimba bands in particularly high concentration in the Pacific Northwest, Colorado, and New Mexico, but bands exist from the East Coast through California and even to Hawaii and Alaska. The main event for this community is ZimFest, the annual Zimbabwean Music Festival. The bands are composed of instruments from high sopranos, through to lower soprano, tenor, baritone, and bass. Resonators are usually made with holes covered by thin cellophane (similar to the balafon) to achieve the characteristic buzzing sound. The repertoires of U.S. bands tends to have a great overlap, due to the common source of the Zimbabwean musician Dumisani Maraire, who was the key person who first brought Zimbabwean music to the West, coming to the University of Washington in 1968.


Use in elementary education

Many music educators use xylophones as a classroom resource to assist children's musical development. One method noted for its use of xylophones is
Orff-Schulwerk The Orff Schulwerk, or simply the Orff Approach, is a developmental approach used in music education. It combines music, movement, drama, and speech into lessons that are similar to a child's world of play. It was developed by the German comp ...
, which combines the use of instruments, movement, singing and speech to develop children's musical abilities. Xylophones used in American general music classrooms are smaller, at about octaves, than the or more octave range of performance xylophones. The bass xylophone ranges are written from middle C to A an octave higher but sound one octave lower than written. The alto ranges are written from middle C to A an octave higher and sound as written. The soprano ranges are written from middle C to A an octave higher but sound one octave higher than written. According to Andrew Tracey, marimbas were introduced to Zimbabwe in 1960. Zimbabwean marimba based upon
Shona music Shona music is the music of the Shona people of Zimbabwe. There are several different types of traditional Shona music including mbira, singing, hosho and drumming. Very often, this music will be accompanied by dancing, and participation by the a ...
has also become popular in the West, which adopted the original use of these instruments to play transcriptions of mbira dzavadzimu (as well as ''nyunga nyunga'' and ''matepe'') music. The first of these transcriptions had originally been used for music education in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwean instruments are often in a diatonic C major scale, which allows them to be played with a 'western-tuned' mbira (G nyamaropa), sometimes with an added F key placed inline.


Famous solo works

* "Concertino for Xylophone" by Mayuzumi * "Scherzo For Xylophone and Piano" by Ptaczinska * "Robin Harry" by Inns * "Tambourin Chinoise" by Kreisler


Famous orchestral excerpts

* Barber, Samuel Medea's Meditation and Dance of Vengeance * Bartók, Béla
The Wooden Prince ''The Wooden Prince'' ( hu, A fából faragott királyfi), Op. 13, Sz. 60, is a one-act pantomime ballet composed by Béla Bartók in 1914–1916 (orchestrated 1916–1917) to a scenario by Béla Balázs. It was first performed at the Budapest O ...
* Bartók, Béla Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta * Britten, Benjamin The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra * Copland, Aaron Hoe-Down from "Rodeo" * Gershwin, George Introduction from '' Porgy and Bess'' * Hindemith, Paul Kammermusik No. 1 * Holst, Gustav
The Planets ''The Planets'', Op. 32, is a seven- movement orchestral suite by the English composer Gustav Holst, written between 1914 and 1917. In the last movement the orchestra is joined by a wordless female chorus. Each movement of the suite is name ...
* Janáček, Leoš Jenůfa * Kabalevsky, Dimitri The Comedians, Suite * Khachaturian, Aram " Sabre Dance" from ballet '' Gayane'' * Messiaen, Olivier
Oiseaux exotiques ''Oiseaux exotiques'' (''Exotic birds'') is a piece for piano and small orchestra by Olivier Messiaen. It was written between 5 October 1953 and 3 January 1956 and was commissioned by Pierre Boulez. It is dedicated to Yvonne Loriod, the composer ...
* Prokofiev, Sergei Scythian Suite * Saint-Saëns, Camille Danse Macabre * Saint-Saëns, Camille Fossils from Carnival of the Animals * Stravinsky, Igor The Firebird, Ballet (1910) * Stravinsky, Igor Petrouchka (1911) * Stravinsky, Igor Petrouchka (1947) * Walton, William Belshazzar's Feast


See also

* Musical Stones of Skiddaw


Citations


Additional sources

* * * *


External links

* * {{Authority control Keyboard percussion instruments Ghanaian musical instruments Stick percussion idiophones Orchestral percussion Mozambican music Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity Zambian musical instruments Ugandan musical instruments