The xylophone (the name means ‘sounding wood’) is a percussion instrument consisting of a series of wooden bars of ascending size, capable of producing a range of notes when struck. It originated possibly in Asia or Africa; an instrument thought to be of Chinese origin fell into the hands of Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683–1764). Early instruments consisted of blocks strung together ...
out further percussion instruments to add to their sound palette. Berg’s Three Pieces for Orchestra (1913) requires a xylorimba: a composite instrument, with a top end sounding like a xylophone, the bass end like a marimba. Walton’s Façade (1926) requires wood blocks: stemming from Africa, these are a series of resonant wooden blocks stuck by drumsticks. Wood blocks ...
percussion instruments was also being used. The celesta became an occasional orchestral member after Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s (1840–93) use of it in the Nutcracker and Camille Saint-Saëns (1835–1921) introduced the xylophone in the 1870s. The lyra-glockenspiel was becoming common in wind bands and a visit by a gamelan ensemble to the Paris Exhibition of 1889 generated a wave of interest among ...
of trumpets and horns to play from offstage. In the twentieth century, further instruments were introduced, especially percussion instruments such as the piano, celeste, glockenspiel, xylophone, vibraphone, cimbalom and tubular bells and occasionally an organ, saxophone, guitar, mandolin, or ondes martenot. Since about 1950, non-western percussion instruments such as ...
The gamelan is a percussion ensemble played throughout Indonesia, especially in Bali and Java. A gamelan comprises mainly metallophones, xylophones and gongs. It may also include vocals, the rebab (a two-stringed spike fiddle), the keprak (a slit drum), and the kendhang (a set of three or four double headed, barrel-shaped drums). The kendhang sets the tempo and ...
Sound effects and instruments trouvés include found objects and specialist machines for making noises. Composers have made extensive use of both sound effects and found objects in orchestral music, especially in music for theatre, dance and opera. Sound Effects The wind machine was originally a theatrical sound effect, and is a cylinder of wooden slats with a canvas ...
Keyboard percussion instruments include the western xylophone, marimba, vibraphone and glockenspiel, the log xylophones and marimbas of Africa and Central America, and the barred instruments played in the Indonesian gamelan. The orchestral xylophone, marimba and glockenspiel have thin wooden or metal rectangular bars laid out like a chromatic piano keyboard. The back row of bars – ...
A type of xylophone, the marimba is a percussion instrument. The percussionist strikes a row (or two rows) of wooden blocks – laid out like a keyboard – beneath which are attached a series of echo chambers that resonate the sound. The compass of the instrument varies, but generally covers three or four chromatic octaves from the C below ...
1960s, silicon chips in the 1980s and MIDI interface in the 1990s has made a very different construction possible. Styles & Forms | Late Romantic | Classical Instruments | Xylophone | Late Romantic | Classical ...
ringing tone with the ability to cut through the largest of orchestras or bands. Vibraphone The vibraphone, or vibes, took the metal of the glockenspiel – a small xylophone with metal bars – and added metal resonators underneath the bars, kept in motion by an electric motor to provide a quivering, breathy edge to the sound. Originally ...
the Roland HPD-15 present the player with a variety of impressive built-in sounds and surfaces responsive to the established, traditional techniques of hand-drumming. Mallet Instruments Larger instruments like the xylophone, marimba or vibraphone are emulated by the malletKAT MIDI control surface. Introduction | Electric & Electronic Instruments Instruments | Drum Machine | Electric & Electronic ...
The player piano (usually known by one of its manufacturers’ trade names as the ‘pianola’) was a mechanical device for causing the piano to play a fixed composition in a fixed way. The music has been cut into a roll of paper and when this is fed through a mechanism built into the specially designed piano, a bellows system causes ...
and hanging over the player’s right hip. Many players now use the ‘matched grip’, where both sticks are held pointing forward. This grip is also commonly used for playing the xylophone and other keyboard percussion, and the timpani. Sound Effects Snare-drum technique uses single, double and bounced strokes to achieve a range of effects. Single strokes are played with ...
sticks, and the smaller drums are suspended on stands. As the sound of the pan has a short decay, it is usually played with a tremolo like a xylophone roll or a repeated rhythmic pattern to sustain the sound. The layout of pitches is not consecutive as on a piano or xylophone. Notes are arranged in concentric circles around ...
G resonate. However, timpanists use this feature as an aid to silent tuning, which can be useful in the middle of an orchestral piece. The snare drum, xylophone and timpani are the three main instruments that an orchestral percussionist will learn. It takes many years of training and practise to develop co-ordination, dexterity and a good ear ...
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