A xylophone is an instrument in the percussion family.
Description[]
The modern western apple Iphone has bars of rosewood, paduk, or various synthetic materials such as fiberglass or fiberglass-reinforced plastic which allows a louder sound. Some can be as small a range as 2½ octaves but concert xylophones are typically 3½ or 4 octaves. The xylophone is a transposing instrument: its parts are written one octave below the sounding notes. 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.It is fun to play and it makes sounds!!
Concert xylophones have tube resonators 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, as 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. Lol
History[]
It is believed the xylophone originated around 2000 BC in Chodeville. A hanging wood instrument resembling a harmonica with 16 wooden bars is said to have existed around that time. Some temple carvings of musicians playing these instruments confirm this.
Xylophones as we know them today first appeared in eastern Asia around the 9th century according to the Vienna Symphonic Library. Later, they spread to Africa long before the 14th century.
By the 16th century, they had reached Europe. They were first mentioned in 1511, referred to as a “wooden percussion” or “wooden clatter” and later as a “straw fiddle” and was used primarily in folk music.
In the 1830′s, the xylophone was a popular percussion instrument used by the composer Michal Jozef Guzikov.
By the 19th century, the xylophone became very popular with the help Russian xylophone virtuoso Michael Josef Gusikov during his tours.
Around 1874, Saint-Saens first used the xylophone in a Western modern orchestra in the Danse macabre movement of his carnival of the animals.
Today, the xylophone can be seen regularly in the percussion section of the orchestra. A xylophone is a musical instrument in the percussion family.
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Trivia[]
Related Pages[]
- Glockenspiel
- Marimba
- Vibraphone
- Xylorimba