xylomarimba

xylophone, from Greek xylon and phonē, “wood” and “sound”, percussion instrument consisting of a set of graduated, tuned wooden bars supported at nodal (nonvibrating) points and struck with sticks or padded mallets.

Xylophones have a range of two-and-a-half to four octaves. Marimbas have a larger range, usually between three and five octaves. Xylorimba (sometimes referred to as xylo-marimba or marimba-xylophone) is a xylophone with an extended range downwards to include those pitches normally in the range of the marimba.

The marimba has soft tones, and the xylophone has hard tones. This difference is the result of each instrument's tuning method. The marimba is tuned on even-numbered harmonics, with tuning on the fundamental pitch, the fourth harmonic, and the 10th harmonic.

The term xylophone may be used generally, to include all such instruments such as the marimba, balafon and even the semantron.

/ˈzaɪləfəʊn/ A xylophone is a long musical instrument with wooden bars that is played by hitting it with small hammer-like mallets. The xylo- part of this word comes from the Greek for wood - xylon - and clues us in to what gives this instrument its unique sound: the graduated bars representing tones of the scale.

A xylophone is a type of musical instrument. It has bars of different lengths arranged side by side. When a performer strikes the bars with a mallet or a stick, the bars produce sounds. Each bar is tuned to produce a particular note.

Synonyms of xylophone (noun percussion instrument consisting of a series of graduated wooden bars played with small mallets)

• carillon.
• marimba.
• vibraphone.
• gambang.
• gambang kayu.
• straw fiddle.

The marimba is a relative of the xylophone On a marimba, numerous wooden bars are lined up like piano keys; when these are struck, notes are produced. These bars are also called tone plates.

The instrument was brought to South America in the early 16th Century by either African slaves or by pre-Columbian African contact. In Guatemala, the word marimba means “the wood that sings”. 5 This too is a type of xylophone with resonators underneath the different-sized wooden keys which are struck with mallets.

Hard, wooden, bright, rattling, incisive, penetrating, sharp, accentuated, precise, piercing, brittle, dry, bubbling, drop-like, shrill, hollow, ticking, transparent, clear. What distinguishes the sound of the xylophone is the impression of precision it creates and the lack of resonance.

Noun. An act of performance on a xylophone.

Xylophones are important to music history because they are an example of how instruments evolve in design and in popularity. The original xylophone was a simple, small set of different-length pieces of wood. Today's xylophone has two rows of tone bars and resonator tubes. Early xylophones were used in ceremonies.