xylophone

Also known as song bell, straw fiddle

The xylophone (; ) is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars struck by mallets. 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 in many western children's instruments, or chromatic for orchestral use.

AI overview

A xylophone is a percussion instrument made of wooden bars that are struck with mallets to produce different musical notes, with each bar tuned to a specific pitch. The instrument varies across different cultures and uses—from African and Asian versions that use pentatonic or heptatonic scales to Western children's instruments with diatonic scales and orchestral versions with chromatic scales.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

Key facts

Instrument.name: Xylophone
Instrument.image: Xylophone (PSF).svg
Instrument.background: percussion
Instrument.classification: Percussionidiophonemetallophonelithophone
Instrument.developed: Independently in Africa and Asia, documented as of 9th century in Asia
Instrument.hornbostel_sachs: 111.212
Instrument.hornbostel_sachs_desc: Set of percussion sticks
Instrument.range: 200px|center
Instrument.related: balafon, txalaparta, laggutu, marimba

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Image: Xylophone (PSF).svg

Show 3 more facts

Commons category: Xylophones
Commons gallery: Xylophone
Hornbostel-Sachs classification: 111.212

Sources (4)

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~14 min read

Article

16 sections

Contents

Construction of xylophones
Mallets
History
Asian xylophone
African xylophone
Mbila
Gyil
Silimba
Akadinda, amadinda and mbaire
Balo
Western xylophone
Use in elementary education
See also
Citations
General and cited references
External links

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