xylophone
Sign in to saveThe 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
Article
16 sectionsContents
- 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 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.
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.