Xylophone

Etymology and Alternative Spellings

Fr: claquebois, xylophone; Ger: Holzharmonika, Strohfiedel, Xylophon; It: silofono, xilofono; Sp: xilofono

Construction

A percussion instrument that is made with wooden or synthetic bars arranged in a keyboard fasion. The bars are typically suspended over resonators that are mounted on a frame with wheels. The range for a xylophone can be from two-and-a-half octaves to four octaves. The pitches or notes the instrument contains are from c to c5, or from f to c5. The xylophone also sounds one octave higher than the actual pitches played on the instrument.

History

Many people will debate whether the xylophone had its origins in Africa or Asia. The music of the time, tunings, and techniques are all very similar. Even though there are differeing opinions of its origin most scholars believe it to have originated in Asia. It is known that about 2000 B.C., there was a wood harmonicon consisting of sixteen wooden slabs, suspended in two tiers. The actual migration of the instrument from Asia to Africa is still unclear, but is known to have been in existence there before the arrival of the Portuguese around the fourteenth century. Missionaries of the time have written acounts of xylophones that contained gourd and buzzer resonators in Ehiopia. The xylophone is believed to have made its way to Europe from Indonesia. The first instance that a xylophone is visually seen in Europe is from 1523. The piece was entitled The Dance of Death by Holbein and depicted a skeleton playing on the instrument to represent bones. The way it was played was very unusual having the bars from near to far instead of from left to right like the modern xylophone.

Manufacturers

Adams

Dynasty

Mallectech

Musser

Wang

Yamaha